Click here to see the contract signed by Richard DeFelice and a representative of the state Department of Environmental Protection: westford-540-groton-rd-newport-materials-aco-final-signed.
With a cease and desist order apparently still in place, the question of whether the owner of Newport Materials is obeying the legal document and stopping the importation of soil to Westford, is going unanswered.
Board of Health Chairman Michele Pitoniak-Crawford and Town Manager Jodi Ross are declining comment. Selectman Chairman Andrea Peraner-Sweet did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Richard DeFelice, who owns Newport and 540 Groton Road, LLC, and his attorney did not return calls seeking comment.
On March 7, the attorney representing the Board of Health, Orestes G. Brown, of Beverly, sent a certified letter to Robin L. Main of Boston-based Hinckley Allen, representing Newport. Brown required DeFelice to stop importing fill to his 540 Groton Road parcel of approximately 115 acres.
The matter has evoked interest because Main showed up at the Feb. 13 Board of Health meeting and at the March 21 selectmen’s meeting, underscoring the financial impact of the order on the company and the legal repercussions of preventing it from fulfilling its contractual obligations.
She followed her comments with a letter dated March 16.
“If the Cease and Desist is not withdrawn immediately, the Town of Westford will subject itself to liability and significant damages for, among other actions, the interference with Newport Materials’ and 540 Groton Road’s contracts with customers that rely on the Site for the placement of their soil during their development excavations and the fees and costs incurred in defending against this baseless Cease and Desist,” Main wrote.
In November, DeFelice entered into a contract with the state Department of Environmental Protection 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. DeFelice’s land abuts the historic Fletcher Granite Quarry founded in 1881.
“Historically, the site was used by the adjacent Fletcher Granite Quarry for materials processing and
stockpiling,” according to a soil management plan prepared by Millennium Environmental of Marlborough. “The lot is configured such that it surrounds the still active quarry parcel on three of its sides. The site has had a perpetually changing landscape of slag piles, quarry roads and excavations for the removal of overburden covering the granite deposit.”
The plan specifies what type of soil is acceptable to import and what testing must be done.
“Relevant site history and uses of each soil origin/source with regard to the presence, use, disposal, and/or
release of oil or hazardous material must be provided in submittal packages prior to acceptance at 540
Groton Road,” states the plan.
The Board of Health conducted its own soil testing in February and has not released the results.
Brown’s letter quotes the state’s reclamation policy as follows: “nothing in this Interim Policy eliminates, supersedes or otherwise modifies any local, state or federal requirements that apply to the management of soil, including any local, state or federal permits or approvals necessary before placing the soil at the receiving location,…”
Brown’s letter goes on to state that the so-called “Administrative Consent Order” issued by the commonwealth “is conditional on Newport and 540 Groton’s compliance with the General Bylaw and permitting requirements,” of the town. Brown’s letter claims that Chapter 61 of the town’s bylaws governs the handling and storage of hazardous materials and “the quantity and composition of the Imported Fill which Newport and 540 Groton are storing… require special management.”
Main disagreed.
“…the Cease and Desist is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the applicability of the permitting requirements in Chapter 61 of Westford’s ordinance on Hazardous Material Storage Permits, a completely erroneous claim that the soils at issue are ‘special waste’ under Chapter 61, and a complete lack of any data or other evidence to support that the soils qualify as solid waste.”
Chapter 61 defines solid waste as “any solid waste that is determined not to be hazardous waste…and that exists in such quantity or in such chemical or physical state, or any combination thereof, so that particular management controls are required to prevent an adverse impact from the collection, transport, transfer, storage, processing, treatment or disposal of the solid waste…”
However, when Main appeared before selectmen, both sides indicated a willingness to resolve the matter without legal action.
“We would like to reach a reasonable agreement…” said Main.
Peraner-Sweet appeared to agree.
“I think there is an agreement that can be reached here and we’ll just have to get in the same room…” she said at the public meeting. “At the end of the day litigation isn’t helpful to anyone.”
