On February 5 during a snow event, a FedEx truck careened off Route 28 in Rochester spilling 25 gallons of fuel on the highway shoulder and ditch leading towards sensitive wetlands and a nearby perennial stream.
The spill needed immediate attention.
FedEx hired Common Sense Environmental to perform the clean up and asked Rochester’s Conservation Agent Laurell Farinon for an emergency certification to remove the contaminated soils.
Farinon provided the certification then walked it back through the February 16 Rochester Conservation Commission meeting for their official approval.
After providing the commission with the background on the event and photographic evidence she took on the day of the incident, commission member Michael Conway questioned if Farinon really had authority to grant such permissions.
“Should you be given blanket authority to sign emergency certifications in the future?” asked Conway.
Farinon felt that the current bylaw language was sufficient in granting her authority to act on behalf of the commission in emergency situations.
Conway elected to make a motion anyway, a motion that would give Farinon official permission from the commission for future emergency events. The commissioners obliged the motion that was unanimously approved.
The commission also ratified the emergency certification for the fuel spill clean up activity that had been completed.
The other hearing for the evening was a Notice of Intent filed by A.D. Makepeace Company for their property located off High Street for the construction of a tailwater irrigation pond to serve 38 acres of existing cranberry bogs and to build an access road in a staging area on the property.
Representing the applicant, Brian Grady of G.A.F. Engineering gave the details of the project to the commission. Grady said the tailwater pond would be a small water feature to allow the bogs’ irrigation system to function more efficiently without the need for flooding bogs in order to fill irrigation ditches.
Grady said the project was exempt from DEP oversight and that the access road in the plans was already in a disturbed area being used as a road; therefore, no trees or other vegetation would be removed.
The project is located within 100 feet of the Sippican River, requiring review and permissions from the Conservation Commission.
Farinon told the commission that a letter from the DEP indicated that no wildlife would be negatively affected by the project and suggested they provide a positive Order of Conditions in favor of the project. It was unanimously approved.
The next meeting of the Rochester Conservation Commission is scheduled for March 15 in the Rochester Town Hall meeting room at 7:00 pm.
By Marilou Newell