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WESTFORD -- Short-term blasting will resume at the town
highway garage site after a ban of about six months.
Selectmen agreed last night to lift the blasting ban, in
effect since September, with the stipulation that no
perchlorate materials be used. The Highway Department had
requested permission to blast for three to five days to build
a critical drainage basin.
“This is something of an emergency,” said Paul Alphen,
chairman of the highway-garage building committee.
Tests last August found unhealthy levels of perchlorate, a
chemical commonly used in blasting materials, in a private
well near the highway garage, and in one of the town's
wells. The highway garage off
North Street and an abutting quarry owned by Tresca Corp. have
been suspected as the cause of the contamination, but no
source has been named.
The town hired an environmental firm in December to
investigate, and the state Department of Environmental
Management has been examining the issue.
Highway crews have incurred additional costs by using
mechanical means, instead of blasting, to remove ledge at the
garage site.
Blasting is the best way to remove granite ledge lying 14
feet deep where the basin will be built, Alphen told selectmen
last night.
Redesigning the basin would take a month, cost more
than $20,000 and wouldn't necessarily mean avoiding ledge.
Mechanically removing the ledge would cost more than $100,000,
compared to about $35,000 for blasting, and it's unclear how
long it would take.
“The timing couldn't be more critical,” Alphen said.
Recent heavy rains have strained the existing drainage
system. The town's Conservation Commission has issued an
enforcement order giving the Highway Department 30 days to fix
the problem -- an order issued almost two weeks ago.
Without the work, the garage will not be granted a
certificate of occupancy from the conservation board.
“It's important for environmental reasons, but to protect
the neighbors as well and to get the project completed and up
and running,” Alphen said.
Elaine Major of the Water Department said the department
doesn't object to the work.
“As long as it wouldn't introduce any more perchlorate into
the environment, I can't foresee the problem getting any
worse,” she said.
Selectman Christopher Romeo asked if abutters know the
blasting will occur. Alphen said there hasn't been time to
notify residents.
Highway Superintendent Richard “Chip” Barrett said
neighbors are phoned daily during any blasting.
“We really have to be very attentive to this because
of what happened last time,” Selectman Dini Healy-Coffin said.
Romeo suggested the board notify the state DEP of the
blasting, but other board members balked because they said the
agency hasn't kept the town apprised of its investigation into
the perchlorate problem.
“DEP has not kept us in the loop,” Selectmen Chairman
Robert Jefferies said. “They threw us with something and then
disappeared off the planet.”
“You're going down a road you don't want to go down,” Allan
Loiselle said. “You don't want to notify DEP. There's nothing
they can do.”
Jefferies, Loiselle and Healy-Coffin defeated Romeo's
amendment. The motion to allow blasting passed, with Romeo and
James Silva opposed.
Meaghan Wims' e-mail address is mwims@lowellsun.com.
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