##VIDEO ID:MlQD7-SsqZw## welcome everyone this is the air Conservation Commission meeting it is Thursday September the 12th 2024 Commissioners and attendance this evening is Jemiah as member George bacon as member jessino member clerk Mark Phillips Vice chair myself John schmalenberger as chair and our conservation agent Heather hampon is not here this evening she's at a act to school with her kids um it's been a while since I've seen you guys it's nice to see you all we've all been missed I think we don't have to worry about confirmation of agenda since we only have one thing we have approval of the meeting minutes for August 22nd 2024 everyone have an opportunity to look at the minutes search for any mistakes found none found none good cuz I signed it already oh since I take the minutes I have to you is there a motion to to approve the meeting minutes for August 22nd 2024 as written so moved second all in favor say I I oppose nay passes unanimously this is the time of a our meeting for public input if there's anyone out there uh in the cheap seats that wants to make a a comment or has a question for us now is the time nope NOP no nope okay seeing none then we will shall move on first item this evening is the public hearing notice of intent we will open this notice of intent under the Wetland protection act and also under the air Wetlands bylaw D file number to be determined zero Bishop Road and zero Park Street New England Power Company for the expansion of an existing power substation work to include Wetland replication area compensatory flood storage area due to work in the wetlands and the 100-year flood plane would you like to join us please sure and state your names for the record thing than do it Brian Wentworth BC group welcome hi I'm Lindsay Carl BC group yeah we're here representing the applicant new Eng the power and could you just spell your last name yep c a r l e c a r l e and my first name spell with an E SE y got it thank you you just give us some information on your sure project so the project um is a is upgrade to the substation the electrical substation um the uh the physical address that the substation uses for Bishop Road um you know what's on file with the Assessor's Database uh what you mentioned in the in the Preamble is um zero zero Bishop Road zero Park Street are the two Parcels that comprise the site um but locally it's you know the fire department has it on file as for for Bishop Road so also known as for Bishop Road um so the project involves uh construction of additional substation electrical equipment um including a 13 KV substation yard a new Control building uh Transformers and capacitor Banks um it involves the expansion of the perimeter fence to accommodate the the additional equipment um and the expansion of the fence uh as you mentioned uh results in a fill of the Wetland along the um northern eastern side of the site along uh between the the existing yard and Park Street so it's about 3500 ft of of uh Wetland fill uh and as you mentioned we're um proposing a uh Wetland uh replication area uh adjacent to the to the Wetland uh that's being filled of 7,000 approximately 7,000 square ft uh which meets the the local bylaw 2:1 um ratio um the expansion of the substation also is is also being expanded on the um Northwest side uh along Bishop Road uh that involves the um removal of uh several mature pine trees those are outside the buffer zone but I figured I'd mention it um also included is the addition of a second entrance to the substation from Bishop Road uh the the second entrance is to facilitate um access the the way that the the new substation yard is proposed it limits access through the substation which is current currently exists um the the primary reason for that access being if they need to mobilize a a mobile substation um for a either a planned outage or an emergency outage um to you know maintain uh power at the substation or restore it quickly um um they need a a straight shot to get to the northeastern corner of the substation to park that and it's a large trailer needs to be backed in so that's kind of the primary reason for the additional um driveway uh let's see and then you mentioned the fill in the Wetland is also within the 100-year flood zone um Zone a uh BC did a an assessment engineering assessment of um of the area to determine the the base flood elevation um and that's all included in the letter that was attached to the noi uh as part of that you know we um are also proposing comp storage as you mentioned uh to offset those impacts uh that letter was submitted to the Building Commissioner um to satisfy the the the bylaw um uh relating to the um flood flood plane overlay District so said you're proposing storage offsite or uh it's onsite onsite okay in the same area as the Wetland replication so let's see anything else um just to note the um the the project is being reviewed by the planning board which I'm sure you're aware of um but site plan review uh special permit for the the height of the light specifically the lighting that's proposed specifically uh as well as a u storm water permit application and we've met with the planning board um received comments from the interde departmental review uh including from the from the Conservation Commission um and the the plan sets I wanted to note that the plan sets submitted with the noi address uh the majority of those comments so those have been revised since the uh submission to the planning board so we have the revised plans yes okay and those are we're preparing a uh comment response letter for the planning board uh that's being reviewed internally by the project team now and will be um sent to Danny and the and the planning board uh shortly hopefully this week anything else I think that's about it Commissioners have questions comments Jen no J justess oh save for the S sidewalk yep Mark a question section 2.1 of your no mhm you just go through um I'm trying to match up what you just described 3500 ft of wetland fill proposing 7,000 ft of replication sort of in the middle there it says um Wetland replication activities will provide adequate compensatory storage flood storage sorry to mitigate any detrimental Upstream Downstream impacts due to loss of flood storage project activities will impact the blsf by 7547 ft 9,485 cubic feet however the Wetland replication will create compensatory flood storage and provide a net increase of 12,000 273 this is different from the replication area am I just confusing terms I guess is what I'm wondering is the is the because you're saying we're going to do essentially 3500 Delta right 2:1 increase so 3500 ft when you had 3500 to you know to 7,500 should get you essentially to 11,000 but yet we're at 12,273 so I'm misunderstanding the numbers um yeah I'm not sure that I'm talking about sure thank you yeah what what area are you in Mark uh 2.1 2.1 page like A2 I think it might be is in the narrative the Nar after the WPA form the Wetland Bill versus yeah the I think that that refers to the cop storage the area that's that's um included in the comp storage I have the that planned here so you know we could we could double check the numbers but I I believe what's going on there reflecting this info yeah so the the actual the Wetland that will be created is somewhere in here and that's around 7,000 square ft is that right okay that would be like the 7500 we're talking about yeah and then beyond the Wetland you know the the flood the base flood elevation is is above the wet so there's a little bit of additional area that's that that um yeah Will Will Aid the okay the cop storage but this where the going to happen correct right and the we're taking it away from right here right here yeah the pink area okay yep park Bishop and then yeah so the existing fence line is right around here oh I thought we were going more into this area okay so I was confused so it's going over here oh with a gray Hatchet is is the expansion of the fence fence line so this is all the Wetland line is this dash line right here M the black one not the blue one the blue line is what we determined to be the flood zone elevation so so there's you know Wetland fill here and then this additional area here is not Wetland but it's um yeah blsf so I'm sorry can you point that out again so where's the Wetland delineation which one sure it's also if it's a little bit clearer on um it's right after the narrative a couple Pages after the narrative it's the uh environmental resources map okay it's I find it to be a bit clearer on where like things are um it looks like this got scr down I'm not an engineer so yeah okay yep so are are the green the green is the Wetland line there um that one does not I don't believe this is the wet one yeah the green shaded area or is this is this 50 that's the 50t no disturb the pink one's the 50 uh yes okay and then the Green's the 100 yes y gotcha there we go okay this is the way okay I honestly thought this whole area right there w that's that's why I was kind of questioning okay no problem so this is what was delineated the site visit what's that and said well that will be the site visit to see if we it pretty much valid is it's very I visited it today it's very thick vegetation right now it's also been extremely dry recently so should be good for the ticks the B ticks goodness we sprayed last night right oh Lord okay is that for ticks mosquitoes mosquitoes mosquito same thing K bees sure sure took care of some it does kill bees does I don't think they're spraying the sa stuff sorry no [Music] worries we digress no worries and what's this Blue Area what is this so the sliver here that blue slipper that's the hydrologic connection from the other C oh yep so is a stream that yeah comes through the C and I only just opening this now I couldn't get the other PDF open so I can't do it now so thank you yep no worries I met with our conservation agent today because I knew she wasn't going to be here I just wanted to get her thoughts uh if she had any concerns and she I guess I just like to tell you what they are if I may sure uh one of them is on this particular map yep there is what's what they call a ditch right here mhm which possibly is an intermittent stream but anyway at this end right here it's blocked off it's a covert that's there's a head wall yeah blocked off yep it's it's that needs to be opened up there there is accumulated siment that's blocking that Culvert um you know that was a comment that came in from DPW as well MH uh we're in discussion with DPW I talked to the town engineer Matt hearnen yesterday about it um New England power New England Po's position on it is is that it's not New England po Culvert and it you know we're they're concerned about about the age of the the infrastructure and you know touch having you know doing any sort of Maintenance to that Culvert you know and and having something happen then they're liable for it so right uh New England po power's position on it is that it's it's not their responsibility to clean that Culvert out okay that's a discussion for another time and different people but um that was one of her concerns understood though it it definitely you know is is is a concern ER for sure but yeah we we maintain that it's the town's responsibility to to clean that c out she sort of was thinking if it was a brook or something the town if it was a town Culvert then yes but since it's just to clarify for me that's it's you it's New England power uh property but the Culvert itself is the Culvert goes extends under Bishop Road and it actually extends probably a little over 100 ft onto the private property across Bishop Road the the industrial properties the um I think it's the the auto body shop and and then the other part U industrial property that's along Park Street goes across goes over or under Bishop Road you're saying not over or not under sorry not under Park Street okay correct road yeah if I misspoke no no that's fine I I would just make a try understanding okay y so it drains it drains towards the New England power property the substation property um you know the other part to it is that you know I I I believe that the sediment that's in that uh stream and and ditch it has nothing to do with the substation operations as well so that's our that's our position on it yeah yep to be determined the the uh that's the applicant's position y okay her other concern was the replication area and the compensatory flood storage is going to be basically in this area here yep and her thought was that there will be there's going to be a lot of trees taken out to put in the replication and is that really the best thing to do to take out trees to put in trees it's like yeah that's her thought and should it be here should it be someplace else yeah and and um I I spoke with with Heather yesterday as well to kind of get um get her thoughts on that as well and you know we've we've talked among the team as well and I know our our field staff that was out there noted that there are um you know there are some valuable species in there but there are a lot of invasive species as well did you remember what the names were I saw today just from a quick look um uh the grape vine buckthorne Oriental um I'm sorry what bitter bit sweet thank that's it um there are some there's a it's mostly dominated by shrubs I know that in the noi we had about like 20 tree removals um 12 in the 50t 8 in in the 50 to 100t um but it is mostly shrub and it's a good mix of invasives and natives naves being Arrowwood some red maple shrubs right so yeah we we discussed the comment that that Heather provided yesterday to us over the phone and um you know we we think it will be an overall benefit uh to the area to remove those invasives and you know we've got a a pretty healthy um planting plan proposed in the in the noi so you know and it it as you can see from that whole area is very very heavily vegetated um you know we think it'll grow back um quickly and and just be uh better off for it so we'd like to to keep it there if if possible is this the added entrance you're talking about here yes [Music] okay anyone else have any comments or concerns right now which map is that two that's a figure from the uh from the flood plane assessment which was an attachment a letter attachment to the noi so it's that one in particular is not in the site plan set just to be clear so I'd like to do a site walk go out there and take a look sure um we have a s sidewalk this Saturday if if that works would it work if that works for you that work for us just run it out there it's not it's pretty soon but yeah it may be short notice I know each of us a couple hours away so yeah yeah oh yeah um okay yeah when is Paul back do you know the 28th is a Saturday Okay so he's he's gone for a couple of weeks all right so he's out the 28th so like two weeks yeah so um so he gets back on the 28th yes yeah so but we can he it doesn't need to be Paul I think that attends the site um we can get you know coverage the following week not this week but the following um I can Saturday oh is it always Saturdays yeah people work some of so do I thank you I you get overtime for it so that's nice um I need to look I don't know okay yeah so but you know I can do the 28th yeah we um is that too far out do you want to do closer than the 28th or is a 28th good for for you all mhm I think so yeah I think so will you need access to the substation or just around the park street we did do a site visit with the planning board um a couple of weeks ago and and we just went around the outside okay yeah I don't think we need to enter yeah all right so the uh 9:00 yeah no how far you coming away New Bedford which is how far um it was about 2 hours well we do 8:00 8:00 I'll take nine okay you uh we could do it later if you want whatever is convenient for you folks so just quick question though um so that'll be again still post our next meeting any when is mergency required be two weeks from today our next meeting is the 26th yeah I guess that that's I'm trying I was trying to think through the my brain is like half as sleep um so if it's not this Saturday next Saturday might be useful so that at the next meeting we could have discussion about what we saw I think we would like to yeah and it would be our goal to try and close everything out that week of the 24th uh I believe there's a meeting on the 20 the next meeting is 24th 6th 26th oh the planning board is 24th so 24th and 26th we're kind of targeting to hopefully close things out so then we be looking at Saturday the 21st week from this Saturday yeah why don't we um schedule that in I guess and then we'll we'll find coverage okay for somebody to to come out here sounds good you can't do it I can't do it the 21st the 21st so 9:00 will'll be good yes any time that's good for you folks I know you're the decision the backup's coming from great bar right all right let's do that uh we'll do a site walk on the 21st at 9 a.m. good to go oh yeah no yeah yeah oh just wasn't going to close it out just yet public input did you have a comment or Ruth no okay um then um I guess we'll we'll see you all on the 21st and then again on the 26th okay of September do you know how long D has been taking to get numbers how long y I was seems like it's been pretty long okay although the one that took so long they had messed up how they submitted things so yeah it might be faster yeah what you've had I was just surprised when I just checked earlier today that I guess that's a a good point and and a question for you know if that number has not been issued is it is is it possible to approve and close the hearing at the next meeting or does the file number need to be issued I think we need a number don't we yeah we need a number okay sorry I we can get it all ready to go but you could call D and try to facilitate things yeah okay okay that would all right sounds good thanks very much all right well thank no thank you very much too appreciate it yeah have a safe drive thank you very much have a safe drive do you want a leaky pen oh no I'm upset I is there a motion to continue the public hearing notice of intent D file number 2 be determined 0 Bishop Road 0o Park Street until our next meeting which is September 26th move second all in favor say I I oppose nay you're on the agenda thank you thank you very much have a great night me too good night night uh any conservation member updates nope nope nope nope that is it a Newton Street thing going on the 14 fth yeah fifth yeah yeah unfortunately I'm not going to be able to do that I was hoping I could do that I'm going to be in Ohio at that point in time uh H oh yeah so if anyone can help Heather on that day would be greatly appreciated 10 to right yeah I can't do the whole time but I B of it yeah Superman going to be there I'm going to try and show up as well I'll be sad if you don't I'm try and show okay you going to do you think you might be able to do the whole day no not the whole day but I can at least do like 10 to 12 or 10 to 2 or something okay that's I was thinking maybe I stopping in the morning at least help her set up we'll see well we're we can talk about it at our next meeting to finalize the dates but I can do at least some of it yeah and I you wait a minute it's 105 4 no no no but it's on 105 October 5th y I might not I just realized I remembered something we'll talk about it at our next meeting that's good anything else any updates comments nope nope nope NOP motion to adjourn soov second all in favor say I I oppose nay passes unanimously