THE BLACK LAGOON

BULLWORK OF DEMOCRACY EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE: The Black Lagoon is a contaminated man-made pond near the corner of Maple and Walker streets in Marlborough, Mass. For more than a century, petroleum-product spills have plagued properties on a mile-long stretch of Maple Street. Toxins from those spills now rest uneasily in The Black Lagoon, mingled in massive silt deposits that pose a threat to the nearby Sudbury Reservoir.

/Google Earth image

Strain on damaged dam drained

February 21, 2016

RELIEVING PRESSURE: The water level at The Black Lagoon has lowered at least a foot since state workers removed the floodgate from the putrid pond's damaged dam on Feb. 19. /Christopher Cheney photo

In a move apparently prompted by the dilapidated condition of The Black Lagoon's concrete-and earthen dam, state workers removed the floodgate from the damaged structure on Friday.

On Thursday, Bullwork of Democracy reported that an architect and an engineer believe natural forces and years of neglect have structurally compromised the dam. Also on Thursday, Bullwork Editor Christopher Cheney called the Office of Dam Safety at the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the state agency responsible for maintaining the dam and surrounding property. A voice mail message, which raised concern about the condition of the dam and requested comment, was left at the safety office. The message was not returned, and DCR officials have not responded to several other requests for comment.

On Friday, two DCR trucks with at least five workers were at The Black Lagoon for about 30 minutes, a neighboring property owner said. The workers spent most of their time at the dam but also walked along the pond's shoreline, the homeowner said.

LET LOOSE: Water gushes over The Black Lagoon's floodgate on Feb. 20. /Christopher Cheney photo

The concrete portion of the dam shows several signs of wear and tear, including a destroyed wooden-plank gate in the floodgate's spillway as well as cracking and chipping of the main spillway dam, which is the largest concrete element of the structure. The structural integrity of the earthen portion of the dam is clearly in doubt.

In addition to heavy tree growth in the packed-earth portion of The Black Lagoon's dam, there is a washout at least four-feet-wide on the back side of the dam. The washout, which has exposed the top of the earthen dam's steel pilings, extends at least eight feet down the side of the dam's western stone-and-mortar abutment.

PHOTO GALLERY: Dam observations on Feb. 20 include washout on the earthen portion of the structure and oil slick in main spillway

EROSIVE FORCE: Water has evidently washed over the earthen portion of The Black Lagoon's dam in the past, eroding a gash in the back of the structure along the western abutment of the main spillway. Steel pilings at the center of the earthen dam's crown appear to have held off a more serious washout. "It could be catastrophic. It certainly needs to be addressed as soon as possible," says a longtime Connecticut highway engineer who reviewed these images. /Christopher Cheney photos and bullworkofdemocracy illustration

CONTAMINATION: With The Black Lagoon's floodgate removed, the main spillway is dry, with the exception of an oily ooze leaking from the floodgate spillway. /Christopher Cheney photos and bullworkofdemocracy illustration

PETROLEUM-BASED: In photo below, a six-foot-long slick of oily ooze flows down the middle of the main spillway at The Black Lagoon's dam.

INFILTRATED: The earthen portion of The Black Lagoon's dam is overrun with trees and brush on both sides of the structure. /Christopher Cheney photo

Monster's cage weakens

February 18, 2016

Photo Gallery: The concrete, carved-stone and earthen dam off Walker Street in Marlborough, Mass., has been poorly maintained for the past 20 years. Several dams in Massachusetts are in similar disrepair; but none are like the bulwark at The Black Lagoon, which contains untold tonnage of contaminated silt. The man-made pond is contaminating the nearby Sudbury Reservoir, part of the MWRA water system's emergency water supply for 2.2 million Greater Boston residents and 5,500 businesses.

THE MONSTER'S CAGE: The primary features of the dam at The Black Lagoon include a rusty steel-and-plank walkway, a main spillway constructed of concrete several feet thick, and a 4-foot-wide flood gate. /Christopher Cheney photo

INFILTRATED: Many trees, which compromise the structural integrity of packed-earth dams, have taken root in the earthen structure at The Black Lagoon. /Christopher Cheney photo

ISLAND OF THE BLACK LAGOON: The largest silt deposit in The Black Lagoon has a tree-dotted section about 30 feet wide. The silt is mixed with chemicals from more than a century of gas and oil spills at commercial properties along nearby Maple Street. /Christopher Cheney photo

EROSIVE EFFECT: Water is the most erosive natural force on Earth. When I first saw floodgate spillway at The Black Lagoon in April 1996, there were boards between these concrete frame posts that created a de facto settling and holding basin for oil, heavy contaminants such as lead and silt that came over the floodgate, primarily during storm events. One of the missing boards (photo below) is snagged in brush along the spillway about 6 feet from the damaged concrete frame posts. /Christopher Cheney photos

SNOWFLAKES AND SLUDGE: In April 1996, the floodgate's spillway floor was slathered with an orange, iron-rich slime, primarily from construction sites upstream disturbing iron-rich soil, which is not a serious environmental threat. With fresh flakes of snow lining a hole in the ice this week, a thick black slime from The Black Lagoon is mixed into a coating that appears more noxious now. /Christopher Cheney photo

STAINED ICE: A 15-foot-wide patch of ice covers part of the main spillway at The Black Lagoon's dam. The main spillway and the floodgate spillway feed the final half-mile run of the Sudbury Reservoir tributary. Upstream, the creek flows past several Maple Street commercial properties that have undergone toxic waste cleanups. /Christopher Cheney photo

The rounded crown of The Black Lagoon dam's main spillway is chipped and cracked. In addition, the dam's footbridge steel is heavily corroded at some junction points of the structure. /Christopher Cheney photo

WEIGHTY PRESSURE: Silt in The Black Lagoon rests uneasily, particularly during storm events, when new silt flows into the man-made pond and old silt is eroded and flows over the dam toward the Sudbury Reservoir. The channel of open water in The Black Lagoon is bigger than an Olympic Hockey rink, stretching from the dam to the man-made pond's inlet. /Christopher Cheney photo

'It's a mess down there' 

February 15, 2016

Contaminated soil covers more than half of the surface area and fills most of the total volume of The Black Lagoon in Marlborough, Mass. An aging and poorly maintained dam is containing the silt deposits from reaching the Sudbury Reservoir, which is a half-mile away. /Google Earth image and bullworkofdemocracy illustration

The first time I saw The Black Lagoon, there was a monstrous amount of silt lurking under the dark water's surface.

I saw The Black Lagoon this week, 20 years after my first unsettling encounter with this man-made monstrosity, Now, tons of silt, which is contaminated mostly with petroleum-based chemicals from toxic-waste sites upstream along Maple Street, are exposed like the gently curving head and tentacles of an enormous squid, with the bulk of the grainy grey monster hidden under water. In recent satellite images of The Black Lagoon, trees and brush that cling to the silt-deposit monster like swaths of green barnacles, providing testimony to years of neglect.

In 1996, a state official I interviewed described this putrid pond near the corner of Maple and Walker streets as a known repository of contaminated silt from several polluted properties upstream. MWRA scientists who monitored water quality in the nearby Sudbury Reservoir called the site "The Lagoon," the state official said.

The documented record of petroleum-product spills on Maple Street commercial properties stretches back to at least the very early 1900s, Michael Misslin, Sudbury Reservoir manager for the state Metropolitan District Commission, told me in 1996

After returning to the site this week and witnessing the festering environmental damage from a century of environmental abuse and neglect, I now call this place The Black Lagoon.

The largest silt deposit area of The Black Lagoon is on the commercial-development side of the man-made pond, which is a resting place for tons of contaminated soil. In an April 1996 Page 1 story I wrote for the Sunday Middlesex News, a state official described the pond as "a serious source of contamination." Based on observations during a recent Bullwork of Democracy site visit, including comments from a homeowner who lives on the residential side of the pond, no environmental remediation efforts have occurred at The Black Lagoon over the past two decades. /Christopher Cheney photo

In 1964, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart defined hard-core pornography with one of the greatest understatements of all time: "I know it when I see it."

The first story I ever wrote about toxic waste contamination was about the near-dozen polluted properties along Maple Street in Marlborough. After reporting and writing about environmental damage for the past 20 years, I know environmental damage when I see it.

There is significant environmental damage at The Black Lagoon such as leaching of contaminants into the groundwater under and around the pond. The biggest nightmare scenario for the toxic waste site is a catastrophic failure of the concrete dam during a storm event, which would spew tons of contaminated silt into the nearby Sudbury Reservoir.

"It's a mess down there," a homeowner who has lived next to The Black Lagoon for 30 years told me this week.

The concrete-and-earth dam at The Black Lagoon has been poorly maintained for at least two decades. /Christopher Cheney photo

Monster of The Black Lagoon

February 11, 2016

Contaminated soil covers more than half of the surface area and fills most of the total volume of The Black Lagoon in Marlborough, Mass. An aging and poorly maintained dam is containing the silt deposits from reaching the Sudbury Reservoir, which is a half-mile downstream. /Google Earth image and bullworkofdemocracy illustration

For at least three decades, The Black Lagoon has fed a steady diet of toxic waste to a tributary stream of the Sudbury Reservoir. The stream that feeds the lagoon drains storm water from Maple Street, the scene of a century's worth of petroleum-product spills, according to Massachusetts officials. /Google Earth image and bullworkofdemocracy illustration

The Black Lagoon off Maple Street in Marlborough has apparently spread contaminated silt to the Sudbury Reservoir (photo above). A tributary stream a half-mile long links The Black Lagoon to the reservoir./Google Earth image and bullworkofdemocracy illustration

The concrete-and-earth dam at The Black Lagoon, which is on state-owned land managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, has been poorly maintained for at least two decades. /Christopher Cheney photo

The Black Lagoon is located in a mixed commercial and residential neighborhood. To the west and south, several small businesses line Maple Street, including at least 10 properties that are former or active toxic waste sites. To the north and east, houses dot the landscape. /Google Earth image

The largest silt deposit area of The Black Lagoon is on the commercial-development side of the man-made pond, which is a resting place for tons of contaminated soil.

In 1996, the first Page 1 Sunday-edition newspaper story of my journalism career featured the Sudbury Reservoir and The Black Lagoon. /Ken McGagh photo for Middlesex News

Excerpt from 'Sudbury Reservoir: Unfit to Drink,' Sunday Middlesex News, April 21, 1996, by Christopher Cheney

Gretchen Roorbach, a scientist at the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, said a pond off Walker Street is functioning as a catch basin for the contamination flowing down from the Maple Street sites. "That is a serious source of contamination," she said.
Roorbach said testing of the Walker Street pond had revealed the presence of not only petrochemicals from oil and gasoline spills but also heavy metals such as lead. "That is a real settling pond for contaminants and heavy metals," she said.

Black Lagoon tributary

February 11, 2016

The Black Lagoon off Maple Street in Marlborough, Mass. (photo below) has spread contaminated silt to the Sudbury Reservoir (photo above). A half-mile-long tributary stream links The Black Lagoon to the reservoir (photo bottom)./Google Earth images

The Black Lagoon is filled with soiled silt from toxic waste sites along Maple Street, which is the scene of more than a century of petroleum-product spills, according to Massachusetts officials.

For at least three decades, The Black Lagoon has fed a steady diet of toxic waste to its tributary stream of the Sudbury Reservoir. 

The Black Lagoon is in the rotted heart of this April 1996 map. /Middlesex News image