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Politics & Government

Peterson: Medfield State Hospital Conundrum

DEP is telling DCAM it needs to respond to the oil in the river this construction season, so DCAM is doing what it must to forge ahead, despite not yet really knowing which way it will ultimately be going.

The Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) is responding to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) over its stated need for DCAM to clean up on an emergency basis about 800 square feet of oil found in the Charles River when DCAM drilled test holes, but DEP has told DCAM that it cannot proceed until it both first completes a feasibility study and also meets with the Town’s SHERC later this month. 

It is a conundrum because Monday night, before the Town of Medfield Conservation Committee, DCAM was forging ahead to get permission to do the work to cap the oil in the river with a product called Aquablok and to pull back from the river and to cap the adjoining C&D area, despite not having yet met with SHERC and DEP or completed the feasibility study.

DEP is telling DCAM they need to respond to the oil in the river this construction season, so DCAM is doing what it must to forge ahead, despite not yet really knowing which way it will ultimately be going. 

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The Conservation Committee did vote Monday, on a split vote, approval of the Notice of Intent from DCAM for the proposed emergency temporary remediation work, which DCAM acknowledges it cannot perform until it meets the above criteria set by DEP, and which work may or may not be the emergency fix and may or may not be the permanent fix.

SHERC’s chair met in a working meeting last Friday at my initiation with DCAM, and per DCAM Monday may well have been able to resolve all the issues if only DEP had attended.

Find out what's happening in Medfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Medfield’s Board of Selectmen agreed at our last meeting with my position suggestion from our prior meeting to urge DEP and DCAM that (1) the oil in the river be removed instead of being capped, and (2) that a permanent solution for the river adjoining C&D area involve pulling out any materials below the groundwater table and capping those materials on site. 

The C&D area is physically proximate to the town’s well No. 6, located near where Rte. 27 crosses the Charles River, and the town must be vigilant about keeping the buried hazardous materials at the C&D area from ever polluting the aquifer that supplies that well.

To read more posts on Peterson's blog, "Medfield 02052," click here

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