The proposed spring cleanup of a downtown site once used to manufacture home heating, cooking and lighting gas will involve treating groundwater, capping and excavating, including within the adjacent Little River.
The Haverhill Conservation Commission heard plans by Boston Gas Thursday to address more than 170 years of coal gas-related contamination at 284 Winter St., a site now occupied by a Haffner’s gasoline station. (For a history of coal gas manufacturing in Haverhill see WHAV’s “Haverhill’s Gilded Age Robber Barons: Haverhill Gas Light Co.”)
Billie Jo-Gauley, of Anchor QEA, design and engineering firm for the in-river portion of the site, said the goal of the is to “advance the site toward a permanent solution.” She said air will be pumped below groundwater, which would allow air above the groundwater that contains volatile compounds to be removed and treated…