One site · Four releases · Every line traces to a state document
The oil that came back.
Hawks Avenue is a dead-end road in Hanson. It carries four oil or hazardous-material releases on file with the state. In 2018 the biggest one was closed as a "temporary solution," on the written premise that the oil could no longer move. On December 31, 2024, the state's own consultant found about two feet of it back in a monitoring well. Scroll: the cross-section rebuilds itself as the record does. Nothing here is asserted without a MassDEP document you can pull.
Four releases. One dead-end road. One aquifer.
Hawks Avenue in Hanson runs a few hundred yards and stops. Along it, the state's contaminated-sites database carries four separate oil or hazardous-material releases.DEP
Three are tied to a single parcel, 100 Hawks Avenue, listed under the names Litecontrol Corporation and Former Litecontrol Facility. The fourth sits across the road at 19 Hawks Avenue, inside a mapped public drinking-water protection zone. All four sit on the Plymouth-Carver Sole Source Aquifer, the region's federally designated drinking-water source.
This is the record of that road, one document at a time.
Sources · Chapter 1
- MassDEP Waste Site / Reportable Releases lookup, Hawks Ave / Hanson results (exported 2026-07-14): RTNs 4-0024721 (Litecontrol Corporation), 4-0050548 (Town of Hanson), 4-0052238 (Former Litecontrol Facility), 4-0001056 (United CC Cranberry, 19 Hawks Ave), 4-0017465 (19 Hawks Ln). documented
Fuel oil under the courtyard, 2013.
On August 13, 2013, a release of No. 2 fuel oil was reported at 100 Hawks Avenue. The source, per the state file, was a tank system: a 20,000-gallon underground storage tank and buried drums in the Building 17 courtyard. About half an inch of free product sat on the groundwater.DEP
On March 21, 2014, MassDEP issued a Notice of Noncompliance to Brian Golden, President of Litecontrol, at the company's Spring Street address in Plympton. The cited violation was narrow: the required Immediate Response Action plan arrived on October 15, 2013, three days after the deadline.DEP
The letter says its own weight is cumulative. It states the notice "establishes a pattern of noncompliance that can be taken into consideration if future enforcement actions are pursued for other violations."DEP The acquisition of Litecontrol by Hubbell was announced twenty-seven days later.
Sources · Chapter 2
- MassDEP RTN 4-0024721, release notification (Aug. 13, 2013); source category tank/UST/fuel tank/drums; GEI "Periodic Review of the Temporary Solution," Jan. 13, 2026, describing the Building 17 courtyard source area. documented
- Notice of Noncompliance NON-SE-14-3E-031, MassDEP to Brian Golden, President, Litecontrol Corporation, March 21, 2014 (violation of 310 CMR 40.0420(7); IRA plan received Oct. 15 vs Oct. 12 deadline; "pattern of noncompliance" language verbatim). Acquisition-announcement date is stated as context; the 27-day interval is arithmetic on the two dates. documented
Closed on the premise the oil could no longer move.
The source area was treated with in-situ stabilization. Soil was excavated and shipped off-site across 2015 to 2018.DEP
On November 6, 2018, the site was closed as a Temporary Solution. That closure rested on a specific finding: that light non-aqueous phase liquid — the free oil — with micro-scale mobility was no longer present.DEP
A Permanent Solution with Conditions was recorded for part of the site. No Activity and Use Limitation was ever registered against the property. The state's record for this release lists its Activity and Use Limitation field as blank.DEP
Sources · Chapter 3
- MassDEP RTN 4-0024721 Response Action timeline: soil-shipping Bills of Lading, 2015-2018; Phase IV/V; Partial Temporary Solution Nov. 6, 2018. documented
- GEI Periodic Review, Jan. 13, 2026, restating that the 2018 Temporary Solution relied on LNAPL with micro-scale mobility no longer being present. documented
- MassDEP RTN 4-0024721 record: Permanent Solution with Conditions and No AUL (Aug. 20, 2018); "AUL Info" field blank on the site detail page. documented
December 31, 2024: about two feet of it, back.
The state's consultant, GEI, put the finding in its own words. During a periodic sampling event on December 31, 2024, "an apparent LNAPL thickness (ANT) of approximately two feet of LNAPL was observed in monitoring well B-611(MW)R." That well sits about twelve feet downgradient of the stabilized source.DEP·p5
It thinned to a film, then returned through the summer of 2025, measured again at roughly four-tenths of a foot in July.DEP·p12 Total oil recovered since December 2024: 0.58 gallon.DEP
The consultant's stated conclusion is that further gauging and removal "is no longer feasible in accordance with the MassDEP LNAPL Guidance."DEP·p5
Sources · Chapter 4
- GEI, "Post-Temporary Solution Status Report, Remedial Monitoring Report and Periodic Review of the Temporary Solution," RTN 4-24721, Jan. 13, 2026, p.5 (also p.13): "approximately two feet of LNAPL … in monitoring well B-611(MW)R," ~12 ft downgradient of the source. documented
- Same, p.12 and p.14: rebound to ~0.42 ft (July 22, 2025); 0.58 gallon recovered since December 2024. documented
- Same, p.5, p.12, p.17: further gauging and LNAPL removal "no longer feasible in accordance with the MassDEP LNAPL Guidance." documented
Still over the drinking-water line. And into a state wildlife area.
The oil is not the only thing left. The same review reports that antimony, arsenic, and vanadium "continue to exceed Method 1 GW-1 standards in some wells." GW-1 is the state's drinking-water standard.DEP·p13
Antimony was measured at 59.8 micrograms per liter in one well. The GW-1 standard for antimony is 6.DEP·p11 Petroleum-range organics were still present at the source well.
And the disposal site does not stop at the fence line. The review states that the site legally includes a portion of the Burrage Pond Wildlife Management Area — the former Morton cranberry bogs, now state conservation land.DEP·p4
GEI's position, kept here in full: it reports the dissolved plume as stable and on-site, the recovered volume as small, and holds that no substantial hazard exists. Southeastern Massachusetts groundwater can also carry arsenic from natural background. The findings above are the state file; they are not a finding of harm to anyone's tap.
Sources · Chapter 5
- GEI Periodic Review, Jan. 13, 2026, p.13: antimony, arsenic, and vanadium "continue to exceed Method 1 GW-1 standards in some wells"; EPH at source well B-701. documented
- Same, p.11 (antimony 59.8 µg/L in B-623(MW)R, July 2021) and p.21 standards table (GW-1 antimony standard = 6 µg/L). documented
- Same, p.4: the disposal site legally includes a portion of the Burrage Pond Wildlife Management Area (MassWildlife land). documented
A second release. The town's own report names the source.
A separate release at 100 Hawks Avenue is on file under the name Town of Hanson, reported July 29, 2024 and classified Tier II.DEP
Its Phase I report, prepared by the firm Verdantas, does not hedge about where the problem started. It labels the condition a "Historic Petroleum and PCBs Release — RTN 4-24721 (Litecontrol)."DEP·p2
The soil exceedances it records: 2,4-dinitrotoluene, chromium, antimony, lead, zinc, PCBs, and naphthalene, above state standards.DEP·p24 The 2,4-dinitrotoluene is a nitroaromatic compound; a companion release for it (RTN 4-0052238, "Former Litecontrol Facility") opened in 2025 and closed within months.DEP
Sources · Chapter 6
- MassDEP RTN 4-0050548 ("Town of Hanson," 100 Hawks Ave): release reported July 29, 2024; Tier II. documented
- RTN 4-0050548 MCP Phase I Initial Site Investigation (Verdantas), p.2: "Historic Petroleum and PCBs Release — RTN 4-24721 (Litecontrol)." documented
- Same, p.24 and p.28: soil exceedances of 2,4-dinitrotoluene and chromium (p.24), and antimony, lead, zinc, PCBs, naphthalene (p.28, p.10), above MCP RCS-1 / Method 1 standards. documented
- MassDEP RTN 4-0052238 ("Former Litecontrol Facility," 2,4-dinitrotoluene): 120-Day NOR Aug. 5, 2025; RTN closed Sept. 24, 2025. documented
Petroleum in a wellhead zone, next to a pre-school.
At 19 Hawks Avenue sits the fourth release: a petroleum release from underground storage tanks, first reported in 1992. Its Phase I was prepared for Northland Cranberries, Inc.DEP
This parcel is inside a Zone 2 — a mapped public-wellhead protection area. The site's closure statement records a benzo(a)pyrene level above the GW-1 drinking-water standard since August 2005.DEP·p16
The same statement records what the wells nearby serve. It refers to drinking-water supply wells "servicing a pre-school."DEP·p23
The release was closed on June 21, 2007 as a Class A2 Response Action Outcome — the class that means a permanent solution was reached with residual contamination left in place.DEP
Sources · Chapter 7
- MassDEP RTN 4-0001056 (19 Hawks Ave, petroleum, USTs); Phase I Limited Site Investigation (Aug. 11, 1997), prepared for Northland Cranberries, Inc. documented
- Class A-2 Response Action Outcome Statement, RTN 4-0001056, June 21, 2007, p.16: benzo(a)pyrene above the Method I GW-1 standard since August 2005; parcel within a Zone 2 wellhead-protection area. documented
- Same, p.23: reference to drinking-water supply wells "servicing a pre-school." documented
- Same: closed as a Class A2 RAO (permanent solution with residual contamination), June 21, 2007. documented
Every line above is a state filing.
None of this is our reporting of a rumor. It is the state's own contaminated-sites record for one road, read closely and cited to the page.
Four releases. One dead-end road. A "temporary solution" that assumed the oil was done, and a state consultant who found two feet of it back. That consultant's own conclusion is that removing it is no longer feasible. The documents are public. So is this.