Native American artifacts found at Braintree construction site
BRAINTREE – A partial stop to work on the new Tri-Town Water Treatment plant has been ordered following the discovery of Native American artifacts on the site.
Excavation work at the Great Pond site was halted at the request of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which had issued a permit for the project. Other construction tasks are continuing, said Helen Gordon of Environmental Partners. Gordon is overseeing the $122 million project for Tri-Town, which is made up of Braintree, Randolph and Holbrook.
"We are doing everything we're supposed to do except excavation," Gordon told the Tri-Town Water Board at a Thursday meeting.
Native American tools and a fire pit were discovered on Jan. 23 at the site of the 12.5 million gallon-per-day treatment plant. Gordon said the Corps of Engineers is working with three tribal groups and an archeology consultant on how the project should go forward, she said.
"From their perspective, it's a significant site," Gordon said of the Native American groups.
The excavation work is tentatively scheduled to resume March 14.
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The work stoppage should not delay the completion of plant, which is scheduled for late 2025. Gordon said there are 120 extra days built into the construction schedule for contingencies like this.
The new treatment plant will serve the three towns and replace two treatment plants, which are more than 80 years old.
Discussions on building the new plant stretched over more than two decades and required working out many issues, some of them contentious, such as long-standing disputes on how much each community would pay for both the costs of operating the Tri-Town plant and the Randolph-Holbrook water system.
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At a ground-breaking ceremony for the plant back in December, Randolph Town Manager Brian Howard said water quality and water pressure have becoming increasingly important issues among the town's residents. He said the filtration system in the new plant will be "state-of-the-art and adaptable" to meet future drinking water requirements.
The new plant will be able to remove the "forever chemical" PFAS from drinking water.
An acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS are man-made chemicals that have been used in a variety of applications since the 1950s, from nonstick cookware and water-resistant clothing to food packaging materials and firefighting foam. They are considered a "forever chemical" because they don't break down and can accumulate in the body.
The chemicals have been to linked health problems, from weakening the immune system of children, increasing cholesterol levels and causing tumors. They have also been shown to be a health risk for pregnant and nursing mothers.
Braintree recently upgraded its filtration equipment to remove PFAS.
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Reach Fred Hanson at fhanson@patriotledger.com.
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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Native American artifacts found in Braintree
