Family Stuck With House Possibly Built On Dump

Massachusetts Family Demands Answers From Town, Builder
April 23, 2008

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA, Mass. -- A Massachusetts homeowner said she cannot live or sell her new $850,000 home because it may have been built on an old dump.

Julie Gesner and her family did not know about the land's history until they tried to sell the Manchester-By-The-Sea home last year and potential buyers walked away just before making an offer on the property.

"They walked away the day that they were going to put in the offer, saying, 'We heard a rumor that your house was built on the old town dump,'" Julie Gesner said. "I was horrified."

That is when the Gesners had the soil tested.

"The lead, at least, is six times the prescribed limit from the (Department of Environmental Protection) for pregnancy and children. There are other things out in the yard -- mercury and arsenic, chromium," Gesner said.

Two weeks away from having a baby, the family immediately moved out.

They began investigating the property and found a letter from November 2000 from the Board of Health to the builder, ordering him to cease and desist construction of the home. There was no follow-up.

"Do we think there was something there? I think it was probably there, but I can't prove what it was," town administrator Wayne Melville said. "So, it is a big step to shut down a project. You are going to cost people money."

Melville said he was unaware of the Board of Health letter until Tuesday. He maintains there is no hard evidence that the land was a dump or landfill.  

"The town, obviously, should have let us know what was going on -- and the builder and the broker. The broker that sold us the house actually said he had heard rumors that the house was built on the dump," Gesner said.

The Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the town to explain how it will clean up the site unless it can prove it is not responsible.

melville and the builder should have to clean up that place themselves before starting their new jobs bussing tables down the local.