Framingham has a problem. A chemical corporation’s abandoned site is next to a school and close to homes.
One of the largest employers in the town of Framingham admits it did dirty work in a facility just down the road from a school. The records show that since they first set up in the city, they have always been in trouble too over toxic spills. They’ve even been sued. While the concerns are definitely valid, the town would have been well served to advise local residents to use water distillers.
The latest flap is over the fact that trichloroethene and other contaminates were found in the flooded basement of a family home also just down the street from the chemical company. This latest incident comes on the heels of the chemical company (General Chemical) being told they need to clean up a whole section of contaminated soil and groundwater around their operation.
The shocking part of this story is that the house with the flooded basement is barely a stone’s throw away from this facility where all manner of toxic acids, oils and other hazardous materials are trucked in, handled and sent on their way someplace else. It’s a huge stretch of the imagination to think that “nothing” ever gets spilled.
Even though the state environmental agency is starting to have enforcement talks, nothing seems to be happening with any great degree of alacrity. The results of the tests on the basement water and the groundwater under the neighboring house showed elevated levels of trichloroethene (TCE), tetrachloroethene (PCE) and other toxins. The chemical company president insists people are overreacting.
The state ordered indoor air quality tests at the home. In the meantime, a whole lot of people are beginning to think about other alternatives to tap water, such as water distillers and installing a water distillation system. This would be the only safe alternative in situations like this.
To add icing to the cake, General Chemical used to own two other properties in the same area of the city. Those two properties are now abandoned and boarded up because of contaminated groundwater. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine just how the groundwater at those two properties got contaminated, not in light of recent events. City officials insist that what once was the proper way to handle toxic chemicals is no longer viable and something needs to be done immediately.
By and large there isn’t going to be any quick resolution to this questionable situation and no one knows when the state will order a proper clean up of the area. Earlier attempts to take the bad water out of the ground and replace it with clean water drove the toxic plume around the chemical plant towards the school which panicked everyone in town.
If the townsfolk are up in arms about the quality of their water, one of the best things they could do for themselves is to find out more information about water distillers and the benefits of installing water distillation systems. Only water distillers provide the freshest water possible; the way Mother Nature intended it to be.
Larry Wardell is with H2olabs.com, a provider of water distiller systems and water distillation systems that provide truly pure distilled water. To learn more, visit H2olabs.com.
