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Raymark: EPA to Sample Groundwater

Release Date: 04/11/2003
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman, EPA Community Involvement Office, 617-918-1064 Jim Murphy, EPA Community Affairs, 617-918-1028

Boston - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will sample approximately 300 groundwater monitoring wells that are installed in and around the former Raymark facility. EPA wants to determine the direction and rate of groundwater flow as part of the Superfund cleanup. Sampling will take two days, beginning at 7:00 AM Monday, April 14, 2003. Citizens may notice sampling crews working from small vans or pick-up trucks.

The wells are clustered together at several dozen locations, primarily on public streets with a limited number of wells located on private commercial and residential properties.

This sampling technique is called "synoptic" sampling and is a process where the technicians take water level measurements in all the wells over the same time period to help determine groundwater flow directions. EPA is performing this sampling event as part of a comprehensive effort to determine the nature and extent of groundwater contamination and the rate of contaminant movement that may be migrating from the former Raymark Facility.

The synoptic sampling results will be combined with groundwater chemistry and soil gas sampling completed this past winter as well as with data obtained in past years into a final Groundwater Remedial Investigation Report. The report which will be published later this year will detail the extent of contamination and initiate discussion on the possible cleanup options for the groundwater and its associated gas vapors which have been monitored by EPA over the past several years.