PROGRESS ON THE CLEAN UP AROUND THE ENDECOTT BURIAL GROUND

The Saturday (February 1, 2014) edition of the Salem News reported on its front page  "Site Owner Agrees to Pay for Clean Up".

The Endecott Burial Ground, located on the south bank of the Crane River, off of Clinton Avenue, is surrounded by the property of the now defunct Creese & Cook tannery.  


Unfortunately, the Burial Ground's nearest neighboring building was the Creese & Cook beam house that processed the animal hides and, over the years, contaminated pockets of surrounding soil with arsenic, chromium, dioxin and other hazardous chemicals.  Adding to the toxic mix is asbestos contamination resulting from the beam house being demolished without having the asbestos removed before demolition. 

Last year, after a number of years of requests by the Society, which is the steward of this historic Burial ground dating back to 1654 where generations of Endecotts rest, the authorities deemed it safe for the Society's Building and Grounds crew to access the Burial Ground and begin restoring it (which will be the subject of another blog post).

Clean up of the area has been held up for the last 4 and one half years by litigation between the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the present owner of the Creese & Cook land. 

Hopefully, this settlement of the litigation will clear the way for the authorities to clean up the land.


Here's the link to Saturday's Salem News article:
Endecott Burial Ground Cleanup