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News Release
December 2, 2005

Neighborhood Notice - Preliminary Monitoring Well Results

Dear Neighbor:

Thank you for your patience and cooperation during the recent installation of the three monitoring wells on Little Acorn Lane and the median at Grand Oak Road. These monitoring wells were installed as part of the Impact Area Groundwater Study Program's investigation of explosives contamination in groundwater at the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR) boundary.

The installation of these wells is complete and we have received preliminary sampling results. These initial or profile results are from groundwater samples taken at 10-foot intervals below the water table during the drilling of each well. Profile detections sometimes vary from the actual monitoring well sampling results; however, we wanted to advise you of our findings to date. None of the preliminary samples had detections of contaminants related to the explosives compounds detected at the base boundary. One profile sample collected near the top of the water table revealed a detection of perchlorate at approximately 1 ppb. We have collected a monitoring well sample at that depth to see if the detection is valid.

Permanent well screens have been installed and sampled at all three monitoring wells. We expect to have the results of those samples later this month. Usually, if contamination isn't found in the profile samples, it will not be detected in the monitoring well samples. We will update you if the monitoring well results differ from those of the profile samples.

As part of our investigation, we also extended the depth of an existing well at the fire station on Rt. 130. Samples from this well also had no detections of contaminants related to our investigation.

Since all these preliminary results indicate that the contamination found at the MMR boundary has not migrated as far as Little Acorn Lane, we will be moving our investigation west, closer to the boundary. We will continue to keep you informed as this investigation progresses.

Thank you again for your cooperation during this portion of our investigation. Please call Dave Hill at (508) 968-5621 or Kristina Curley at (508) 968-5626 if you have any questions.

In addition, this information will be presented at the Impact Area Review Team meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, December 13 at the Best Western Hotel in Bourne. The public is invited to attend. Information on the program is also available on our Web site: groundwaterprogram.army.mil.

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For more information, contact:
Kristina Curley, Groundwater Study Program, (508) 968-5626
Jim Murphy, U.S. EPA New England Region 1, (617) 918-1028
Ellie Grillo, MA Department of Environmental Protection, (508) 946-2866

Or visit the Impact Area Groundwater Study Program web site at groundwaterprogram.army.mil

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