By Amanda Flitter
MANCHESTER — The Manchester Essex Regional School District has been fined $7,000 by the state Department of Environmental Protection for disturbing an area protected under the state Wetlands Protection Act while carrying out the middle and high school construction project.
A consent order between the state agency and the district, which was signed on Sept. 5, ordered payment of the fine within 30 days and formation of a restoration plan for the affected area, Environmental Protection officials confirmed Thursday.
According to the consent order, a series of Environmental Protection staff inspections at the construction site in early May found a stream channel leading to Saw Mill Brook had been dredged, and the banks had been excavated. The inspections also found sand and sediment, which appeared to be from the high school parking lot, in the channel.
On May 7, the state agency issued a verbal cease-and-desist order to stop all activity within the stream channel or Saw Mill Brook. The Wetlands Protection Act states that dredging, filling, or altering areas subject to the act's protection is prohibited unless the proper authorization is obtained.
"We certainly disputed whether or not we had altered the area to the degree the commonwealth thought that we had," Richard Nylen, attorney for the school district, said yesterday. "But you have to make certain decisions taking into account how much time and effort you have to put into fighting something rather than settling it out. We're not happy to be paying a penalty, but we thought it was fair. It was the best way to get the matter behind us."
School Committee Chairwoman Susan Beckmann said yesterday that the fine has been paid, restoration work has been clearly outlined, and the district is in compliance with the terms of the order.
According to the consent order, the district had not filed the appropriate documents for authorization of the activities seen at the channel.
Nylen said the district had filed the appropriate request, but the Conservation Commission granted verbal approval of the work and issued no documents since it was considered minimal. He said that, when Environmental Protection officials came to the site, they requested the authorization documents, and the verbal permission was explained, but school officials had no paperwork to display.
The restoration plan, which Creighton said is "underway," must be completed by May 1 of next year.
Nylen said some stabilization of the area is being done this fall, but most work will done in the spring. The agreement states the restored area will be monitored through October 2011 to ensure restoration efforts are viable. Reports on the monitoring will be done twice a year by a hired wetlands scientist and will be submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection.
School Building Committee Chairwoman Sarah Creighton said yesterday she did not have estimates as to the costs of hiring a wetlands scientist for long-term monitoring, but said that "it's not big money."
The $49 million project has had its share of environmental and administrative bumps.
Under an agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection this summer, a sewer line constructed within the 400-foot protective zone around the Lincoln Street well will have to be relocated. There will also be changes to the layout of the bleachers and Booster building for one of the planned fields.
This week, officials confirmed that Ben Gary, the project's landscape architect, had not renewed his Massachusetts professional license in almost 20 years. As a result, all plans carrying Gary's stamp will be subjected to review. However, Creighton and Beckmann said this week they do not anticipate problems with Gary's work, or significant plan changes.
Also, the contractor, TLT Construction Co., was decertified in August after the state Department of Capital Asset Management found it had filed incomplete or falsified bid applications on at least three public high school construction projects. TLT was certified when hired by the Manchester Essex district, and is bound by contract to complete the school. The decertification, however, means that TLF is temporarily barred from bidding on any new public-sector construction projects in Massachusetts.
School district officials, however, maintain that the project remains on time and on budget.
"Things happen," Beckmann said of the latest Department of Environmental Protection orders. "Things go wrong on construction, and our job is to identify it, remedy it, and move forward. We're pretty confident things are moving in a good direction."
"Our strategy here is always what do we do to protect the resources, to get the project built on time and on budget," Creighton said. "Those are both important things and are complementary — not one or the other, they go together."
Amanda Flitter can be reached at gt_reporter@gloucestertimes.com
