New Bedford Harbor is an 18,000-acre tidal estuary where decades of industrial discharge left sediments heavily contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and heavy metals. Manufacturers in the area used PCBs to make electrical devices from 1940 through the late 1970s, sending industrial waste directly into the harbor and through the city sewer system. The contamination stretches at least 6 miles from the upper Acushnet River into Buzzards Bay, and more than 100,000 people live within 3 miles of the site.
The main contaminants are PCBs and heavy metals, found in harbor sediments. PCBs build up in the marine food chain, which is why Massachusetts has banned eating fish and shellfish from certain harbor areas since 1979. The EPA advises sensitive groups, including pregnant women, nursing mothers, children under 12, and women who may become pregnant, to avoid fish, shellfish, and lobster from the three closure areas except as specifically allowed by state guidance.
Cleanup was carried out in four phases covering the hot spot area, the upper and lower harbor, and the outer harbor near Buzzards Bay. Workers removed about 14,000 cubic yards of the most heavily contaminated hot spot sediment between 1994 and 1995, with off-site disposal finished by 2000. Full-scale dredging started in 2004. The Upper Harbor dredge, about 600,000 cubic yards, wrapped up in 2019. The Lower Harbor dredge, roughly 388,000 cubic yards, finished between 2016 and March 2020. In all, more than 1 million cubic yards of contaminated material was removed. A $366.25 million settlement with AVX Corporation in 2013 and $72.7 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2022 helped fund and accelerate that work.
Subtidal dredging was substantially complete by 2020, with smaller areas redredged in 2023 and 2024. Intertidal soil and sediment removal, which included planting hundreds of thousands of salt marsh plants, finished in 2024 with about 101,600 cubic yards taken out. Work still ahead includes remediation of the Sawyer Street facility and long-term monitoring of sediment caps and saltmarshes.
Community members can stay informed by following Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection fish consumption advisories, which are updated annually based on PCB sampling of fish and shellfish from the harbor. Recreational fishermen are encouraged to follow current state regulations on what can safely be eaten from the harbor.
