SUDBURY – The town-owned Melone property, a former gravel pit on Rte. 117, is largely free of contaminants, although its soil does contain relatively low concentrations of arsenic, according to a draft report by a consultant.
Selectmen reviewed and discussed a six-page summary of the consultant’s findings at a public meeting Tuesday night, but the town has so far withheld the document from public release because it’s still a draft.
“There weren’t any really big surprises here,” Selectman Chairman Bob Haarde said at the meeting. “We did expect some arsenic to be on the property.”
GeoInsights Inc., the consultant, detected arsenic in the soil at concentrations between 2.84 and 20.8 milligrams per kilogram, Haarde said. Arsenic concentrations higher than 20 milligrams per kilogram must be reported to the state.
The absence of more widespread contamination – volatile organic compounds, such as chemicals used in paints, gasoline and solvents, were not detected, Haarde said – should make it easier to build recreational fields on the property, or to sell part or all of it to a developer.
The environmental report is a milestone in the board’s newly revived efforts to plan for the reuse of the 46-acre site straddling the Sudbury-Concord line, although it’s difficult to fully assess the significance of the findings before the report is made public.
"The draft report seems positive but I haven't reviewed it with the consultant or board of health yet," Town Manager Melissa Rodrigues said in an email Thursday.
Haarde intended to make the draft public Tuesday night, saying it would give residents the chance to offer feedback. But Rodrigues said draft reports were typically shielded from public view until she and her staff had the chance to check for inaccuracies.
(Documents discussed and distributed to elected officials at public board meetings are generally subject to public disclosure under the state’s open meeting law. Sudbury’s town counsel is reviewing the matter at the request of the Daily News.)
Last month, selectmen reviewed preliminary designs for recreational fields at the site. In addition to a 160-car parking lot, the property could support as many as two Little League Fields, four softball fields, two soccer fields and a Babe Ruth field, or four soccer fields and four softball fields.
But the Public Works Director Dan Nason cautioned the playing fields would strain his department’s budget and require the hiring of at least two additional maintenance workers.
Residents who gave feedback to the town also identified affordable housing, a commercial development, and a solar array as possible uses for the property. Many are concerned about traffic along Rte. 117.
Selectmen are expected to discuss the environmental report again on Jan. 23.
Jonathan Dame can be reached at 508-626-3919 or jdame@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DameReports