Worry over Parallel Products reaches outside New Bedford

With Acushnet and Freetown's town lines within close proximity of where Parallel Products wants to expand in New Bedford's North End, Acushnet selectmen expressed concern after listening to a presentation at their Jan. 21 meeting about the possible impacts to traffic, pollution, and property value that the new facility might have.


By Daniel Schemer Contributing Writer
Posted Jan 28, 2020


ACUSHNET — The controversy surrounding the proposed $50 million expansion of Parallel Products in the New Bedford Business Park doesn’t only have city residents concerned.

With Acushnet and Freetown’s town lines within close proximity of where Parallel Products wants to expand in New Bedford’s North End, Acushnet selectmen expressed concern after listening to a presentation at their Jan. 21 meeting about the possible impacts to traffic, pollution, and property value that the new facility might have.

“I drive down Braley Road two to four times a day. I know what that road can be like,” said Chairman Roger Cabral, saying he is worried about trucks traveling down Braley and Phillips roads from Rte. 140, one of the proposed routes to the new facility, to be located at 100 Duchaine Blvd.

Wendy Morrill Graca, a Freetown resident and representative of South Coast Neighbors United, came before the Acushnet board because “they were trying to develop community opposition towards the facility” and also to introduce and support her comrade Tracy Wallace, a member of Citizens Against the Parallel Products Project (CAPPP).

A resident of New Bedford’s North End, Wallace has been researching and opposing the Parallel expansion since news first broke that Parallel intends to expand beyond its present glass and plastic recycling into municipal solid waste and the processing of bio-solids (human waste) into fertilizer.

Graca, Wallace, and members of the board said they objected to plans for the facility to take in as much as 200 truckloads of waste a day originating from all across the region. “Why is it always the South Coast? Instead of reducing waste, why are we adding more facilities here to take in more waste?” asked Graca, mentioning similar facilities already located in Rochester and Taunton, among others, within a 25-mile proximity.

Wallace described bio-solid fertilizer as being used everywhere in parks and farms. Due to the processes used to develop this fertilizer, it has been linked to chemicals called PFAS, or forever chemicals, which take thousands of years to degrade and have been known to cause serious health risks, she said. “It’s in our farms. It’s in our food supply, these higher concentrations of chemicals,” she said, adding that other chemicals labeled toxic by the EPA, as well as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), will also be taken in and processed at the facility.

Wallace contended that despite safeguards and contingencies, the risk of bio-solid discharge reaching the nearby Acushnet River and protected wetlands due to overflowing New Bedford sewers remains a possibility. She said that Parallel Products’ proposal to construct a rail sidecar to be used to transport municipal waste and bio-solids will have it travel through several protected wetlands.

Worsening traffic on highways and main roads was a great concern at the selectmen’s meeting, despite a study, 1,300-page Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) which concluded that Parallel’s impact on traffic in the area would be minimal.

Wallace told the board that the traffic study was conducted at the intersections of Braley Road and Theodore Rice Boulevard, as well as the Rte. 140 ramp onto Braley Road, over the course of one day in mid-June. The hours of the study were 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. She said she had photographs of cars backed up at the intersections at 1:43 p.m. on an average day.

Selectmen Board Vice-Chairman Kevin Gaspar, Sr. said he found it interesting that the study was not conducted for a full day and was concerned that it may not have taken into account how traffic congestion from Pulaski School on Braley Road will be impacted. He said he is worried about trucks not sticking with assigned routes, traveling down narrower residential roads.

Board members and representatives from citizens’ groups were in agreement that property values for the surrounding residential areas around Parallel Products could be negatively impacted, not just because of pollution and traffic worries, but also due to the odor issues that people believe might come from both the facility and trucks. Wallace brought up that official plans are for every truck to be equipped with an air ionization system for minimizing odors, but she said that these devices are known to emit harmful amounts of ozone gas.

Previous articles by The Standard Times reported that members of City Council, as well as Mayor Jon Mitchell are opposed to the proposed Parallel Products facility.

Despite the original glass and plastic proposal initially winning approval from both City Council and the New Bedford Economic Development Council, officials have later come out saying they felt the initial site plans were vague over what kind of operations would be included in the expansion.

“It wasn’t clear in the documents what the intended use was for. City Council has said they had the wool pulled over their eyes. They were not up front with their intent,” said Wallace.

All three members of the Acushnet Board of Selectmen expressed their disapproval of the proposed Parallel expansion and accepted Wallace’s and Graca’s recommendation to send a letter to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) Office outlining the board’s concerns over the proposal, as well as to ask for an extension on accepting comments from the public regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Report.