MSH Conundrum

DCAM is responding to DEP over its stated need for DCAM to clean up on an emergency basis about 800 sq. ft. 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 last 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 that 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.  The ConCom did vote last night, on a split vote, approval of the Notice of Intent from DCAM for the proposed emergency temporary remediation work, which DCAM acknowledges that 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 last night may well have been able to resolve all the issues if only DEP had attended.

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 #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.