(The following story by Mary E. Arata appeared on the Nashoba Publishing website on September 28, 2009.)
AYER, Mass. — Paving was about 75 percent complete at the 26-acre rail yard under construction off Willow Road in Ayer, according to Ayer DPW Supt. Dan Nason last Wednesday afternoon.
Nason fielded questions from the Ayer Board of Selectmen Sept. 23 when the board called a special meeting after it was discovered that Pan Am Railway began paving in the preceding days without the required storm water management systems in place.
The train-to-truck auto transfer facility is the first portion to be developed of a larger 125-acre parcel owned by Billerica-based railway. The rail yard, with parking for 828-cars, is to be operable by year’s end. The facility will be co-run in a joint venture with Norfolk, Virginia-based Norfolk Southern Railway (collectively known as “PAS”). It’s anticipated Ford Motor Company will distribute its vehicles from the site.
The site is graded at a slight pitch towards catch basins that will ultimately send rain and storm water runoff through filtration devises to capture sedimentation, oils, or any other suspended contaminants flowing over the pavement. As it sits, there is no such protection in place as paving proceeds. The heightened concern is that the rail yard sits atop the town’s zone 2 aquifer protection district. Zone 2 wells, which provide 60 percent of Ayer’s drinking water, are located a short walk away from the site.
Pan Am proceeded to pave some two weeks after Nason rejected the company’s request earlier this month to use cheaper filtration devises. The original devices, which had both DEP and EPA approval, are now on order but are some 4-6 weeks away from arrival and installation, said Nason.
Selectmen briefly flirted with the idea of seeking an injunction against Pan Am to shut down the paving work until the devises are in place. But selectmen listened as Nason cautioned against a legal show down, “If we stop it now, what are we left with?” Nason warned of the potential consequences of leaving exposed “vast open pavement” during any length of time if a protracted battle were to ensue.
The town is bound by a 17-point Consent Decree, mutually entered into with the rail company in 2003. The agreement halted litigation Pan Am launched to challenge dozens of restrictions town boards imposed on the project more than a decade ago. Mindful of the agreement, Chairman Cornelius “Connie” Sullivan strongly suggested that any letter of displeasure sent to Pan Am should carefully “mimic the Consent Decree language” in that “no operations” of the facility should start without the storm water devises in place.
The selectmen then pondered what constitutes ‘operations,’ Is the act of paving an operation? Is Pan Am’s planned October 6 marketing event at the site an operation? Or is it the arrival of the first locomotives pulling the first rail cars full of new automobiles for tractor-trailer transport? Casting a wide net, Selectman Gary Luca suggested that the letter to Pan Am state “before off-loading anything, conditions need to be met.”
Another concern is that truckloads of reclaimed, crushed concrete are being spread in small sections as a base before being paved-over. Nason said the town’s licensed site professional, Richard Dohorty, has therefore asked for samples for testing to ensure the concrete is otherwise clean of, “VOCs, pollutants, metals, chlorides – anything that would suggest its from a site that it shouldn’t be.”
Nason said Pan Am has not offered to provide samples. Rather the company has indicated that they’d provide the town with a statement that the materials are coming from Aggregate Industries.
In good news, Nason said that Pan Am has agreed to double from 80 to 150 feet the length of track which they’d line to capture spills. It’s hoped such a membrane would trap any diesel fuel spilt while locomotives idle or park.
Because Pan Am has provided information and access to town officials during the construction process, Selectman Jim Fay urged a lighter touch when lodging a complaint with the rail company,
“I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by shutting them down,” said Fay, “I don’t want to shut down that good line of communications.