Connecticut Coalition for
Environmental Justice

Fighting to Protect New Bedford

CT Coalition for Environmental Justice is working to ensure cleanup of several highly contaminated brownfields in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Part of CCEJ's concern is over property owned by the media giant Viacom. The property is highly contaminated with several chlorines, including tetrachlorethylene, trichlorethylene, and monochlorethylene; these pollutants have spread onto land owned by residential people nearby and effected local ground water. Viacom has enabled this pollution over several years by not treating the responsible site or admitting it has responsibility over cleanup.

CCEJ also is concerned over land on which the local New Bedford High School and Junior High School was built in the 1950s. The land, the site of a former trash dump, is heavily contaminated by chlorines, PCBs, lead compounds, arsenic, and other legacy chemicals. Students have faced unwanted health effects due to these pollutants.

CCEJ is working to ensure responsible parties and local government will clean the sites for the well-being of the community. CCEJ's partners in this effort are Old Bedford Village, a city environmental justice group focused on brownfields and job development; the NAACP, and various New Bedford neighborhood organizations.