DCAM reportedly has withdrawn its application to the Army Corps

Bill Massaro reports that John Harney says he learned from Congressman Lynch yesterday (what we attorneys call double hearsay, but still likely highly reliable in this instance) that DCAM has withdrawn its application to the Army Corps of Engineers to do work in the Charles River.   DCAM’s withdrawn application sought to cover the oil this fall with Aquablok, which fix was originally intended by DCAM as its permanent solution.  However, that had morphed into only a temporary interim solution late this summer when DEP required that DCAM remove the oil next year.

That covering of the oil was something that the Board of Selectmen had stated from the outset was the wrong approach, as removal was the proper fix, and now that the covering was only to be short term it was not only unnecessary, but it was also a waste of state monies.

The Board of Selectmen has also asked DCAM to withdraw its Notice of Intent to the Conservation Commission for work to cap the waste that was dumped by DMH over the decades next to the Charles River in that same location, as another wrongheaded approach.  The Board of Selectmen has stated that removal of the waste materials is a better approach than capping in place, where capping does not eliminate the risks of those waste materials impacting the town’s well water and needs monitoring for ever.

This selectman hopes that DCAM will use the additional time it now has to investigate the real costs to remove those waste materials.  The town is on record as being willing to see those materials being stored in an on site location securely built to contain them.