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Politics & Government

Peterson: Thoughts from Thursday's State Hospital Meeting with DCAM

Medfield Board of Selectmen chair Osler "Pete" Peterson shares what he took from Thursday's Medfield State Hospital meeting with DCAM.

Editor's Note: The following is what Medfield Board of Selectmen chair Osler "Pete" Peterson took from Thursday's PIP meeting on the Medfield State Hospital property with DCAM, published in his blog "Medfield 02052."

The DCAM meeting at the Thursday was attended by an overflowing, hot, and angry crowd of what I estimate to be 80 to 100 residents.  DCAM was presenting its final analysis of the issues and the clean up options it has chosen, but the meeting quickly got sidetracked from the planned agenda to deal with citizen anger over DCAM failing to totally remove the toxic materials dumped along the river over decades by the state's Deparmtent if Mental Health. The C&D area is about 3.2 acres in size, and the materials are up to 15 feet deep.

None of what DCAM presented Thursday was a surprise, as DCAM has been holding meetings with the parties over the past several weeks. Town Administrator Michael Sullivan, Assistant Town Administrator Kristine Trierweiler and I heard the same results when we met with DCAM Commissioner Carole Cornelison two weeks ago.

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I had already reported on what we were then told at the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday this week, and also the big news that the commissioner is now willing to sell the to the town. The details of what that would cost and how the payments would be made over time, with a balloon at the time of its development will all come later as we explore that purchase option further with DCAM.

The Medfield Board of Selectmen has taken the position that the toxic materials should be removed up to the gas pipeline, and DCAM confirmed Thursday its plan to cap and cover most of those materials in place. DCAM did announce that the armored bank in prior plans had been changed to a bio-engineered bank, making for a more natural looking river bank, which was universally praised by those in attendance.

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I was interested to see the cost of the town sought option does not appear to be that different from the DCAM option (see slide 33 from the PDF file above), however, the cost were not discussed in any detail Thursday, so that discussion will have to happen another time. 

DCAM’s option seems to top out at $3.9 million versus the town option at $7.4 million, but DCAM’s option requires at least 30 years of monitoring, as cost bridges a lot of the cost difference.

From memory, I think the monitoring was going to cost upwards of $1.6 million.  Senator James Timilty, in attendance Thursday, said the state just needs to step up and pay to do the clean up right, whatever it costs, so if the legislature authorizes the monies, we can get it done.

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