By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — Representatives of Northeast Metro Tech maintain that they have made a lot of changes to their plan in an effort to accommodate the concerns of the Conservation Commission. At last week’s meeting, they made it clear that they feel they have provided the Commission with sufficient information to move things forward.
“At a certain point, we need to talk about how to move this along,” said project engineer David Conway of Nitsch Engineering.
Conway enumerated some of the changes that have been made to the plans over the course of six or seven months of hearings with the ConCom.
He noted that the driveway was relocated and a sidewalk was added to the driveway at the town’s request.
He said that lighting for the site was carefully designed to be appropriate for wildlife. Also incorporated into the plans were ways to allow wildlife to move around freely.
Plans have been created to improve areas with invasive plant species and provide a management plan to get back to a healthy native habitat.
Conway said that the plans minimize land disturbance and avoid filling in wetlands.
He said that the storm water management plan they have designed is the most aggressive program in the town. He noted that the lower campus of the school was constructed in 1969 with very little storm water treatment. Both the upper and lower campuses will now have modern storm water treatment systems.
Conway said that all these measures will be more restrictive than contractors would like and will be more expensive to for the school to maintain.
Conservation Commission Chairman Bob Romano agreed that a lot of progress has been made but noted that a revised storm water report provided very recently still needs to be reviewed by the town’s Engineering Department.
Conservation Commission member Jim Luciani said that there was an old storm drain near the Farm Street entrance to the proposed new access road to the school. He said that the storm drain should be dug out and removed to make sure more pollution won’t get into the wetlands.
Conway said that he would discuss it with the town’s Engineering Department. He said that the intention was to remove it.
Luciano said a Cape Cod berm may be needed along a portion of the access road to prevent runoff from going into the wetland.
Doug Heath of Stedman Street said that water samples should be taken to set a baseline and determine the maximum sodium chloride that can be used as a de-icer on the access road without the runoff killing vegetation.
Conway noted that the school has already stated its willingness to forego using any chemical de-icer with sodium chloride. He said that he would talk further with the project team, but said that the snow and ice removal program on the campus will be comparable to what is used in environmentally sensitive areas like the Cambridge Reservoir.
But Luciani insisted that the monitoring of water samples should be ongoing.
Julie Barry, an attorney for Northeast Metro Tech, pointed out that there is already a snow management plan that addresses Heath’s concerns. She said that every effort will be made to comply with applicable regulations. She observed that other ice treatments are likely to be used on nearby roadways that are beyond the school’s control.
“We will continue to work to provide safety and protection of the resource area,” Barry said, but noted that there is no regulation requiring ongoing water sampling.
Romano said that he thought that there was merit in getting a baseline measurement for chemicals in the water.
Barry said that she had no issue with getting a baseline measurement but had a problem with an ongoing water-sampling program.
Luciani insisted that such a program was within the regulations.
Barry invited Luciani to email her the relevant citations so that she could review them.
Robert Schlein, another NEMT attorney said that an ongoing water-sampling program would not be warranted unless something has gone wrong. He said to monitor for chemicals after each snowfall would not be practical and is not a typical practice anywhere.
Heath also questioned plans to funnel rooftop runoff from the school building to nearby vernal pools. He said that vernal pools need to dry out periodically.
Conway said that the plan was to maintain the level of flow to the vernal pools that exists today.
Abutter Bob Brooks wanted to know if the new storm water management plan would cause more water in his basement.
A woman from Melrose, who was identified only as “Sasha,” wanted specific details on the storm water management plan.
Romano said that the revised storm water plan had not been reviewed yet as it had just been received by the ConCom and the town Engineer.
The Commission will hear more on storm water at their April 18 meeting after the Town Engineer has had a chance to review the revised storm water plan.