Mitigation, Wellheads and Profits Among Questions for Nstar

The trees are gone, but the questions remain.

Monday night Wayland’s Board of Selectmen discussed the myriad of questions it wants to pose to Nstar representatives when they return to Wayland for a public meeting on Wednesday, July 18.

The bulk of the trees and vegetation have already been area, but Nstar has said it plans to mitigate that removal through stump grinding and plantings in previously landscaped areas that were cleared.

Residents whose property was dramatically affected when Nstar cleared the easements, however, are still seeking specifics when it comes to that mitigation, future plans for the area and the impact on Wayland’s Meadowview wells, which were in the path of the recent clearing.

“One of our efforts next week will be trying to get them to provide specific documentation of the plan and a timeframe,” Town Administrator Fred Turkington said. Last week, Turkington and selectmen Steve Correia met with Sudbury and Framingham officials to discuss the Nstar clearing operation that has affected residents in all three towns.

Turkington said the three towns met to “Compare and contrast notes to ensure that all of us were receiving the same information.”

According to Turkington, he has already asked Nstar to be prepared at the July 18 meeting to discuss potential herbicide treatment, wellhead protection issues and the assurances it can offer regarding the promised mitigation efforts.

“What Nstar is going to ante up, if you will, to provide some assurances to neighbors for the mitigation?” Turkington asked, explaining that residents have expressed concern that now that the vegetation is cleared, there is nothing to hold Nstar to its promise to mitigate the lost vegetation. “I think we’re going to have to hold their feet to the fire in terms of providing documentation.”

Selectmen Ed Collins, a lawyer, said he was concerned about the mitigation efforts, but also had concerns about whether Nstar had followed all the proper guidelines and steps when it came to providing notification to affected residents and the town about the planned vegetation maintenance.

“I don’t know whether the appropriate notices has in fact been given by Nstar,” Collins said, asking Turkington to follow up with town counsel specifically regarding the notification guidelines. “Nstar may have an awful lot to answer for before this is ended.”

Resident Linda Segal, who served on the town’s now-dissolved Wellhead Protection Committee, also raised several points of concern regarding Nstar’s impact on the Meadowview wells area. According to Segal, the utility parked heavy equipment in the restricted well area overnight and even left behind fuel-stained mats.

Segal asked that Nstar be pressed to provide funding for soil and water testing in the well area as well as funds to test the integrity of the underground pipes and equipment that could have been damaged as heavy equipment traveled across it.

She also asked whether Wayland could band together with other nearby towns to create regulations preventing Nstar from using Roundup or other herbicides in the transmission line easement, which the utility has said it plans to do in the future.

Turkington took notes as Segal and other residents spoke up. He said that he wanted to present these questions to Nstar ahead of next Wednesday’s meeting, so that representatives would know the items they would be expected to address.

In addition to the impact on the land and the various mitigation efforts, resident Allen Dines, who attended the meeting with a picket-line style sign showing before and after images of the clear-cutting, raised the question of money being made from the removed trees.

“Hundreds of trees have been taken,” Dines said. “But I’m trying to figure out who’s profiting from them? Where is that money going? It seems to me the most basic question.” 

Several selectmen expressed a desire to answer as many questions as possible and take as many steps as possible to prevent a similar situation in the future on other transmission line easements in Wayland.

“It will have an impact on a larger number of Wayland residents than just this neighborhood if they [Nstar] approach this in the same manner in the future,” Turkington said, mentioning the transmission lines that run through town center and that he expects will come under Nstar’s clear-cutting policy at some point.

Residents of Wayland, as well as officials and residents from Sudbury and Framingham, are invited to attend the July 18 meeting with Nstar representatives at the . The meeting will take place as part of a Board of Selectmen meeting and will begin at 7:30 p.m.