Merrimack Valley Today

Today, the site of the Kyanizing plant along Lowell's Pawtucket Canal is a "brownfield," a tract of land that was developed for industrial purposes, polluted, and then abandoned. State and federal scientists have found harmful chemicals (PCBs, mercury, and dioxins) in the soil. Other nearby sites of heavy industry, like the Silresim Site near Meadow Brook and East Pond, have also been found to have contaminated the soil and groundwater.

In April 2020, Lowell Wastewater Utility, the plant responsible for cleaning sewage before discharging clean water back into the ecosystem, dumped 84 million gallons of rainwater mixed with untreated sewage into the Merrimack River. Combined sewage overflows happen when, usually due to a weather event, too much water rushes through the city’s outdated water pipes. The large amount of liquid overwhelms the water treatment plant’s antiquated infrastructure, forcing it to discharge everything in the system — including raw sewage from toilets and septic tanks — straight into the Merrimack River. Within days of the 2020 sewage/rainwater release, the bacteria levels in the river downstream at Newburyport were over six times the maximum level safe for swimming.

In January 2021, Governor Baker signed “An Act Promoting Awareness of Sewage in Public Waters” into law which requires water treatment facilities to notify the public when they release untreated sewage, including combined sewage overflows, into Massachusetts waters.