Town and State Sign Settlement Agreement to Clean Portion of Medfield State Hospital Site

Town officials signed a settlement agreement with the state this week that calls for a $2.5 to $3 million clean-up a portion (3.2 acres of the 269-acre site) of the former Medfield State Hospital property.

The agreement reached by the Medfield State Hospital Mediation Committee and the Commonwealth’s Department of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, and accepted by the Board of Selectmen on June 18, is a much better deal than the one proposed in 2011 and modified in 2012.

According to the Executive Summary of the agreement, the mediation process...

...focused on ensuring that the Commonwealth's cleanup efforts will protect Medfield's water supply, restore flood storage capacity, preserve the existing natural resources and ensure the public's safe recreational use of the property.

The town's representatives on the committee -- Chairman John Thompson, Bill Massaro and Ann Thompson -- were in support of the agreement recommended to Board of Selectmen for its approval.

"I think this is an excellent plan," John Thompson said. "I think it's protective of human health and the environment, and I think it's something we can be proud of."

Ann Thompson said she had been concerned about the health effects of the site and said this plan satisfied any concerns she had for her and her family.

Bill Massaro said he had been most concerned about the contaminants in and near the water table. He said he is happy with the plan to relocate those contaminants elsewhere on the site.

"Moving the material wasn't the thing that made people safe. It was keeping people from coming in contact with them," he said, equating the capping process with that of a vault.

DCAM Commissioner Carole Cornelison said she had proposed the plan to her superiors and they are in favor of it.

The agreement has provisions to:

• Re-establish wetlands, river resource areas including endangered species, Long’s Bulrush and restore floodplain
• Enhance access to, and use of, the restored upland open space reconnecting the core campus to the river [through the Bay Circuit Trail].
• Demolish the Odyssey House, Laundry Building, and Carriage House
• Upgrade river access at the railroad trestle for Medfield police and fire departments

Other benefits of the agreement, include:

• Protection of the town’s water supply by removing material from the groundwater table to an upland area
• Protection of public health by relocating material away from the groundwater table to be buried, covered and monitored for two years (or four quarters with clean readings)
• Restoration of flood plain by restoring five million gallons of flood storage
• Enhancement of environmental value of the area by restoring a large area of high-quality wetlands and riverfront areas and reconnecting them to surrounding open space areas, wetlands, wildlife habitat and flood plain. This restoration would be one of the largest ever done in the Charles River Watershed.
• Improvement of public access to the Charles River by providing river views, trail connections and access through a car-top canoe launch
• Expansion of open space needs as indicated in the town’s Open Space and Recreation Plan. Restored areas will be owned by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Over the course of the last year, many samples were taken and areas identified for remediation, and trace amounts of lead and asbestos were discovered in the soils.

According to the agreement, approximately 25,000 cubic yards will be excavated from the wetland area between the river and the natural gas pipeline owned by Spectra.

Solid waste and fill materials with elevated lead levels will be disposed off-site, and other materials will be relocated to the upland area on the other side of the pipeline (there is no place in Massachusetts that will take hazardous materials) to an area that will be capped.

The typical cap detail was described as (from top to bottom):

• vegetation at the finish grade
• 36" of loama textile separation layer
• 24" of crushed stone
• a colored geotextile demarcation layer
• relocated C&D material
• a colored geotextile demarcation layer at the current existing surface grade

The Board of Selectmen thanked the mediation committee and DCAM for coming to an agreement.

"We're all very, very pleased that we're finally getting to the end of the road here," said Board of Selectmen Chairman Mark Fisher.

The final version of the settlement agreement can be found on the town's website.

For more information, including more details from the June 6 public information meeting and photos of the property, click HERE.