Selectmen review proposed changes to sewer regulations

By Melissa Fales
Reporter (mfales@turley.com)

WARE – The Board of Selectmen held a public hearing July 21 to consider proposed updates to the town’s sewer bylaw and regulations. Attorney George A. Hall, Jr. of the Cambridge firm Anderson and Kreiger explained these updates are needed because the town’s current regulations, adopted in 1984, are not compliant with current Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) requirements. “Federal requirements have changed quite a lot since the mid-1980s,” Hall said.
Under the charter, the selectmen have the authority to change the sewer regulations as the town’s Water and Sewer Commissioners. However, the proposed amendments to the town’s sewer bylaw would need to be approved by voters at a town meeting. This public hearing was the first step in the process of getting the amendments on the warrant for the Special Town Meeting in the fall.
The sewer bylaw outlines the town’s authority to levy assessments and its basis for making assessments for sewer extensions. According to Hall, there are two methods for towns to determine betterment fees for a new sewer extension; one simply uses straight footage and the other uses a formula that factors in development potential. Ware currently uses, and will continue to use the frontage method.
One proposed change to the sewer bylaw is to require a signed petition of at least 75 percent of the homeowners in a neighborhood before a sewer line is extended into that neighborhood, unless an exception is needed in case of a public health emergency or a state or federal requirement. Hall also recommended including a provision that would offer some financial relief to elderly residents who must pay a betterment fee.
The most significant proposed change to the bylaw would require homeowners to pay 100 percent of the cost of entering into the sewer system. The current bylaw requires homeowners to pay just 50 percent of the cost, which Hall said was unrealistic for the times. “In the current economic climate there are very, very few towns that can afford to do that,” Hall said. “Most towns are expecting the residents to pick up 100 percent.” He acknowledged that residents might balk at asking homeowners to assume the full cost, making it harder for the bylaw to be approved at town meeting.
Many of the proposed changes to the sewer regulations are mandatory operational E.P.A. requirements. “Another important piece of this was to conform the enforcement provisions to those established by the E.P.A. and set penalties consistent with Massachusetts General Law,” said Hall.
Town Manager Mary T. Tzambazakis asked if Hall could provide a comparative analysis sheet, showing the differences between the old regulations and the new ones being proposed. Hall said he could provide that information, but said the old regulations were so out of date, they effectively started from square one, working with a list of recommendations from engineering firm Weston and Sampson of Foxboro.
The 49 pages of proposed regulations contain 17 sections including general provisions that apply to all users, definitions and abbreviations. The regulations outline everything from sewer connection permits to pre-treatment of wastewater and from compliance monitoring to judicial enforcement. The proposed draft currently lacks specifics that have yet to be determined by the town, such as the fees for permits and entry into the system.
At the suggestion of Selectman William R. Braman, the proposed changes to the bylaw and regulations will be turned over to Department of Public Works Superintendent Gilbert St.George-Sorel and Tzambazakis who will work collaboratively with the sewer committee to review them and work out the specific fee structure. The public hearing will be continued when a final draft of the proposed changes is ready. Tzambazakis suggested a 30 day timeframe for that task.

Put in harm’s way – 747th MPs deploy to Iraq

Citizen Kane

SPRINGFIELD – Military deployments are so common in our wartime society that some citizens have developed a bit of tin ear when it comes to recognizing how incredibly brave these men and women are for leaving loved ones and careers behind, and how strong family and friends remain for enduring their long absences.
In the case of Ware’s own 747th Military Police Company – one of the oldest battalions in US Army history – that fateful day came Tuesday for 176 soldiers inside the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield.
For this writer and young father of two baby boys, the solemn moment hit hard after the ceremony when families and friends bid farewell on the stadium floor. A 30-something soldier was carrying his own toddler son tightly in his arms. His son had fallen asleep during the ceremony. The dad looked so very proud but also sad and nervous. He won’t see or feel his little boy or wife in person for 12 months. He could miss those first precious spoken words, success in potty training, and his first kick at a soccer ball. He will definitely miss his son’s next birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas at home.
All this, so he can serve his country in a yearlong mobilization order as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 747th’s activation is no mistake. A recent major policy change by President Barack Obama to withdraw American soldiers out of Iraq’s cities and major towns and supplant security in these areas with Iraq police and non-American security teams drive the MP’s core mission. According to Maj. Gen. Joseph Carter, who leads the Massachusetts National Guard Reserve, the unit will be responsible for training police departments throughout the province in their area of operations.
Ware resident 1st Sgt. Michael J. Domnarski leads the 747th MP Company.
“What we do is about leadership and fellowship,” said Lt. Col. Richard Johnson, who spent 18 years serving in this battalion. “The most basic tenet is to do the right thing. Leadership is not about the rank on your uniform.”
By a show of hands at the request of Johnson, at least half of the 747th MPs present Tuesday were deployed during 2002 and 2003 to Kabul, Afghanistan, where they provided security and assisted in training Afghan Army units.
More than 50 percent of the 176 soldiers leaving for pre-Iraq deployment training at Fort Dix in New Jersey on Wednesday, July 8 – a base made famous for training doughboys for duty in World War I in 1917 – live in Ware and surrounding towns, according to public affairs officer Maj. James J. Sahady Jr. We see them in plains clothes at the supermarket, bank and restaurant every day. They will be putting themselves in harm’s way in a few short weeks.
We wish them Godspeed, a safe and effective mission, and speedy return to American shores.
As Gen. Carter said to me after the procession, “this mission is about developing a repport with the Iraqi counterparts. It is the biggest first challenge for the troops.”
Developing a repport with our local men and women in uniform is our civic responsibility.

– Tim Kane is editor of the Ware River News and Quaboag Current.

Kanzaki responds to DEP demand

By Tim Kane
Staff Writer
tkane@turley.com

WARE – A firm hired by Kanzaki Specialty Papers, Inc. has found prior remedial activities at the company’s disposal site pose “no significant risk” in an audit assessment required by the state.
Pioneer Environmental Inc. issued the post audit completion statement and revised risk assessment on behalf of Kanzaki to Thomas Keefe of the state Department of Environmenta l P r o t e c t i o n ’ s (DEP) Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup on May 26, 2009.
The 26-page document that the original disposal site was created by Kanzaki’s predecessor, Ludlow Specialty Papers, which operated the business from the 1920s through the late 1980s. This risk assessment relates to a hazardous materials release discovered in March 2006, which was allegedly caused by a wastewater lagoon that ceased operation in the early 1980s.
In letters to both Ware Selectmen and Board of Health
dated June 5, Pioneer Environmental, Inc. President Peter J. Levesque wrote that remediation efforts at Kanzaki’s disposal site have found a “permanent solution” with “no significant risk posed.”
Peter Sawosik, Kanzaki’s vice notice of non-compliance from Eva V. Tor, deputy director of the DEP’s western regional office, on Feb. 24, 2009.
Tor said her department has determined that response actions at the site by Kanzaki were not performed in compliance with the requirements of the Massachusetts Contingency Plan. That declaration forced the company to conduct the risk characterization.
Specifically, the DEP stated that Hexavalent Chromium was detected at a concentration of 100 milligrams per kilogram in a soil sample collected from the disposal site on March 31, 2006.
However, the company’s previous risk characterization did not describe the extent of Hexavalent Chromium contamination in soil and groundwater at the disposal site, which can cause cancer in high exposure amounts.
“The source of the ‘brightly-colored,’ metals-contaminated soil was attributed to the operation of the former wastewater lagoon,” said Tor. “ The assessment and evaluation of the composition and nature of the metals release did not include elements known to have been associated with the operation of the former wastewater lagoon, specifically antimony, tin, and zinc. The disposal site must be evaluated for potential antimony, tin, and zinc contamination.”
In its findings released this month, Pioneer Environmental stated that 23 samples collected through excavation and groundwater monitoring determined that using an EPA testing method for all Chromium found the highest concentration well below maximum percentages allowed under state and federal standards.
Laurel Drive residents, who directly abut the company’s property, have been concerned for years with alleged strange illnesses occurring on the street, along with excessive noise from truck idling and flooding episodes. After the Ware Board of Health and Planning Board intervened last fall, Kanzaki completed erecting an 8-foot tall wooden fence along much of the property abutting the neighborhood where 25 homes exist. One neighbor two months ago told this newspaper that noise has diminished greatly as a result of the fencing.
Still, Deborah Gratton, spokeswoman for the concerned neighborhood group, remains skeptical of the new audit report and awaits DEP’s response to it.
“It has been a frustrating cycle and ride,” Gratton said on Tuesday. “DEP issued an audit on Kanzaki for the contamination found when they excavated before building that infiltration that broke and flooded our homes.”
She further alleged that DEP auditors have stated that they could see colored soils in residents’ pictures, indicating a “new incident,” meaning a hazardous material spill consistent with contamination. She also claims truck idling continues to be a problem.
Neighbors remain weary of the new report, given some feel contaminants have leeched away from the former wastewater lagoon into their own groundwater tables.
Last year’s flooded basements, which were caused by a Kanzaki subcontractor, was documented by environmental engineer Thomas Hogan III, an area firm vice president who lives on the street. He asked the planning board in a Sept. 30, 2008 letter to hire an outside consultant to take subsurface groundwater and soil samples to identify the extent of contaminants that may have migrated from the plant into the surrounding neighborhood after the flood.
The group claims that elevated concentrations of the chemical Toluene have been found in one of several DEP monitoring wells placed on and around the property. Inhalation of toluene is known to be intoxicating, but in larger doses nausea-inducing – similar to health complaints alleged by several neighbors, including Gratton’s mother.
“This subsurface stormwater system failure, combined with the previously known presence of subsurface contamination in the vicinity of the failed system, has caused neighborhood residents to be especially concerned for the safety of our families,” Hogan wrote.
Grattton said the group is beginning to line up lawyers in Boston.