The Blackburn & Union Privileges Superfund Site in Walpole, Massachusetts has had an extensive history of industrial use. In the late 1600s, English settlers in the area began to use this site along the Neponset River for commercial and industrial activities. By the early 1800s, the site was the location of two of the 10 distinct water privileges established to grant commercial usage of the Neponset River for water supply and power. The Blackburn Privilege was established on the upstream portion of the site in 1811 and the Union Factory Privilege was established on the downstream portion the following year. Over the next century, sawmills, grist mills, snuff mills, a woolen mill, a tannery, and an iron forge operated on the site as well as factories that manufactured machinery, mattresses, lamp wicks, carpet linings, and cotton batting. Many of these industrial activities included the use of arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury, and nickel.
In 1915, the Standard Woven Fabric Company (later known as the Multibestos Company) constructed a large facility on the site to manufacture asbestos brake linings. The process involved crushing raw asbestos, leading to extensive soil contamination. The plant closed in 1937 and was sold to the Kendall Company, a predecessor of Tyco Healthcare. Kendall used the facility for cotton and fabric production until about 1985. During this time, wastewater containing caustic solutions was discharged into two settling lagoons. After the cotton fibers settled out, the wastewater was then discharged into a sanitary sewer.
Environmental investigations began on the site in 1985 and a concrete culvert was installed in 1992 to carry the Neponset River through the property and isolate it from contaminated soils. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed the site on the National Priorities List (NPL) in May 1994. Remedial activities that have been completed include excavating contaminated soils from the property and sediments from a dammed portion of the river known as Lewis Pond and disposing them off-site. Adjacent wetlands impacted by the cleanup were restored and a groundwater treatment facility was constructed and has been operating since 2019.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts jointly received a monetary settlement of $700,000 to compensate the public for injuries to natural resources resulting from the discharge of hazardous materials. Additionally, the Commonwealth received $300,000 for injuries to groundwater resources. Completed restoration actions have resulted in the removal of the Mill Pond Dam in Norwood, shoreline enhancement and invasive species removal at Memorial Pond in Walpole and finalizing the design elements of a new culvert to improve fish passage on Traphole Brook in Sharon.