McCormick & Baxter Site

This area, with a recently planted bank and upland area, has been cleaned up significantly from its earlier, highly contaminated condition. The site’s decades-long use as a wood treatment facility resulted in massive creosote contamination and led to its designation as a Superfund site. A vast quantity of soil was removed from the site, and an 80-foot barrier wall was constructed at the top of the bank to prevent the remaining pockets of creosote from reaching the river. The river sediment was also “capped,” meaning that multiple layers of clean material were placed over the dirty sediments, some of which extend more than 50 feet down into the earth. The site is in good enough condition to be used in some form, perhaps as a park or athletic field, but it will need long-term monitoring by its eventual owner so that the movement of the remaining pollutants can be determined and additional corrective action can be taken over time. The area extends approximately 400 meters upriver of the railroad bridge.