Jennifer Savio
Your tax dollars, used to purchase contaminated land. It's the spot where a new courthouse should have been built, but that's not what happened. It's just one part of a 15-year, $130 million project in Taunton that still isn't done. 7's Jonathan Hall uncovers what went wrong.
People who use this parking lot at the Taunton courthouse are getting a convenient spot for just $5 a day. They're getting a deal, but you sure aren't. That's because it took almost seven million tax dollars to build this lot.
Jonathan Hall, 7News
"Can you believe you're paying for all this?"
Tony Elias, Business owner
"We're all payin'."
The plan was to build the new Bristol County courthouse right here, but now it's a 200 space parking lot instead. One big reason: toxic waste lurking underground, leaked from over 100 years of industrial uses.
And 7News uncovered documents showing state officials knew the land was tainted when they bought it in 1998. This one says contamination notifications were made to the state before the property ownership was transferred.
So why would the state buy a polluted site?
Community leaders insisted on a downtown location near the old superior courthouse and claim they had limited options.
Senator Marc Pacheco, (D) Taunton
"All of those sites were tested. All of those sites had environmental issues."
Senator Pacheco chaired a community task force which helped pick out this lot. The location was approved by DCAM, the Massachusetts agency that develops new state-owned buildings.
Pacheco says DCAM wasn't too worried about the clean-up.
Senator Marc Pacheco, (D) Taunton
"DCAM indicated there'd be no problem."
In the 90s, this lot was bustling with businesses.
DCAM bought the land and bulldozed the buildings, shelling out about $1.8 million.
Jonathan Hall, 7News
"You wouldn't have chosen that site had you known the extent of contamination?"
Senator Marc Pacheco, (D) Taunton
"Yeah, nobody would've. No."
And there were big problems right from the beginning.
According to state records, just months after the land-taking, a state lawyer sent out this memo describing an environmental emergency here, requiring an "immediate response action" under the state's environmental regulations. There were concerns gasoline could leak into the nearby Mill River.
Definitely a red flag, but the work went on and so did the requests for millions more in taxpayer dollars.
In 2000, this document shows DCAM determined the pollution was so bad the building would have to be constructed without a basement because they'd need special equipment to contain possible toxic fumes coming from the soil.
Finally, in 2001, the state did a 180. This site was abandoned and DCAM went with an alternative site, right across Court Street, behind the superior court building.
And Massachusetts cut its losses and built a parking lot here instead.
The total cost including the clean-up? $6,868,591. That's $31,000 a parking spot.
DCAM wouldn't talk to us on-camera but released this statement saying:
"...the exact scope of the environmental issues could not be fully understood..." until the buildings were knocked down.
And they say these parking spaces are vital to the courthouse project, which still continues across the street, and won't be finished for almost two years.
(Copyright (c) 2009 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
