The Revere Conservation Commission held its regular monthly meeting last Wednesday evening, July 6, in the City Council Chamber.
Chairman John Shue and commissioners Robert Cassidy, Ann Raponi, Joseph LaValle, and Nicholas Rudolph were on hand for the meeting.
After approving the minutes from the commission’s June 1 meeting, the commissioners tackled a full agenda of various items.
One of the principal matters involved the continuation of the public hearing regarding the Notice of Intent for the construction of a new Alden A. Mills fire station at 140 Lynnway at the Point of Pines.
A consultant representing the city made a presentation to the commission that included an engineer’s drawing of the project.
Shue noted that three members of the commission made a site visit in the past week.
There were no questions from the commissioners and no comments from the audience.
The consultant said the project presently is in the review stage before various state agencies pursuant to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA). He said that the engineers do not expect any major changes from the MEPA review and that construction should begin in the fall and will take 18-24 months.
The commission then unanimously voted to approve the NOI and to file the requisite Order of Conditions to move the project forward.
The commission then took up an Amended Order of Conditions for Global Petroleum Inc.’s above-ground piping project at its terminal at 140 Lee Burbank Highway, which has changed significantly from the original plans, thereby requiring approval by the ConsComm of the updated drawings and the scope of the project.
Tyler King with CHA Consulting, Inc. made the presentation to the commission on behalf of Global.
The only concerns, expressed by Lavalle, pertained to the handling of spills, which had been addressed at the site visit by the commissioners prior to the meeting.and by a subsequent filing with the commission by Global.
The commissioners voted unanimously to accept the Amended Order of Conditions.
The next item on the agenda was a request for a Determination of Applicability for work being done on the public right of way near 5 Ward St. as a result of an oil spill last October when a tanker truck took the turn too sharply as it was rounding the rotary at Brown Circle and overturned, spilling 6000 gallons of heating oil into the roadway and shoulder area, which is adjacent to Rumney Marsh.
Brian Mulder with Atlas Technical Consultants (ATC) from Woburn made a presentation to the commission. Atlas will be doing the work on behalf of the trucking company, Goguen Transportation, Inc., which will consist of test borings and the installation of ground monitoring wells to assess the possible release of contaminants into the nearby Rumney Marsh channel.
Mulder told the commission, in response to a question by Lavalle, that since oil floats on water, he did not expect that the test borings would have to go very deep.
Shue, who had walked the property the previous week, noted that test borings and monitoring wells are temporary in nature and therefore are exempt from oversight by local conservation commissions pursuant to state regulations.
The members then unanimously determined that the project is not applicable for oversight by the ConsComm, thereby allowing the monitoring process by ATC to proceed without delay.
The commission took up another matter, which also had been continued from a previous meeting, regarding the landscaping for the construction of a new home that will be elevated and above ground level at 100 Lancaster Avenue.
The house is located at the corner of Lancaster and Rice Aves. at the Pt. of Pines and sits directly across from the ocean.
“It’s a nice house,” said LaValle (who was among the commissioners who walked the property prior to the meeting) to the homeowner. “I would like to commend the workmanship and I can’t wait to see it when it’s all done.”
The commission then voted unanimously to approve the project’s landscaping and to issue an NOI with conditions.
The commission then met with the new owner, Revere MA, LLC, of the former Global tank farm at 101 Lee Burbank Highway (which is located across the highway from its other facility). Revere MA, LLC is intending to demolish the tanks in order to construct a state-of-the-art automated warehouse.
It is expected that the project will require environmental remediation.
Chris Roller from Saracen Properties, a Boston-based real estate firm that is partnering on the project with a subsidiary of the multi-national investment firm, Blackstone Group, made the presentation to the commission.
He said the project, which contains 44 acres, will be divided into two sections. The northern half contains 19 above-ground oil tanks with four or five buildings, which date back to the 1940s and ’50s, while the southern half has 10 tanks and one accessory building that date to the 1960s and ’70s.
The project will consist of three phases: demolition; raising the grade of the property to account for 2040 and 2070 sea-level rise (which will be about 10 feet above the present grade); and then, after stabilizing the sites, starting construction of the northern structure building, which will be a technology-enabled warehouse of 350,000 sq. ft. that, according to Roller, will bring hundreds of jobs to the community.
“There is contamination on the site and we’re going to take care of that,” said Roller, who said the work will have no impacts on the nearby wetlands, although the project does impinge on the 100-foot buffer zone that is adjacent to the wetlands.
Regarding the scope of the remediation work, in response to a question from Lavalle, Rob Reynolds an engineer with Verdantas, LLC, in Holden, told the commission that once the tanks are removed, there are two locations that have to be addressed for possible contamination. He said the work will be conducted under the purview of the Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection.
The new owner has assumed liability from Global and will be responsible for all environmentally-related issues going forward. Though Global cleaned all of the tanks and lines prior to the purchase, Revere MA, will be coordinating with the Revere Fire Dept. to ensure safety during their removal.
The commission also heard of the plans regarding storm-water retention and discharge, which will include treatment of the water (which was not being done at the site under the previous owner) before the water is released into the nearby wetland area.
The commission will need to conduct a site visit and the State DEP still has to issue an NOI file number before the ConsComm can vote on the NOI. The commissioners will walk the site in July and then take up the matter at its August meeting, by which time the DEP presumably will have issued an NOI file number.
Enforcement action updates included the closing out of the matter at 80 Union Street and an acknowledgment that the owners at 630 Revere Beach Boulevard have complied with the previous enforcement actions taken by the commission. Their remediation work will be monitored going forward.
Correspondences that were received in the month included:
— 22 Whitin Ave. Extension, Hancock Associates, notice of elevation changes of outfalls and designation of materials for sediment/erosion control as a result of comments from CZM. The commission voted to acknowledge that the changes are not significant and do not require any additional action by the ConsComm at this time.
— Copied on letter from the Army Corps of Engineers sent to Irving Oil Terminal verifying that remaining work on an existing pier structure is authorized General Permit #3.
— Copied on letter from the Army Corps of Engineers sent to Gate Residential Properties regarding 22 Whitin Ave. Ext. stating that the work to be performed below the high tide line on the Saugus River has been verified as work that is authorized under General Permit #1.
In addition to the numerous site visits for projects that were addressed during the meeting, an additional site visit in June included a visit to 646 Ocean Ave. to inspect erosion and sediment controls at the request of the owner. The inspection was completed during a rainstorm and no issues were noted.
The commission then adjourned until its next meeting on August 3.
