Announcements and Key Topics
EPA Releases 2026 Site Update Fact Sheet
EPA released a fact sheet in May 2026 updating the community on upcoming activities at the site. To view the fact sheet, click here.
Site Response Pages
EPA created response pages for each new Action Memorandum. To view the first Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site click here. To view the Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site - Removal Response II click here. To view the Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site - Removal Response II click here.
Background
In July 2018, MassDEP responded to an odor complaint at an unoccupied residential lot at 85 McCabe Street, Dartmouth, Massachusetts. MassDEP identified buried waste material on the property prompting soil sampling for metals and PCBs. In the ensuing months, MassDEP inspected and sampled additional unoccupied properties and Town of Dartmouth rights-of-way, through which MassDEP observed a fill layer consisting of coal ash, glass, brick, and coal clinkers. This layer came to be representative of contaminated properties throughout the Neighborhood. In September 2019, MassDEP began residential sampling in the Bliss Corner Neighborhood, and in October 2020, MassDEP requested EPA’s support for further residential sampling. To date, EPA and MassDEP have sampled over 100 properties. In August of 2021, EPA received a request from MassDEP for assistance to address residential properties that exhibited the highest concentrations of lead and/or PCB contamination in surficial soil through removal action.
What Has Been Done to Clean Up the Site?
Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site
From the time of MassDEP's initial request for removal action support in June 2021 through June 2024, EPA conducted removal actions at fourteen properties to address lead and PCB contamination in soil. Lead and PCB contamination at these properties exceeded the EPA Removal Management Level, MassDEP Residential Standard, and MassDEP Imminent Hazard Level, or a subset of these criteria. Requests for exemptions to monetary and temporal statutory limitations were necessary on four occasions to complete removal actions at additional properties, including residential properties, a town right-of-way, and a school.
Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site Removal Response II
Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site Removal Response II was a continuation of the work completed under the Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site moniker and addressed four additional residential properties in the Bliss Corner Neighborhood. Two of these properties were selected due to concentrations of lead measured on the properties at more than three times the EPA Removal Management Level while the remaining two properties were selected due to a combination of factors, including high lead concentration, presence of PCBs, and proximity to properties in the Neighborhood known to exhibit extremely high concentrations of PCBs. Work began to address contamination at these four properties in July 2024 and was completed in August 2025.
Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site Removal Response III
Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site Removal Response III is a continuation of the work completed under the Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site moniker as well and addresses three residential properties in the Bliss Corner Neighborhood. These three properties were chosen because the average lead concentration measured at each property exceeded the EPA Removal Management Level, and the MassDEP Imminent Hazard Level by more than five times. Restoration activities at these three properties are ongoing, and the overall removal action is expected to be complete in 2026.
What is the Current Site Status?
Following a careful review of sampling data collected from 2019 - 2025, EPA identified six properties where average lead concentrations measured on the properties exceeded the EPA Removal Management Level, and the MassDEP Residential Standard by at least three times. PCBs were also detected at four of these properties, one of which exhibited an average PCB concentration above MassDEP's Residential Standard. Through Removal Response IV, these six properties have been selected for removal actions and are expected to comprise the final removal actions in the Bliss Corner Neighborhood. Site work began in June 2026 and is expected to continue into 2028.
The Administrative Record is available for review online at:
or by scanning this QR code.
Locations to access the online Administrative Record include:
- U.S. EPA SEMS Records and Information Center, 5 Post Office Square, Suite 100, Boston, MA, 02109-3912, (617) 918-1440, by appointment.
-
Southworth Library, 732 Dartmouth Street, Dartmouth, MA 02748, United States; (508) 999-0726; Point of contact: Dina St. Pierre,
Director of Libraries; Email: dstpierre@town.dartmouth.ma.us;https://www.town.dartmouth.ma.us/283/Library; https://www.town.dartmouth.ma.us/755/About-and-Locations
