Richard DeFelice sat silently for years in governmental meetings that finally led to the approval of his pending asphalt plant.
On June 12, the years of silence ended. DeFelice came out swinging and he was heavily armed with environmentalists and attorneys by his side.
The concerns of residents who live near his Newport Materials operation at 540 Groton Road and the response of the Board of Health members, sparked a reaction in him.
“I think your cease and desist is fraudulent. I think you’re doing nothing but trying to stall me. I think your board has done nothing but try to hurt my project since 2009…,” he said at the end of a long meeting that was billed as a review of DeFelice’s hazardous materials storage permit application for 540 Groton Road.
After a seven-year process, DeFelice won a major commercial project special permit in a settlement agreement reached last fall with town officials. The permit grants him permission to build an asphalt plant on his 115-acre parcel. But because his operation falls under the purview of the Board of Health, DeFelice is subject to the board’s requirements. In March, board members required him to file an application for a hazardous materials storage permit but took no action to approve it at the June 12 meeting – an outcome that apparently angered DeFelice.
“You should be ashamed of yourselves for not acting on that permit,” DeFelice said as the 50 or so residents in the meeting room jeered him. “….I know you’re trying to cause damage…they can laugh all they want, because…at the end of the day, all I’m asking you is to treat me like any other citizen in this town that is going for a gas station permit or any other permit, which you’re certainly not doing, and the rest will play out.”
Soil Stockpiling and Storage Tanks
Two matters are vexing the Board of Health members: the massive amounts of soil being imported to DeFelice’s 115-acre parcel; and the safety of the storage facilities for the asphalt plant that will be produced there. When DeFelice’s attorney, Robin L. Main of Boston-based Hinckley Allen, asked why the board was not issuing the permit that evening, Board Chairman Zac Cataldo spelled it out.
“The settlement agreement tied the soil and the asphalt plant together,” he said. “So we need to know what’s going on with the soils and you’ve decided to not obey our cease and desist, and on top of that the DEP is investigating you, so until we have conclusion to that investigation, until we see how you’re going to respond to our cease and desist, we can’t proceed with this application.”
But Main didn’t back down.
“I am telling you tonight that linking this permit with the soil handling and delaying this project over soil handling and this cease and desist, is a phantom issue and is creating a liability situation here that will be untenable,” she said.
Main said the soil that is being exported from ongoing building projects on land owned by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in Cambridge. Newport Materials is under a contractual obligation to accept the soil, she added.
In November, DeFelice entered into a contract with the DEP to participate in the Soil Reclamation project, designed to fill in quarries, sand and gravel pits. Newport is one of only seven approved companies listed on the DEP website. The plan specifies what type of soil is acceptable to import and what testing must be done.
But residents noted the soil has been coming on to the property for years. Modern Continental, the company responsible for widening Route 3 in the early 2000s brought soil there, noted DeFelice.
The History of the Imported Soil
In a letter dated March 7, Attorney Orestes G. Brown, representing the Board of Health, told Newport to stop storing imported soil at 540 Groton Road. Brown termed the soil, “’Special Waste’ as defined under the Chapter 61 of Town of Westford General Bylaw…”
Brown’s letter told Newport to “cease and desist” storing the soil until the company gets a hazardous materials storage permit.
But according to Main, DeFelice ignored the order and has continued to import soil.
“It’s business as usual,” she said at the June 12 meeting.
Debate
Board members listened to a litany of concerns by residents, including anxiety over what would happen if a tornado toppled a tank containing hot asphalt or an earthquake shook a storage tank off its footing. An asphalt fire or a gas explosion were other concerns voiced at the meeting.
“Seems to me as I’ve gotten older, we have more and more tornado warnings each year,” said Liz Sherry. “If a tornado knocks over a tank, who would clean it up?”
DeFelice said a moat will run around the entire facility and encapsulate any leakage or spills.
“These tanks are certified for use in this part of the country,” said Attorney Douglas Deschenes, representing DeFelice. “They are as safe as any other tank approved by the government in this part of the country.”
Department of Environmental Protection
Representatives of the state Department of Environmental Protection are in the midst of an investigation of soil being imported to 540 Groton Road, said Health Director Jeff Stephens. He could not specify what triggered the state’s involvement.
