Originally appeared at: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/23839455/detail.html
LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A stench so foul has stopped children in their tracks in Lawrence, prompting parents to demand answers. Little Leaguers don't want to play ball at the South Lawrence Little League fields near the Shawsheen River in Lawrence, where parents fear for their children's health.
When the kids cry foul, they're not talking about the game.
"It gets real bad, its awful. Some of the kids gag," said Becky Bradley, a coach. "It's bad playing here." The stench drifts up from a storm water drainage outflow that runs behind the fields, where the city of Lawrence has illicitly discharged untreated human waste water -- raw sewage -- through the storm water outflow a into the Shawsheen River, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
"We believe we probably already found the problem, which was a broken sewer line about 1,000 feet to the west of that site," said Frank McCann, director of Lawrence's Department of Public Works.
The Shawsheen River runs through South Lawrence into North Andover, where it empties into the Merrimack River. The DPW doesn't know how long the sewer pipe was broken, but said it was repaired before the EPA's notice. "We are now waiting to get final results if that was actually the problem," McCann said. If the sewage break was repaired, why does the outflow still stink?
Tom Duggan of The Valley Patriot went by the area on Monday to take pictures. "Before I even got down here, I just started throwing up. The smell was just so bad," Duggan said. "When I came down here and saw what was here, it was pretty evident as to why." "I don't believe, in the letter, it's identified, that it's anything of a major concern of contaminants other than if there was direct contact or somebody was playing in it," McCann said.
For the Little League players who must go near it, it's bad enough. "Sometimes, it's unbearable. It's a little too much," said Jose Fernandez, a coach. "They don't want to play in that kind of condition." The EPA has given Lawrence until June 15 to find the source of the problem and present a plan to fix it. The DPW said it's doing everything possible to meet that deadline.
