Property owner blocks beaver trapping plan

By Mike Donovan

RUSSELL– Blandford Road property owner Les Cooke has refused to give the town permission to trap a family of beaver that have taken up residence on Potash Brook near the intersection of Dickinson Hill Road, according to trapper Bill Hardie.
“He loves watching them—the adults and the young,” he told the selectboard last week. “He doesn’t want anyone killing animals on his property, including beavers,” he said.
The beavers came to the town’s attention about a month ago when they dropped a tree on a powerline, which snapped and fell in a marshy area. Apparently it sent an electrical charge through the wet ground because a resident reported receiving a shock from a water faucet in his kitchen. After the line was repaired, a Western Mass Electric Company representative followed up to see if other trees would threaten electrical lines, Selectman Keith Cortis said.
According to Hardie, however, the present problem is that the beavers pose a potential threat to public health by flooding septic systems. A section of property belonging to another resident of the area, David Howe, is already significantly flooded, Cortis said.
Hardie indicated that the problem could worsen if the beaver population in the area increases. “Beavers have two to five young every year,” he said, “and they’ll migrate upstream or downstream and build dams of their own.”
Cortis said the selectboard has arranged with Hardie to trap the beaver without going on Cooke’s property. Hardie will probably wait for snow cover, which will allow him to observe the habits of the animals. Beaver trapping season runs from Nov. 1 through April 15, he said.

$4 million Library plan stirs conflict

By Mike Donovan

HUNTINGTON– A preliminary plan for a $4 million library to replace the existing facility has sparked objections from a selectman and the town’s police and fire chiefs, but Library Director Margaret Nareau said she expects the scope of the proposed project to be cut back before funding is secured. “We were told to plan a ‘dream library,’” she said, “so we’ll have room to cut back.”
An architect drew up preliminary plans and a special town meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. in Stanton Hall to seek approval.
“Now we need to get the town meeting to accept or reject the design,” she said. “No money is involved at this point.” The architect will attend the meeting to answer questions.
The present design would place the new facility on the site of the former Murrayfield Elementary School, next the the present library.
Nareau expects to apply for a state grant that will pay 60 percent of the cost, but the grants are competitive and the town is one of many seeking the funding. “Thirty-five libraries are applying for the grants and only 10 will be awarded,” she said.
There is also opposition within the town. Selectman Ernie Smith said the town simply can’t afford its share of the funding of nearly $1 million which most likely would be borrowed and paid off over a 20 year period.
“A 20 year loan like that could cripple the town,” he said, noting that the entire library budget this year had to be funded with a Proposition 2 ½ override so that the town budget would come in under its levy limit—the maximum that can be raised in a given year through taxation.
According to Smith, the state grant would cover about $2.5 million of construction costs, leaving $1.5 million as the town’s share. Nareau, however, said the library will apply for two additional grants totaling about $600,000, bringing the town’s share down to a little over $907,000.
But Smith said the town will have to pay the total cost of the new library before being reimbursed by the grants, and he noted there is no guarantee the town will be awarded the additional grants. “We could get stuck for a million and a half,” he said.
Another of his concerns is the scale of the project, which calls for a building with over 8,000 square feet. It would be over six-and-a-half times the size of the existing 1,200 square foot facility and would cost significantly more in maintenance and operating costs such as heat and electricity. He also feels that the plan’s proposal for some 23 computers is excessive. Guidelines indicate a library in a town of Huntington’s size should have three computers, he said.
He added that another problem with the size and planned location of the proposed library is that it would make it virtually impossible to include a public safety complex housing the police and fire departments. That was part of an earlier plan that called for expansion of the existing library to the rear through an addition, Smith said. It would leave room on the site of the former Murrayfield Elementary School for the public safety complex, including a garage for town fire trucks. Modern firefighting apparatus is too big for the present fire station, he said, and a new station would have the additional advantage of having overhead doors on opposite walls of the building, allowing fire trucks to exit the front and re-enter from the rear instead of backing into the bays after a call.
Nareau, however, said the present library building would remain, and the police and fire departments could expand with an addition to the rear. “There’s more than enough room for more than one department,” she said.
She added that the new facility wouldn’t need as many computers as currently indicated, because the building will be designed for wireless and patrons can bring in their notebook computers. She also noted that the plan is for a “dream” library and could be scaled back—although there is a limit. “We can’t cut it back too far or we’ll lose the grant,” she said.
According to Nareau, the library trustees and the Friends of the Huntington Library will also be fundraising to cover as much of the town’s share as possible. She added that the building will utilize “green” construction, and once it’s completed will be eligible for additional grant funding.
Right now, she said, all the library needs is approval of the preliminary design and authorization to submit the grant applications. In July, the library will either be awarded the grant or will be put on a waiting list.
Nareau said the timing is important because the money is currently available. “If we don’t apply for it now it may not be available again for five years,” she said.
She will find out in June if the grant will be awarded. If it isn’t, lthe library will be put on a waiting list and get the funding in three or four years. “If that happens it will give us time to do more fundraising,” she said.

Conservation asks DEP help on alleged pollution

By Mike Donovan

RUSSELL– Conservation Commission member Tara Churchill told the selectboard last week that the board of health is best equipped to deal with alleged pollution at a construction site on the Westfield River, which a group of citizens brought to the town’s attention a few weeks ago.
According to spokespersons for the group, pollutants left over from industry that operated on the site in the past, specifically the Westfield River Paper Company, are outside permissible limits and threaten the river, particularly the fish and other wildlife that depend on it, people boating swimming and fishing there and eating the fish they catch, It also threatens a well at Strathmore Park and the aquifer that supplies it, they claim, as well as the aquifer supplying the City of Westfield.
Churchill said the conservation commission does not have the resources to examine the group’s test results and look for solutions if the contamination is on a level requiring action. “The question is, if there’s a problem, what would the remediation be,” she said, adding that the commission has written to the state Department of Environmental Protection to get help.
A member of the group, John Berry, has said he noticed evidence of the pollution back in July when the river had reached historically low water levels. The group took samples and submitted them to Spectrum Analytical, Inc., of Agawam, which reported excessive levels of arsenic, cadmium and iron based on federal and state standards.
Dave Hobbs, of Indian River Hydro, which is building the power plant on the site, agreed that tests carried out for the company virtually duplicate Spectrum’s results, but noted the standards vary according to resources affected.
“They complained to the DEP so we had to test,” he said, confirming that the engineering firm hired for the testing, Tighe and Bond, of Westfield, came up with very similar results.
He conceded that levels of arsenic were higher than in previous results, but said Tighe and Bond claimed they were still within acceptable limits. “There are different limits” on contaminants, he said, depending on what is being affected. “There’s a different standard if it’s affecting drinking water than if it’s affecting fishing and boating,” he said.
He also pointed out that the DEP has been testing the site for nearly 30 years and that the testing continues.
“If there was any problem the DEP would have found it,” he said. Several “lagoons” the paper company used as wastewater treatment facilities in the past particularly concerned the group, but were cleaned up about five years ago, according to Hobbs, by removing contaminated soil from five of them, putting it in the remaining one and capping it. All that remains of the other five lagoons is a gravel bottom from which birch trees now grow,” he said.
An “oily sheen” noticed in puddles at the site tested as iron oxide, he said. “It leaves an oil sheen and I agree that’s what it looked like,” he said. “They (Tighe and Bond) took a sample and found it was no problem.” He conceded, however, that iron content is very high, but said it doesn’t pose a danger.
He said he was surprised at the presence of coliform at the site. It wasn’t tested for the bacteria because they’re usually found in the water.

Group claims dangerous pollutants, bacteria, threaten river

By Mike Donovan

RUSSELL– Seepage of pollutants into the Westfield River continued undetected until this past summer when historically low water levels revealed stained rocks and soil, and pools with an “oily sheen” on the surface, according to a group of residents who are asking town officials to take action. The group has met with the selectboard, planning board and conservation commission to urge them to take action. One solution would be to call in the spill response team of the Superfund, a member of the group, Ruth Kennedy, told the planning board last week. “We’re looking for help,” she said.
Previously, Russell resident, John Berry, told the selectboard that he noticed the staining on rocks below the former Westfield River Paper Company dam and notified other members of the group, who arranged with Spectrum Analytical, Inc., of Agawam, for testing. The company provided the special containers for the samples and the specimens were collected in a professional manner, according to Ed Ziskowski, a Westfield resident.
The group members were also skeptical of testing carried out for the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) by the Westfield engineering firm, Tighe and Bond, and criticized methods employed by another engineering firm, Huntley Associates, of Northampton. Huntley had found reportable levels of cancer-causing PCBs in two of five “lagoons,” or settling bays, that the paper company once used for treatment of waste water from its mill, and lower levels in the other bays. Huntley averaged out the results in all five of the bays tested, which resulted in an acceptable level. Kennedy, however, feels the firm should have reported the higher readings separately.
The maximum level is 2.000 and actual levels were 2.185 and 2.308 at the high end, and 284, 256 and 313 for the other three lagoons tested, yielding an average of 1.069—“significantly” below the standard, according the Huntley’s report on the testing.
Tighe and Bond, the group said, tested in the wrong areas and at the wrong times—in May, when the water was high, and in September, after significant rainfall had raised the water level.
Spectrum also found high levels of arsenic, cadmium and iron, in the group’s water samples, according to John Ziskowski, who has a BS degree in chemistry and is a retired fishery biologist for the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He is Ed Ziskowski’s brother and is contributing his expertise to the group.
John Ziskowski said the permissible level for arsenic is .01 parts per million (ppm), and for cadmium, .0002 ppm. For iron, he said, the permissible level is 1.0 ppm. The arsenic samples tested at .0235, the cadmium at .0032, and iron at 83.8 ppm.
Ed Ziskowski later disputed claims that the extremely high level of iron contamination is harmless, saying it impacts fish and other aquatic wildlife by reducing the river water’s oxygen content. “All three (pollutants) are taking oxygen from the water,” he said.
He said that Spectrum also found high concentrations of those and other metals in the soil samples the group provided—barium, chromium and lead.
He added that tests also detected high levels of e-coli, coliform and enterococci bacteria, that may come from septic waste dumping in the area of the “seep” (where the samples were taken). Ed Ziskowski was skeptical that the bacteria came from the town’s waste water treatment plant, noting it’s on the opposite side of the river. He suspects there might have been a sewer line or septic system in the area. “If that level of e-coli were found in a lake it would be closed,” he said.
John Ziskowski noted that the presence of barium, a radioactive substance related to radium, is somewhat surprising.
“There may be a natural radium deposit in the area,” he said, adding that high levels of sodium were also unexpected. “The elevated levels of sodium…are strange and deserving of further investigation,” he wrote in his report. “They may be the result of leakage of caustic soda or sodium hydroxide from the sludge lagoon site.”
Most of the pollutants allegedly found at the site were on the property of Indian River Hydro, a company rebuilding a hydroelectric power station there. Bill Fay, president of Swift River Hydro, connected with Indian River, said the company is perfectly aware of the pollutants on the property. They’ve been monitored regularly since it took over the site in 2004, he said, and the conditions are improving. “We’re constantly monitoring and the bad stuff is going down, down, down,” he said.
According to Fay, the DEP reduced the frequency of the monitoring due to the improving conditions. The site was being monitored twice a year but DEP changed that to once a year until the citizens group’s current complaints. “Now we’re back to twice a year,” Fay said, “and that monitoring isn’t cheap.”
Indian River Vice President Dave Hobbs said he received the results last Thursday of the recent testing by Tighe and Bond, and the levels were similar to Spectrum’s but did not indicate a problem. “Their numbers are accurate but it depends on the standards,” he said. According to Hobbs, the levels revealed by the testing do not pose a threat to the river.
He conceded that the high levels of arsenic and e-coli were a surprise and would have to be looked into. The e-coli could be the result of animal or bird droppings, he said.
He said there was a drain line from the mill parking lot somewhere along the river bank, but he wasn’t sure whether it was in the areas tested.
He also disputed statements that the lagoons were too dangerous to monitor and were capped. The paper company cleaned them out years ago, according to Hobbs. “They took out all the material and put it in the landfill and capped that,” he said.
He added that the latest report confirms that conditions on the site have been steadily improving.
“It includes the test results for the past 15 years,” he said, “and it shows that the bad stuff keeps going down and the good stuff is going up.”

Pollution at mill site could affect wildlife, water supply

By Mike Donovan

RUSSELL– A group of residents told the selectboard last week that pollution from the former Westfield River Paper Company mill on Station Road is leaching into the Westfield River and could destroy fish and other wildlife and threaten the town’s drinking water.
The mill, which closed in the early 1990s, manufactured glassine paper using chemicals and other materials that could have a wide range of health impacts, according to the group of a half-dozen town residents and Westfield residents Ed Ziskowski and his brother John, who is a chemist.
A member of the group, General Knox Road resident John Berry, told the selectboard that he visited that part of the river during the past summer to assess low water conditions, particularly when Indian River Hydro Operations opened a floodgate in the dam and drained the millpond for dredging work. Berry said that while viewing the area below the dam, he noticed discolored rocks and soil and puddles that appeared to have an “oil sheen.”
He enlisted help in collecting samples, which were submitted to Spectrum Analytical Inc. of Agawam for testing. The tests showed significant levels of contamination, detecting lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, barium, vinyl chloride and other pollutants. John Ziskowski said the cadmium and arsenic were well over the legal limit.
“The cadmium was 16 times the permissible level,” Ed Ziskowski said.
Berry said he’s worried the contamination could affect the town’s water supply because one of the town’s sources is on riverfront land a little over a mile downstream.
“The well at Strathmore Park is in a floodplain and all this ooze is going into the river,” he said.
Another General Knox Road resident, Pandora Hague, said the contaminated area was at first thought to be 50 to 60 feet long, but receding water levels ultimately revealed its length to be about 150 feet. She said she feels the Spectrum test results are more accurate than tests carried out by an engineering firm that has long been involved with the site, Tighe and Bond, of Westfield.
“They (Tighe and Bond) tested in the spring when the water was high,” she said, adding that further tests carried out in September were also unreliable due to rain.
Ed Ziskowski said he contacted the state Department of Environmental Protection, which was aware of the situation but uncooperative.
“They told me the problem had been remediated,” he said. “Then they told me they don’t want to test the site because it’s too dangerous.” While on the site, he added, he had a coughing fit that he feels might have been caused by the contaminants.
He suspects many of the pollutants are originating in the Westfield River Paper Company’s former landfill.
“I want to know where this stuff is coming from,” he said. “I think they put something in that landfill that they don’t want us to look at.” He noted too that the samples were collected professionally and analyzed by a company with no connection to the site. “We have impeccable information from Spectrum,” he said.
According to chemist John Ziskowski, the pollutants could affect not only wildlife, but people who eat fish caught in the river.
“Cadmium and lead would have a profound effect on fish,” he said, adding that other plants and animals could be affected by the pollution as well. “It could enter the food chain,” he said.
The samples showed high levels of sodium but it could have come from the town’s waste treatment plant, he said, which is located on the opposite side of the river. He noted, however, that two of the samples contained cancer-causing PCBs in “extremely high” concentrations.
Highland Avenue resident Ruth Kennedy said the site has a history of environmental violations going back to 1986, including multiple areas of soil contaminated by various kinds of petroleum products. “Tests indicate high concentrations of spilled oil,” she said.
According to Kennedy, 101 barrels of oil, some dented and leaking, were found during gravel removal a few years ago.
“Oil drums were buried all over the property,” she said. “Possibly more drums are buried out there.”
She added that sulfuric acid and two truckloads of electrical transformers were also disposed of improperly on the site. She suspects the property has passed inspections because inspectors from environmental firms “averaged out” contamination levels, balancing highly polluted areas with cleaner areas. “Ninety percent of the time the levels were just below the reporting numbers,” she said, referring to levels that would trigger notification of DEP.
She added that a series of six unlined “waste water lagoons” were also highly contaminated. Wastewater passed through the lagoons before it was discharged into the Westfield River.
“The landfill and lagoons had to be capped because they’re so toxic,” she said.
Berry, however, noted that the lagoons are unlined, permitting anything in them to percolate through the soil. “We know where it’s going to end up,” he said.
Kennedy said she had contacted the “spill response” division of the Superfund—a federal agency that deals with polluted properties—and they will investigate if the town makes a request. “They’ve already been called, so they’re just waiting for town officials to contact them and they’ll come in,” she said.
Hague said activity at the site should stop until the problems have been resolved. At present there is construction activity at the hydro plant and log sorting operations on land owned by Westfield Paperlands, which is owned by Bill Hull. It is also the site of the proposed Russell biomass LLC wood fired electric generating plant, in which Hull is a managing partner.
“This has to be dealt with,” Hague said. “If anyone builds on it the problems will get worse.”
Russell Biomass Public Information Officer John Bos said later that the company is well aware of pollution problems at the site. “It’s a brownfield site and Bill (Hull) has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars cleaning it up,” he said.
According to Bos, Hull removed fuel tanks, electrical transformers and other hazardous materials from the property long before the idea of the biomass plant came up. He added that all of the lagoons, or “settling basins,” are not on Hull’s land.
“He doesn’t own any property on the other (river, or east) side of the railroad tracks,” he said.
In an email this week, Hull said the property he owns has undergone three separate environmental remediation projects over the past 10 years. “These efforts were all conducted under the supervision of Tighe and Bond, were all successful and the land is now clean of any reportable matters,” he wrote.
Indian River Hydro Vice President David Hobbs said he also noticed the stained rocks, which were tested and found to be stained with an iron oxide that produces an oily sheen during high temperature/low water conditions. An engineer from Tighe and Bond did a quick field test that indicated the substance was not oil. The DEP ordered further tests that confirmed the results.
In general, Hobbs said DEP has given the property a clean bill of health. There has been “no leakage and no dumping” into the river, he said.

WiredWest moves forward in the Hilltowns

By Lisa Connell

GOSHEN– WiredWest delegate Bob Labrie attended the Sept. 11 Governance Meeting for WiredWest Town Delegates, and told the Goshen Selectboard on Monday night, what WiredWest has planned for the Hilltowns. WiredWest is an organization that is working to bring high-speed broadband Internet to the towns.
At the meeting, they discussed the “Municipal Lighting Plant and Municipal Lighting Plant Public Cooperative Governance Structure.”
Basically, according to Mass General Law, each town shall form a municipal lighting plant for the operation of telecommunications systems, a municipal lighting plant cooperative will be formed, and the cooperative will do business under the name of WiredWest.
In summary, Labrie said that a Municipal Lighting Plant would be something like what Holyoke has with its Holyoke Gas and Electric Company which is now offering telecommunications. The plant, will be like another department in town and the Selectboard would run it.
As to exactly what a “plant” would be, according to the WiredWest website it would be a minimal space for administration, and not a large expense to the towns. To create it, there needs to be two town meeting votes. Labrie said there has to be two votes so if people learn after the first vote that they don’t want it, they can drop out. The votes need to be by paper ballot and pass with a two-thirds majority.
After two yes votes, and the plant is created, the town can join the WiredWest Cooperative, and will be subject to the co-op agreement. The co-op will be operated according to Mass. General Law. There will be a $1,000 fee to join, and the fee would be used for operational expenses.
If there is a no vote, and the plant is tuned down, then the town can’t join the co-op for two years.
Labrie suggested having a special town meeting between now and the annual town meeting, and the second vote at the annual town meeting.
If it’s done this way, Goshen will be in on the ground floor and have more of a say.
But the town can also have one vote at the annual meeting, then the second at a special. It’s up to the Selectboard to decide.
WiredWest has people who will attend the meetings to explain things to the public. But Labrie said he and the Chesterfield representative would like to hold a joint Chesterfield and Goshen informational meeting.
Once the infrastructure is in place, then independent companies can bring their broadband services to town, which will offer people choices and lowered costs.
WiredWest would charge a usage fee to companies.
This is a very complex issue coming to the Hilltowns, so for those who want more information, check out the WiredWest website, and mare sure to attend the informational meetings as they occur.