November 2004 Update

The New Bedford Harbor trustee council has completed 13 restoration-related projects since 1998. To learn more about recent efforts, read the November 2004 Update. You may also click on the Projects tab at right to read about individual restoration efforts.

Clean-up of the site, under the direction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is ongoing. Because this effort will take a decade or more, the trustees are working to coordinate restoration with clean-up. Restoration actions not directly dependent on the progress of the clean-up are being evaluated for near-term implementation. The trustees are working with citizens, businesses, academic institutions, state and local governments, and non-profit organizations to develop and select restoration alternatives for the New Bedford Harbor environment.

Restoration activities are designed to restore natural resources that were lost, injured, or destroyed by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) releases in New Bedford Harbor. Priorities for restoration include marshes and wetlands, recreational areas, water quality, living resources, habitats, and shellfish and endangered species. The trustees have identified a number of potential restoration actions that address those priorities. Collectively, these actions will begin to restore an ecosystem severely degraded by long-term contaminant releases, industrial development and shoreline modification.

Round 1 of restoration was initiated in October 1995 through a notice in the Federal Register. A record of decision was signed in September 1998. Eleven restoration ideas were selected for implementation.

Round 2 of restoration was initiated in August 1999 through a notice in the Federal Register. A record of decision was signed in January 2001. Seventeen restoration ideas were selected for implementation.