Town of Wellesley
Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project
and Board of Health Community Teach-In
March 30, 2000

Diana Chapman Walsh
President
Wellesley College

Thank you, Linda [Weltner]. You make me proud of Wellesley. Thanks, too, to the organizers of this important community education event. It's an impressive turnout and I'm honored to be among the speakers.

This morning, on NPR (I wonder if others heard it?) there was a feature on the environment and presidential politics. Several commentators were asserting that environmental protection used to be a Republican issue-as an issue of conservation/conservatism (and they invoked the memory of Teddy Roosevelt). But now, they said, the Democrats have co-opted the issue.

That reminded me of the first two appearances I made as a new President of Wellesley College at town events, like this one, seven years ago. At the first, the first question from the audience was whether we have any Republicans on the Wellesley faculty. At the second, the first question was, "who is your most famous alumna." By now, I was getting smarter and paused for a moment and then (knowing who the questioner thought I would say) said "Katharine Lee Bates." It brought the house down.

Today we are gathered to talk about the environment and health. This is not a partisan issue - Republican v. Democrat, not old v. young, men v. women, rich v. poor. This is an issue around which we should all be united. I noticed in the middle school library, where we just gathered for coffee, a sign that said, "Ignorance is the greatest sin of all." That is the spirit in which Wellesley College joins the town of Wellesley at this meeting.

I want to tell you what we currently know about a hazardous waste site in our own backyard - literally. It is the site of the former Henry Woods and Sons Paint factory (and your comment, Linda, that it's often the women who are left to mop up the spilled milk is quite apposite in this case; Henry and his sons have left quite a mess for the women of Wellesley College to mop up).

The Henry Woods and Sons paint factory began its operations in 1848 and shut down about 1910. I offer this story as a reminder to us all of how complex these environmental issues can be. They are not always the David v. Goliath, good v. evil situations that make for gripping melodrama. I very much hope I will leave you with the impression tonight that the College is not the "black hat" here, even though we are the hapless current owners of a polluted parcel of land.

Wellesley College purchased the former paint factory site in 1932 as a way of preserving open space and eliminating a major industrial - manufacturing facility immediately adjacent to the campus. I should note that the College never operated the paint factory but simply bought the property.

In 1975, the DEP - the Department of Environmental Protection - began its involvement in the site by requesting that soil samples be taken and analyzed to determine the nature of the visibly contaminated soil piles on the former paint factory.

In 1982, the College and DEP began a long process of studying and analyzing the site. Over 6,000 samples of soil, sediments, groundwater and surface water were taken and analyzed. As information was compiled concerning the nature and extent of the contamination, access to the site was restricted by the installation of a fence.

The College initiated two hazardous waste major removal actions: the excavation and disposal in 1983 of 250 tons of pigment from the area adjacent to the old Mary Hemenway Gymnasium, and the excavation and disposal in 1991 of 3,600 tons of paint pigment at the site of the original paint pigment factory.

Working with DEP and our Environmental Health consultants and scientists, the College also initiated additional protective measures:

1. Applied 600 tons of sand within the public beach designated swim area to minimize contact with, and migration of, contaminated sediments.
   
   
2. Reduced contact with the paint factory site by installing a fence around the site perimeter.
   
   
3. Capped and paved portions of the Lake jogging path to minimize contact with contaminated soils.
   
   
4. Established a groundwater monitoring program at the former paint factory site, and on-campus, to monitor groundwater quality.
   
   
5. Ongoing monitoring the College's water supply: the data show that the water quality meets the drinking water standards. It is important to note that none of the Town of Wellesley or Natick wells are impacted by the contamination from the site.
   

What lies ahead? The College is working hard to complete the study and analysis required by Massachusetts' environmental regulations - the MA Contingency Plan, or MCP, process. This phase is expected to be completed by May 31st of this year. Simultaneously, our consultants are working closely with DEP project staff to develop a remediation plan that will result in the clean-up of the original paint factory site and adjacent uplands and wetlands. When this portion of the project is completed, hopefully within two years, the area you now see behind the fence off of Rt. 135 will be changed. The contaminated soils will have been remediated, and playing fields will replace what once was an industrial-site-turned-hazardous-waste-site.

The costs to the College to date exceed $8 million. The additional costs associated with future site remediation are estimated to be in the 15-19 million dollar range.

In conclusion, just to sharpen some distinctions between our situation here in Wellesley and the good guy-bad guy scenarios so prominent in the popular mind, what we have here is the following:

• An educational institution, chartered by the state for charitable purposes, acquired a piece of land some 70 years ago, long before any of us had the knowledge we have since developed of environmental threats to health and ecology. The land was purchased as a defensive measure to forestall its development and to ensure the continued beauty of the lake and surrounding wetlands.
  
  
• The previous owner had used the land to run the largest paint pigment factory in New England. The new owner (the college) never altered or developed or used the parcel of land for any purposes other than passive recreation. The college never realized any profit or benefit of any kind from the use of the land, other than an appreciation of its natural beauty.
  
  
• Over the years, with an awakening of environmental consciousness within our society, the college and the state became aware that the land had been badly contaminated by the previous owners, the operators of the paint factory. The college and the state entered into a partnership, and they have since been engaged in a very long and expensive process of study and progressive remediation of the contamination on the site. This process has diverted funds, energy, and administrative focus from the college's purpose and mission: providing an excellent liberal arts education for women who will make a difference in the world - women like the people in this room, more and more of them, people who take responsibility for their families and communities and stand up for what they believe.
  
  
• But in the interest of good citizenship, and to do everything possible to remove any serious hazards from the site, the trustees of the college have authorized the expenditure of nearly $10 million on research and remediation to date, with another $15-20 million still in prospect.

This is hardly the stuff of high drama, but it has truly been a nightmare for Wellesley College, one that we live with every single day as we try to balance our budget, meet the challenges of the future, and continue providing an education, as fine as is available anywhere, to the most able women students irrespective of their ability to pay.

So that's been our contribution to the cause of health protection in this town and we are proud of the efforts we have made. We have produced many educational materials and have left some in the back of the room. Barry Monahan, whom many of you know, is the point person for us on this project and he can answer your questions, tonight or at any time.

Now, it's my pleasure to introduce our featured speaker Sandra Steingraber. Ecologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber is an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer. Her highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, presents cancer as a human rights issue. In 1997, Steingraber was named one of Ms. magazine's "Women of the Year." She also has been honored by the New England chapter of the American Medical Association, the Sierra Club, and the Jennifer Altman foundation.

She received her doctorate in biology from the University of Michigan and her master's degree in English from Illinois State University. Dr. Steingraber is now on the faculty at Cornell University's Center for the Environment. Please join me in welcoming her to Wellesley.

Betsy Lawson elawson@wellesley.edu
Office for Public Information
Date Created: May 19, 2000
Last Modified: May 19, 2000