On 9/19/11 the Board of Selectmen met with Army Corps, of Engineers (ACE) about the pending DCAM permit to perform work in the Charles River. The permit is being sought to do the clean up work in a way with which the town does not agree. While DCAM is seeking to cap in place the hazardous waste dumped by the state over decades, the BoS 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 BoS 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 ACE said that for them the DCAM work is a minor project, that once they get more information about the oil removal and the bio-engineered river bank as a possible alternative to the rip rap that they only learned of last Friday that they will likely permit the work, that the alternatives analysis of the sort the BoS hoped to see regarding the waste dump are not required, and that they thought the town’s issues should more properly be directed to the Massachusetts DEP.
The meeting materials can be seen via this link –
Click to access 20110919-meeting-with-army-core-of-engineers.pdf
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