Editing Ashland, Massachusetts (section)

===Nyanza===
US Color and Chemical Company, later named New England Aniline Works, Inc., and finally The Nyanza Color and Chemical Company, had a dye-manufacturing plant in Ashland.  The plant opened in 1917 when [[American entry into World War I]] cut off the supply of dyes from Germany, then the world's principal source. In 1971, the factory was identified as a hazard when pollution was discovered in the nearby [[Sudbury River]]. The site was placed on the [[Superfund]] National Priority List in 1982 when [[heavy metals]] and [[organochloride]]s were discovered in the soil and water near the site. It was also deemed probable that particles of [[Mercury(II) sulfate|mercuric sulfate]] were blown into the air. In 1998, Trustees settled NRD claims with the responsible parties at the Nyanza Chemical Waste Dump Superfund Site for $3 million. $230,769 of the settlement is for groundwater resources.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mass.gov/service-details/natural-resource-damages-program-groundwater-settlements-massdep|title=Natural Resource Damages Program Groundwater Settlements - MassDEP|website=Mass.gov|access-date=April 7, 2018|archive-date=April 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180408002937/https://www.mass.gov/service-details/natural-resource-damages-program-groundwater-settlements-massdep|url-status=live}}</ref> Cleaning up the contaminated site cost residents $55 million, and is still not complete as of 2013. The estates of the Nyanza executives were charged for the cleanup.

In 2006, the Massachusetts State Department of Public Health released a study that found that people who grew up in Ashland between the late 1960s and early 1980s and swam in the waters near Nyanza had a 200-300% higher incidence of cancer than those who were not exposed to the chemicals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.colorantshistory.org/Nyanza.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070316183655/http://www.colorantshistory.org/Nyanza.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=March 16, 2007|title=Nyanza Color & Chemical Company Ashland, Massachusetts|website=Colorantshistory.org|access-date=April 7, 2018}}</ref>

In 2011, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup's Natural Resource Damages (NRD) program settled with the slowly-going-bankrupt Nyanza for $3 million, which with interest has grown to almost $4 million.  The Nyanza case had previously been at the NRD program of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

In 2016, proposed housing near Nyanza site raised alarm in Ashland.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/04/01/proposed-housing-near-nyanza-site-raises-alarm-ashland/6sfqB9Zr1e4DPHT4MhSchL/story.html|title=Proposed housing near Nyanza site raises alarm in Ashland - The Boston Globe|website=BostonGlobe.com|access-date=March 21, 2018|archive-date=March 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322020148/https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/04/01/proposed-housing-near-nyanza-site-raises-alarm-ashland/6sfqB9Zr1e4DPHT4MhSchL/story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2020, the EPA proposed a remedy to cleanup groundwater near the site, the final operable unit (phase) of the site cleanup.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-groundwater-cleanup-plan-nyanza-waste-dump-superfund-site-ashland|title=EPA Proposes Groundwater Cleanup Plan for the Nyanza Waste Dump Superfund Site in Ashland, Massachusetts|date=January 9, 2020|website=Epa.gov}}</ref>