Army Corps of Engineers: Town’s Issues with DCAM Should Go to DEP

Town officials met with the Army Corps of Engineers earlier this week to address issues they have with DCAM’s proposed cleanup of the site.

The issues the town has with Division of Capital Asset Management’s (DCAM) proposal, according to Selectmen chair Osler Peterson’s blog, is the process and method of cleanup proposed to remove the hazardous waste from the site.

“DCAM’s permit to perform work in the Charles River is being sought to do the clean up work in a way with which the town does not agree,” Peterson writes. “While DCAM is seeking to cap in place the hazardous waste dumped by the state over decades, the Board of Selectmen is principally asking to have as much of the hazardous waste as possible removed and stored on site in a securely constructed containment. All the waste cannot be removed because there is a natural gas pipeline that transects the waste, so the town suggests removing the waste up to the pipeline. DCAM additionally proposed to cap in place diesel fuel spilled in the river when the delivery person fell asleep while filling the power plant tanks, but DEP has ordered that the oil be removed next year. The Board of Selectmen suggests it is a waste of money to cap the oil this year, where it is only going to be removed next year and the risk is low, as the oil has been in the river without incident for decades.”

The Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) said while DCAM’s work is a minor project to them, according to Peterson, they will get more information about the oil removal and an alternative solution to the use of rip rap (rocks) along the river bank and likely permit the work.

After hearing the town’s issues and concerns regarding DCAM’s temporary solution to cap oil in the section of the Charles River on the C&D site of the state hospital property, ACE said the town should direct those concerns towards the Massachusetts DEP.

“[The project] doesn’t rise to the level of needing a full review because of the size of the area that’s involved," Peterson said of the Army Corps of Engineers' view regarding the site. "Full review does contain an alternative analysis but not the type that [the town is] seeking.”

Despite ACE determining it could not provide the town the type of anaylsis for alternative options regarding a permanent cleanup solution it is seeking, Monday’s meeting proved to be both informative and productive.

“We had 18 people,” Town Administrator Michael Sullivan said, referring to the attendance of Monday’s special Board of Selectmen meeting with ACE. “We had representatives of the Charles River Watershed Association, the neighborhood PIP group, SHERC chairman [John Thompson]. All three selectmen, Congressman [Stephen] Lynch … Representative Denise Garlick. [Chief of Staff] for Representative [Dan] Winslow was here.”

Sullivan said the purpose of Monday’s meeting was to voice to ACE the town’s side of the issues it has with DCAM’s proposal.

“We thought because DEP and DCAM had already met with the Army Corps of Engineers, this would be our opportunity to meet with them,” Sullivan said. “It was our opportunity to present our issues.”

Peterson said the meeting was informational for both the town and ACE.

“Karen Adams [project manager of ACE] said she was not aware of the DEP requirement to DCAM to dredge out the oil and the aquablock,” Peterson said at Tuesday’s Selectmen meeting.

Peterson said ACE wants DCAM to provide an example of a bio-engineered river bank, which was described as the use of trees to stabilize the river bank.

“The goal is to keep the bank from washing into the river,” Peterson said.

The town did receive good news from its legislatures at both the state and federal level as Congressman Stephen Lynch and state representatives, Denise Garlick and Dan Winslow each showed Medfield the support it is looking for in order to get the type of cleanup it deems necessary for the the state hospital site.

“Congressman Lynch and Representative Garlick said they were going to follow-up with letters asking that work not proceed at this time until more information was available,” Sullivan said.

Peterson added that Lynch would explore ways to assist the town in getting the results it is pursuing.

“Congressman Lynch offered to try and get federal monies for the cleanup,” Peterson said. “The town has been asking to have all the waste material that’s next to the river in the C&D area, or most of it, removed and stored in an engineered containment area that will not leak over time as opposed to the plan that DCAM has presented, which is a capping in place more or less.”

Medfield resident and state hospital property abutter, Bill Massaro, told town officials Winslow would be co-signing the letter sent by his fellow legislatures as well.

Massaro, who has been very involved with the town’s PIP group in reviewing DCAM’s work leading up to its proposal for both temporary and permanent solutions to the cleanup of the site, said Monday’s meeting with ACE was important for the town.

“I thought it was an interesting meeting and there were some things the Corps of Engineers did not realize about the project,” Massaro said. “One of the things they asked for was some additional information and they were going to go back to DCAM about the entire project and they seemed to be very interested in the slide that put out showing post-development, the number of children and proximity to the C&D area. … I think we got some good attention from our legislatures both on the state level and from Congressman Lynch at the federal.”

After learning ACE would not be able to assist the town in providing the type of alternative analysis the Board of Selectmen is seeking regarding removal of waste on the site, town officials discussed the next steps to take.

“The letters are going into the Army Corps and I assume to DCAM,” Sullivan said. “The clock is ticking for the deadline for [DCAM] to get the work in. I think we are possibly going to get two to three inches of rain this week, which would raise the level of the river substantially.”

If the water levels become too high, DCAM would not be able to perform the temporary capping of the oil in the river before the agency’s deadline in October.

If DCAM is unable to cap the contaminated area of the river this fall, it will have to wait until next spring, at the earliest.

In the meantime, Massaro said in addition to the letters being filed from legislatures, residents have also formed a written protest.

“We have something else going in on the protest of the Order of Conditions [issued by the Conservation Commission],” Massaro said. “We have both from the Charles River and Trustee of Reservations and there’s a 10-resident protest in there as well.”