NEW BEDFORD - Right now, the ongoing Superfund cleanup of PCBs and other industrial contaminants in New Bedford Harbor is projected to take 38 years and cost $570 million - not taking into account inflation or other impediments.

But city officials - with qualified support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - are promoting a major shift in cleanup technology to potentially cut hundreds of millions of dollars and save decades.

In addition, officials said last week, by shifting technologies, two valuable pieces of property being used by EPA would be returned to the city for development.

Mayor Scott W. Lang has been the primary force in trying to bring about the change, officials said, and the mayor continues to push the process along.

The EPA is spending $15 million a year - 90 percent federal and 10 percent state money - to suck contaminated sediment off the bottom of the harbor, sort and filter it and send clean water back into the harbor. The contaminated material is packaged in special containers that are shipped by rail to a PCB disposal facility in Michigan.

On the current schedule and budget, the project will take 38 years to complete.

Instead, the city is pushing EPA to switch to a process known as "confined aquatic disposal," in which giant pits are dug in the harbor bottom into which polluted materials are placed and covered.

CAD cell disposal has been successful in a number of New England harbors, including Boston and Providence, and is under way in New Bedford Harbor for navigational dredging - a project that involves contamination including PCBs, but at a level that does not rise to that of a Superfund site.

City officials believe CAD cell technology can be used for the Superfund cleanup, dramatically reducing cost and time and increasing safety and public health.

The EPA has responded largely favorably to the proposed change, and officials from New Bedford and EPA describe a cooperative relationship.

Full Story: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081019/NEWS/810190348

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