Wynn Halts Environmental Cleanup at Casino Site

Construction on the Wynn Everett casino resort is on hold indefinitely.

EVERETT, MA—Saying it had no legal recourse, Wynn Resorts says it has halted its $30-million remediation of the former Monsanto chemical plant here. The Las Vegas-based entertainment company, which had hoped to break ground next month on its $1.7-billion Wynn Everett casino resort here, says the appeal by the City of Somerville of its Chapter 91 license approval, has forced the firm to stop all environmental remediation work. Late last month, the company announced the filing of the environmental appeal put the construction of the casino resort on indefinite hold. Wynn’s remediation of the former chemical plant site started in October 2015 and was moving forward on schedule, the company states. However it was determined that infrastructure work and dredging needed for Wynn Everett’s public harborwalk and “living shoreline” constituted construction activities that could not proceed due to Somerville’s appeal, the company states. In a press announcement, Wynn Resorts states that it had explored several alternative methods to continue cleanup, but none were considered viable based on work limitations that result from Somerville’s legal action. “If there was a legal way to continue with our site remediation, we would have done it,” says Robert DeSalvio, president of Wynn Everett. “No one wants this site cleaned up faster than we do.” At a press event staged at the Wynn Everett property earlier this week, EkOngKar Singh Khalsa , executive director of the Mystic River Watershed Association , Julie Wormser , executive director of the Boston Harbor Association , and George Bachrach , president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts , expressed support for Wynn Everett’s Chapter 91 license. Bachrach urged Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone to withdraw the appeal of the Article 91 license. “Somerville’s appeal is delaying a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to correct more than a century of pollution and environmental neglect,” says Wynn Everett’s DeSalvio. “Wynn is spending $30 million to recapture a waterfront that has been unusable for 100-plus years and create a spectacular shoreline park for all to enjoy, without one cent of public funds being used.” Somerville Mayor Curtatone countered Wynn Everett’s claims in a statement to Globest.com. He said, “I think it’s great that once Wynn addresses the other environmental and traffic impacts and is then able to move forward with the project that the site will be cleaned up. It’s been contaminated for decades. But to the extent that Wynn’s PR team claims there is a delay on the start of the cleanup, the responsibility for any delay lies squarely with Wynn.” He adds, “Wynn has known about our concerns for more than two years and has not reached out once to address them. Wynn could solve this and get started if they chose taking constructive action over dishing out spin.”