In the News

WALES — U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal saw firsthand Tuesday the slow but unstoppable cracking that plagues home foundations in Massachusetts and Connecticut built decades ago with pyrrhotite in the concrete, an issue he’s addressed for years in Washington.

“It’s one thing to hear about it,” said state Sen. Anne M. Gobi, who has advocated on behalf of pyrrhotite-afflicted homeowners in her district. “It’s another thing to see it happening.”

Gobi and state Rep. Brian Ashe organized Thursday’s visit to two affected homes in Wales.

Ashe, D-Longmeadow, said the biggest challenge is getting state lawmakers and officials from places where the contaminated concrete is not found to understand just how devastating it can be. The damage requires total replacement of the foundation.

Homeowner Lee Hamer showed Neal cracks that started at a 16th of an inch, then an eighth and now more than a quarter-inch, a gap big enough to put a pencil in.

“It’s stressful,” Hamer said. “You try not to think about it. We don’t want to leave our home.”

Neal, D-Springfield, promised Tuesday both more research and advocacy and said he’s brought the issue up already with the White House and with Gov. Charlie Baker. As chairman of the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, Neal successfully urged the Trump administration to change tax rules and make it easier for homeowners to write off the damage and cost of repairs.

Neal visited after touring the future home of the Creative Hub Worcester with U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester.

In Wales, he pointed to waves of federal money that have come into Massachusetts through the CARES Act and the more recent American Recovery Plan. The American Recovery Plan alone brought $8.3 billion in state and local aid to Massachusetts.

“I think something can be done with the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) program,” Neal said. “I think this is certainly an issue for the federal, state and local governments.”

Neal drew a parallel between the pyrrhotite issue and the issue of polluted industrial brownfields where the original polluter has long since disappeared, so the property sits without getting put to a new use. The brownfields issue is one of the priorities in the new $2.3 trillion American Jobs Infrastructure Plan, which Neal has already begun work on passing.

On Tuesday he visited the homes of Heidi and Lee Hamer and of Mike and Sue Milanese, a few miles apart and tucked into the wooded hills of Wales in southeast Hampden County.

At the Milanese home, the telltale spiderweb cracks radiate all across each basement wall.

“It was 2016 when I first noticed them,” Milanese said. “Twenty years almost exactly from when we poured the foundation.”

Pyrrhotite is a naturally occurring mineral that reacts with air and water when incorporated into concrete. The slow reaction makes the concrete expand and crumble.

The now defunct J.J. Mottes Concrete used pyrrhotite-tainted stone in concrete it sold from 1983 until it was told to stop doing so by the state of Connecticut in 2015. The concrete was shipped to construction sites across eastern Connecticut and central and Western Massachusetts, with documented cases all over eastern Hamden County and western Worcester County and into the Hampshire County town of Ware.

Gobi, D-Spencer, said that as she becomes more vocal on the issue, she’s begun hearing from more areas across central and Western Massachusetts. The state is investigating if other quarries are involved. Gobi said pyrrhotite exists in other rock on both sides of the state line.

Connecticut is a few years ahead of Massachusetts on the issue. The Nutmeg State estimates it impacts as many as 35,000 homes, condominiums and municipal buildings.

The state has a captive insurance program funded by surcharges on homeowners’ insurance policies that can help pay the six-figure cost of repairs.

A Massachusetts task force estimates that about 2,000 central and Western Massachusetts homes were built with the material.

The Hamers built their home in 1994, noticing the cracks after about two decades. Like other homeowners, they still have their paperwork from Mottes Concrete. They even have a photo in their scrapbook of the concrete truck making the pour.

Lee Hamer said repairs could cost him $280,000, more than the $250,000 assessed value of the home, an assessment that already takes into account the damage.

Gobi, Ashe and state Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, have sponsored a state law that may make Massachusetts homeowners with pyrrhotite eligible for property tax abatements and waivers of fees for construction permits to make repairs. Sellers would also be required to disclose any testing or repairs to a foundation.

The bill would set standards for entities seeking a permit to mine or expand a quarry to include a test for pyrrhotite, and require that producers of concrete and aggregate products maintain a record of their sources.

Last year, Gobi had a piece of legislation passed that allows homeowners to be reimbursed at a rate of 100% for visual testing conducted by a licensed professional engineer up to $400, and a rate of 75% for core sample testing up to $5,000.

On Tuesday she said only about 50 homeowners have taken the state up on the offer. One issue is homeowners are reluctant to get their concrete tested, because once they know of the contamination, they are responsible for it and would possibly be asked to disclose it if they sold.

“We wanted to keep the home and pass it on,” Hamer said. “But you can’t pass on nothing.”