Residents of one East End neighborhood woke up last week to what appeared to be a coating of snow, but what was falling from the sky for several hours was not flakes but flour.
The flour came from the nearby Newly Weds Foods factory, located on Grove Street and abutting a neighborhood off Mt. Auburn Street. Residents of the area have been frustrated by the lack of communication and the slowness of the response by Newly Weds Foods to clean their homes and vehicles.
The release of flour occurred shortly before 2 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12. Doorbell cam from a home on Mt. Auburn Street caught the falling flour on video around that time.
Resident Joanna Duffy, whose property backs onto the factory property, saw something strange that morning.
“On the 12th there were gusts of flour in the air,” Duffy said on Dec. 19. “That coated everything and you can still see it on the (Newly Weds Foods) silos, a big stripe of flour, and on the roof.”
Duffy said her property got a dusting of flour, but due to the way the wind was blowing the flour was significantly deeper at homes next to hers.
The flour seemed to stop coming out of the silos by mid-morning on the 12th.
At first glance, resident Drew Housten thought the white stuff on the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway Path was snow, but when he came back the second time he realized it was flour.
“We heard from neighbors there was flour everywhere,” Housten said.
Newly Weds Foods released a statement about the incident, which reads in part:
“On December 12, 2024 Newly Weds Foods had an event where flour inadvertently left our silo system and blew into the surrounding neighborhood. This was a rare occurrence and solely attributable to starting up additional equipment at Newly Weds’ facility. Newly Weds Foods values its relationship with the community and apologizes for any inconvenience caused.”
The company has offered to clean neighbors’ homes and vehicles.
“To address the situation, the company has commenced clean-up efforts and reached out to those who were potentially impacted to offer cleaning services,” the statement said. “Newly Weds Foods appreciates its neighbors in the surrounding community and considers that connection to be a contributor to its success. For that reason, the company is eager to rectify the circumstances.”
East End City Councilor Nicole Gardner said she met with representatives from Newly Weds Foods earlier this week.
“I’m in contact with the Newly Weds Team, who are actively working to address the situation. They’ve reached out to residents and property owners to offer cleanup services, and are also coordinating with the DCR regarding cleanup efforts on the Greenway,” Gardner said. “While the work isn’t finished, they’ve assured me and the neighbors of their commitment to resolving the issues.”
Anyone who believes they were affected and would like to request cleaning services can reach out to Newly Weds Foods by contacting Michael DeSimone at 617-926-7600 or MDesimone@newlywedsfoods.com.
Neighbors Concerns
While the company has agreed to clean up people’s homes and vehicles, neighbors said they were not immediately contacted about the incident and after that it took days to contact the whole area and to start the cleanup.
“Their reaction was horrible, to put it bluntly. They wouldn’t have taken any action if the community didn’t step up and make a stink,” Housten said.
He added that no one from Newly Weds Foods reached out to residents on the morning of Dec. 12, so he contacted the company, both locally and at the corporate level. On Friday about midday he was contacted by the Human Resources Manager for the Watertown facility, but there was no communication with the entire neighborhood.
“They were still not stepping in to do anything right away, even though we pointed out there are airborne allergy concerns here,” he said. ” They didn’t put notice on the bike path, they didn’t go around to neighbors.”
Having flour floating around their neighborhood was a concern for Housten’s wife, who has celiac disease, which causes an immune reaction when consuming gluten.
On Monday, Newly Weds Foods reached out to residents who had contacted the company and were told Newly Weds Foods would have someone come and power wash their homes and cars.
Duffy said the time it took Newly Weds Foods to contact neighbors was frustrating.
“We got flyers on Tuesday — that’s four or five days after the incident,” she said. “We all feel like they should have been more proactive about communicating what was going on.”
Housten said that he believes the company should have reached out to neighbors sooner.
“It wasn’t until Tuesday morning when Nicole Gardner met with them and their lawyers from corporate that they agreed to put out a letter,” Housten said.
On Tuesday, the crews came to power wash Duffy’s home, and they worked on other homes in the vicinity of Hearn and Malloy streets and Cottage Lane and Cottage Street.
“It didn’t really seem to be a thorough wash,” Duffy said. “Afterward it seems like there was still flour on cars and they certainly didn’t get roofs of the houses. Because wet flour is messy people are worried it will do damage over time to their roofs. There might be someone coming to inspect the roofs. It’s not settled yet.”
Protocol
Duffy submitted a “See, Click, Fix” request to the City of Watertown on Dec. 13. The Watertown Health Department was alerted, and Watertown Health Director Abbey Myers looked into whether there was any health issue.
“I spoke to the State to ensure that there wasn’t a cleanup protocol or anything like that,” Myers said. “The guidance I got from the State was flour is generally regarded as safe.”
She added that Newly Weds Foods permit is issued by the State, not the City of Watertown.
Former East End City Councilor Angeline Kounelis recalled a similar incident several years ago. She added that most of her contact with Newly Weds Foods regarded the sounds that the factory produces at times.
Housten moved to his home in 2011 and recalled a flour release from Newly Weds Foods in 2016.
“Last time it wasn’t as much of a release as this time where flour was everywhere, but we still got flour on our house,” Housten said “The factory never contacted us at the time.”
The flour remained on Housten’s roof, and it later became a problem.
“We ended up with mold all over the house. We had to deal with it months later,” Housten said. “We paid to have it power washed.”
Housten said he was frustrated that there did not seem to be any plan from Newly Weds Food on how to deal with a flour release.
“They had no response plan, even though this happened before,” he said. “They didn’t even seem to understand what an allergen is. They didn’t understand what a cleanup plan would look like when dealing with flour and how it might impact all the neighborhood properties.”
Myers said that, unlike facilities such as a biotech lab, the Newly Weds Foods factory did not have any hazardous materials, so there is no standard operating procedure for cleanups. She also checked with the Watertown Department of Public Works to see if there was a concern with flour being washed into the City’s storm sewers, and she was told it wasn’t an issue.