BRAINTREE, MASS. (WHDH) - Concerns have lingered in Braintree in recent weeks after a fire ripped through a Clean Harbors waste disposal site earlier this year, destroying trailers containing hazardous materials.
Braintree town officials and people living in the area have asked for continuous air monitoring in the aftermath of the fire, as they worry about their health.
Clean Harbors officials, though, have said they don’t think the monitoring is necessary.
Now, Mayor Charles Kokoros said he is talking to his legal team about options moving forward.
“Quite frankly, I’m extremely disappointed in their response,” Braintree Mayor Charles Kokoros said of Clean Harbors in an interview with 7NEWS.
Officials said crews responded to Clean Harbors around 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 after reports of fire.
The state has since allowed the facility to partially reopen despite ongoing safety concerns from the community.
Asked this week whether he will ask a judge to shut the facility down, Kokoros said “That is not out of the question.”
There is a Braintree fire crew that remains on detail at Clean Harbors in Braintree at company expense.
Kokoros has also sent a letter to the company, calling on it to pay for an air quality monitoring system.
“If you want to be a good neighbor — and they keep telling us they want to be good neighbors — it’s the least they can do,” Kokoros said.
Town Councilor and former prosecutor David Ringius tried to pin a Clean Harbors executive down at a public hearing almost two weeks ago.
“Yes or no, will you pay for air monitoring, yes or no?” he asked.
“We can continue to take that under advisement,” the executive said.
Ringius later discussed the question.
“It was such a very simple question and not to be able to get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to it was frustrating to me as a counselor,” he said in an interview. “A lot of the folks down in East Braintree, they’re concerned about this issue and they have a right to be.”
No one was injured in the fire. The state Department of Environmental Protection also determined the air quality for first responders and neighbors living nearby “was not acutely dangerous.”
Still, the finding was small comfort to residents who have expressed their continuing concerns.
“I’m horrified about what we’ve allowed to happen in this community that I grew up in,” concerned resident Michele Maloney said.
Officials told the town of Braintree they believe some waste in a trailer where the fire originated spontaneously combusted.
They have said the site is now cleaned up and the air and water are safe.
“We’ve been operating for 40 years in this location and we have a really good record,” Clean Harbors Senior Vice President of Facilities Operations Mike Foley said at a recent public meeting.
“We had a serious incident here, we recognize that,” he continued. “But we do consider ourselves experts.”
Kokoros said he hasn’t been able to get a straight answer from Clean Harbors about his request that they pay for air monitoring equipment, adding that he will continue to talk to Clean Harbors personnel.
Clean Harbors said it is no longer doing business with the client whose materials appeared to have spontaneously combusted.
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