[Denis MacDougall]: Hi everyone, welcome to the Conservation Commission meeting. My name is Dennis Wachugo, I'm the Environmental Agent for the City, and I just want to read a notice first, and then we will begin the meeting. On July 16, 2022, Governor Baker signed into law an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations, which among other things, extends the expiration of provisions that came into the Open Meeting Law, March 31, 2023. specifically this extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings. The act does not make any new changes to the open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary provisions regarding remote meetings from July 15th, 2022 to March 31st, 2023. Thank you, Dennis.
[Heidi Davis]: Good evening, everybody. Thanks for attending tonight. Before we begin with the presentation for the project before us, we have some minutes to approve from our last hearing. Has everyone had a chance to review those minutes? Yes. Dennis, there was one small correction that Heather suggested. Were you able to incorporate that?
[Unidentified]: I was, yes.
[Heidi Davis]: Great, thank you. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes?
[Marie Izzo]: I will offer a motion to approve the minutes as amended by Heather's note. And I'll second that.
[Heidi Davis]: Great, great. Thank you, I'll take a roll call. Craig?
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Heidi Davis]: Heather? Aye. Eric?
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Heidi Davis]: And myself, an aye. Great, so minutes are approved from our last hearing. And so I presume that you'll have a brief presentation for us tonight, or a not so brief presentation as the case may be. Who is going to speak for Medford Housing Authority? or are all of you going to speak?
[Ciccariello]: Hey, good evening, Heidi. I'm Gabe Ciccarello. I'm the Director of Modernization and Procurement with the Medford Housing Authority. It's nice to see you all this evening. Thank you for meeting with us. So yeah, I think I'm gonna start and give just a brief overview of the project and just of the Medford Housing Authority, what we do, if any of you are not familiar with the Medford Housing Authority. And then I will turn it over. So, as part of it's a small part of a large team that we have for the comprehensive modernization of salt install, we have Tom Hughes joining us tonight he's the environmental consultant. Steve Sawyer, he is a civil engineer for the project, Curtis puncher who is our landscape architect. And we have Dan Shannon Ben Wilson they're both with argument Hendry plus archetype or in short ph plus a, they are the designers for the project. As I stated I'm Gabe Chicago, the director of modernization and procurement with Medford housing. I've been in public housing for about 20 years 15 of those years were with the some of the housing authority and I've been Medford for about five years. We're coming before you because of for the comprehensive modernization the salt install building. It's currently a 200 unit 11 story high rise building. We are looking to do a perform a complete gut modernization of the building. The building's currently laid out as 181-bedroom units and 22-bedroom units. Our main administration offices are also located within the Saltonstall building on 121 Riverside Ave. Our main maintenance kind of operation is also performed out of the Saltonstall building. This all-install building was built between 1963 and 1965. It has not been comprehensively modernized since then. The electrical is all original. The plumbing within the walls is original. The ventilation in the building is lagging. And as I stated, this gut modernization will be replacing all the plumbing, all the electrical. We'll be bringing central air conditioning and heating to the building. We're replacing the entire facade of the building. The brick will be coming off. It'll be recladded. It's a complete transformation of the building. The first floor, common spaces, community rooms, our administration offices, everything is being modernized. Any questions before I turn it over to Tom Hughes regarding like, I want to let him and the civil and landscape architects describe more of the site stuff that's going to be going on. Go ahead, Heather.
[Heather]: I just have a quick question. When is this slated to begin and how long is this project intended to go on?
[Ciccariello]: So we are looking to financially close on the project in February of 23 and start construction soon thereafter. We have an anticipated completion date of about June of 2025. So we're looking at about two and a half years of construction. And it's going to be a rolling construction process. It's gonna be occupied construction. We're starting from the top floors on the 11th and 10th, ninth floor, and then working our way down. We are in the process of vacating those floors right now. And as the 11th and 10th floors get complete, residents from seventh, eighth, and ninth will move up. And then we'll work our way down all the way through the building. And there will be a buffer floor between construction and where the residents are living. So we anticipate having two active floors of construction with a buffer floor. So we're always going to try to have three floors in play. So the start construction would take place on the 10th and 11th floor with the ninth floor as the buffer. And we would have residents living from the eighth floor on down to the second floor. The first floor is just common spaces and administrative office and maintenance spaces.
[Heather]: Thank you.
[Ciccariello]: You're welcome, Heather. Okay.
[Heidi Davis]: Thank you, Gabe, for that summary.
[Ciccariello]: You're welcome. Nice to see you, Heidi. Nice to see you.
[Tom Hughes]: So good evening. My name is Tom Hughes. I'm with Hughes Environmental Consulting. And what I'd like to do is just give you a quick overview of the work, the resource areas present, and just kind of general terms go over the project, then I'll turn it over to the landscape architect to talk about the plantings and the riverfront and buffer areas, and then turn it over to Steve Sawyer to go through the stormwater.
[Steve Sawyer]: actually, Tom. Actually, Dennis, is there a way I could be allowed to share, have privilege to share screens?
[Tom Hughes]: And to avoid switching back and forth between shared screens, Steve's going to run the presentation throughout much of it. We may end up going over to the landscape architects for a more detailed review of that plan. So, the picture before you is actually a good 1 to start with. That's you can see the salt install the big wide that is actually outside of jurisdiction. But along with all those improvements that gave 1 over for the, for the building. What we're looking at is the need, the grounds themselves also are in need of improvements for both parking capacity, for traffic flow, for just generally providing better services to the building. In addition, as Steve will talk to you about, the current stormwater is antiquated and has a lot of room for improvement and we plan on on improving it with the room allowed. So, if we can go to the next slide, just for formalities, the Salt and Sols, the site is located along the Mystic River. It's right next to I-93. I'm sure you guys all know it and probably see it on a regular basis. If we can go to the next slide. Okay, this is 2021 Ariel. You can see the mystic on your right. The slope to the mystic, as I'll show you some better pictures in a minute, is a riprap slope. There's a paved walkway that runs through the lawn area. You can see the botchy courts down there next to the parking. My understanding is this is a DCR approved path that will be going in along the mystic. And there is currently a, and we can get to this, we'll get to the plans, but there's a paved swale that runs right along where, where Steve is moving the cursor right there and basically just sends water directly into the mystic. Okay, next. So the site right along the Mystic is floodway. Beyond that, it's what we used to refer to as a 500-year flood event. I think it's just easier to say that, but it's a 0.2% chance of flood, not considered bordering land subject to flooding, but it is certainly an area during a severe storm that might be at risk. This is a portion of the Mystic, as I think you all know, that's upstream of the Amelia Era Dam. If we can go down to the next. So, just giving you some oblique images of the site from different angles. This is a view from the north. You can see the highway to the left. The assault installed building that's going to be renovated the parking areas that kind of surround it. The lawn area down to down to the mystic. Okay, next to view from the East similar just kind of gives you another perspective. Why don't we just continue to move through. View from the south, again, Mystic in the foreground. 93 is off on the right. And again, you've got the building and the gazebo, both are pretty much original equipment on the site. And again, one more view. So let's go on to the next slide. Can you zoom out a little bit here? So basically we've got two primary resource areas here. One is riverfront and the other is inland bank. And at one time it was presumably coastal bank before the dam. But when you look at the structure under the bridge, you can clearly see water staining. You can also follow that water staining along the riprap slope. It's really pretty evident. If we go to the next picture. Again, you can kind of see it, you have to sort of step back and then look at the rocks, but you can clearly see a stain line, which is pretty much the sort of maximum annual water level that I would interpret there. So we've used that line to come up with our mean high water line. Flags were placed by another wetland scientist before I became involved at the top of slope. We've held that line for the bank flags. I think it's a little conservative, but that's fine. We can go on to the next. Here's just another view down. You can kind of see the water staining. You've got a darker stain, and then above it a slightly lighter stain, and we went with the slightly lighter stain above that. Okay, next. Okay, so here's a view just kind of looking along. The Mystic is to your left. You can see the paved walkway, the lighting. The gazebo is out of view on your right. The bocce court is on the other side of the parking lot, kind of on the other side of that maroon car there. If we can go to the next. Here's a view sort of towards the Salton Stall. You can kind of see the one small cluster of trees that's present on the site. We can go on to the next. I'm just kind of swinging the camera a little bit to the right as I go, same view. And then this is just kind of the last view, and this is sort of towards the right-hand side of the structure in an area where we're proposing sort of a staging area for maintenance that you'll see on those site plans. You can go to the next one, Steve. All right, Steve, if you can view in. Now, a significant part of this site is also filled tidelands. And we've been in touch with the Chapter 91 program, and those portions of the project that fall within the filled tidelands will require a Chapter 91 approval. So while the riverfront area, which you can see down in blue, the outer riverfront, and then the inner riparian there, The work that's within that, that is subject to chapter 91, falls under an exemption within the riverfront regs. But we're making an improvement, in my view, to the riverfront throughout the site, regardless of chapter 91 status. The other thing you'll see there is a green line, which is the 100-foot buffer zone to bank. You'll notice that's a little bit further inland. That's because we held the top-of-slope bank flags for the inland bank. And what you'll see is you see that, if we can go to the proposed, Steve?
[Unidentified]: Just, I think, a site overview.
[Tom Hughes]: So what we've done is we've reconfigured parking, reconfigured sort of the overall landscape and everything, moved the bocce courts down closer to the Mystic, and we have provided some public parking spaces, which are right in that area there. and a path from that area that will connect with the DCR path. So we're trying to provide some public amenity here that is directly connected to what DCR is doing in terms of the path. Steve will go over the stormwater improvements, but basically we're getting rid of the paved soil. We're getting rid of sort of this daisy chain of stormwater structures that provide really little treatment, if any, and providing some stormwater treatment in two different infiltration basins. We are doing a whole bunch of landscaping, which I'll go over with you in a second. We're getting rid of the gazebo, which is just outside the riverfront. And overall, we're getting rid of a lot of pavement that is in the riverfront and consolidating much of the sort of paved portion of the riverfront alteration off on that left-hand side. And it just so happens that that is also within the filled tidelands area as well. So that is the portion that would fall within the exemption on the riverfront regs. The biggest alterations we've really got proposed in the riverfront that is subject to to review under the Rivers Act is the removal of pavement and the installation of the stormwater. features, and I would argue based on the site topography and overall sort of site schematics, there's not really much alternative for locations for those bases. So, again, there is a provision where you don't consider the stormwater structures and alteration if there's no reasonable alternative to those. But overall, the project, and when we go through the landscape plan, you'll see that we're adding an awful lot of plants into that riverfront area, into the buffer area. And that will, in large part, improve function, but the biggest improvement is really through stormwater improvements that I think go, you know, go pretty far for a redevelopment project. With that, what I'd like to do is is turn it over to Kurt for the review of the landscape portion of the project.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Hi, thanks for having us. I think I'll start with the, I'll do a sort of broad strokes over the whole site and then sort of focus on the Riverside area. So we are improving sort of the approach to the building from Riverside Avenue as well as from the back parking lot with a lot of planting. Much of it is native planting and we are adding a lot of trees to the site. The sort of concept is the river. You can see these sort of, you know, curve, lots of curves and this sort of, the building is really the center of where these curves end up. There is a, There's a sort of a small outdoor amenity space on the east side of the building, improved approaches on the north and the west. And then of course on the south, we were sort of trying to create a node, sort of an amenity node along this improved DCR path. So Steve, if you could pan over. Yeah, great. So we're getting rid of the sort of the closed loop of the site because we have this DCR path coming in. We do want to open up the site to people traveling along the river. We have access to this back area from Riverside. So there's a couple ways people could get through the site to get to the Mystic. And a lot of that we've tried to make, you know, at least like a 10-foot sidewalk to get through the site. So it's an obvious sort of public right-of-way. And then, as Thomas mentioned, we are shifting the bocce courts closer to the river, closer to this VCR path. And we do see this as sort of a node along this DCR pathway that people will notice, they'll stop, hopefully they'll hang out. There is a trellis as well to the north of, yeah, so it's sort of an overhead trellis, the seating, a combination of sort of tables and chairs as well as benches. In terms of planting, there are 17 new trees going into the sort of 20-foot riparian area. That clump of trees that you saw in earlier slides in the photos, you'll see on the top there, we wanted to save that clump. So we are working around that. All of the trees that we're planting are native. It's a mix of red maples, red oaks, black gum, Nyssa sylvatica, as well as some white pine. In addition to the trees, there's about 4,000 square feet of planting going along the paths there. It's a mix of woody shrubs and grasses. We didn't want to put in too much stuff that was the high maintenance. So everything is native except for one clump of 13 hydrangeas. We're not married to the hydrangeas. They're not invasive. They're not going to go anywhere. But if having a non-native species in there is an issue, we're happy to swap them out. In the bio-retention area on the west part of the site, we are proposing a bio-retention seed mix as well as planting. So the seed mix is from prairie nurseries. I don't know if you know it, but it's like dozens of native perennials And the idea is that it's a bit more of a sort of naturalized area. It might get cut back once a year, but it's sort of left as a naturalized area. We do have plantings in there. So from day one, the plants that we are intentionally putting in there, I think it's some grasses and some milkweed swamp milkweed that they'll sort of get a head start on the seed mix so hopefully they'll you know they'll be established and sort of be more permanent on that site. And yeah that's that is the rest of the sort of the planting in the forebay of the Fire retention area, both on the West side of the site as well on the East side of the site. Um, is is just long because I understand that. You know, it's important to have good infiltration there, so that area will get cleaned out. Um, you know, at least once a year so that, you know, we don't get sedimentation and a reduction of the infiltration there. Um, so. Yeah, I'll keep it brief. I'm happy to address any questions regarding landscaping. I don't want to get too into the weeds with you, so I'll leave it at that.
[Steve Sawyer]: All right, I think I'll segue and jump into the stormwater treatment. Currently on the site, there is zero treatment. Right now, everything sheet flows over to this side of the parking lot with catch basins connected. acting as a manhole in a catch basin, typically called daisy chaining. No hoods, so the stormwater just charges down and then dumps out at the headwall into a paved swale. So really, there's no detention, no treatment. It just gets flushed right into the Mystic River. On this side, everything, as far as this existing parking lot, it all flows over to a, I think it's a mixed paved and gravel swale that drains off of, it picks up stormwater, I believe off of Interstate 93 and runs down, runs down the The east side of the property in dumps into the dumps into the mystic river. So, what we're planning to do here, what we're proposing to do with the new storm water is. We're going to reuse the existing 15-inch RCP that runs down this edge of the property. We're skinning up, we're actually pulling the pavement back. We don't need the full width, so we're going to landscape this edge of the property and plant, and these existing catch basins are being converted to stormwater manholes. What we'll be doing is installing deep catch basins with hoods. Also the front area here will be picked up with deep sums with hoods and then properly conveyed. Down the, as we're running down to the south towards the mystic river, we have. that will pick up and settle out the heavy solids and any floatables as we run down the property. There's some existing basins here in the paved area here that we're gonna maintain. There'll be a hood installed on this basin. And this existing area will be conveyed up to this main drainage trunk line. And then prior to discharging, Prior to discharging to the swale, we'll be passing it through a water quality unit, a particle separator. So with that, you basically, DEP used to allow, they used to have a step system where they give you credit for the reported removals, but typically what is allowed now is you get your 25% for a deep-sump catch basin, and then depending on the water quality unit, that provides you another 25, so you end up with a 44% removal, which is your required pretreatment for infiltration. So this area here provides any pretreatment for our system, So currently this is a paved swale that runs down this edge of the property. That's going to be removed and we're going to convert it to a grass swale. I was a little concerned about the velocities running through here, but We're winding up a bit, and due to the flat slope flat, very flat slope the maximum, the maximum velocity is on just just about just over one feet foot per second which is not very fast and stormwater state stormwater is. as far as stormwater design. And that's only at the very peak condition. Typically, it's only running about four or six feet per second, which isn't too bad. So what we're doing is we're gonna take this stormwater here, we're gonna berm, we're providing a berm to direct it into our new infiltration system, our bio infiltration system here that will be planted, a planted infiltration system. Now you'll see there's a forebay at this location. So what's happening is we have a new paved area where the bocce courts were. We have some new pavement that we're directing via sheet flow that's gonna overtop and then dump into this forebay to get our pretreatment. It's properly sized so we get our credit requirement of a 10th of an inch over the paved area. So we get our pretreatment prior to that area overtopping into our infiltration basin. And then during the large events, the larger storm events, it will overtop and then run out the swale, the existing swale, which will be replaced with grass out to the Mystic River. As part of the stormwater standards, a redevelopment project, you're allowed to the best extent practical. There is new paved areas. You can see the existing paved below. We're removing all this pavement. But as far as there is no increase in pavement, we're shifting it around and such. But what we're doing is for this entire paved system on our property, we're providing the required one-half inch water quality volume for the treatment. So this project, as it's redeveloped, we're going to fully comply with the stormwater standards, full compliance with the stormwater standards. And then on the east side of the property, there's this existing paved area. Here, where we're really, we're not, there's no changes here. There'll be some striping and work there. We're extending it a bit here. And on this side, we're directing the stormwater through a grass swale into this stormwater system here. So this entire drainage area on this side is picked up and routed. We do, this side of the property, is the mass DOT property. There is a portion of this payment that we can't, because of the grading, the existing grading of it, that is off, it's actually off property that we're not changing, and that's still gonna run across, it's gonna run across the grass to the MassDOT swale over here on this side of the existing paved area. But all of the area, basically all of the impacted area that we're rebuilding is fully treated regarding water quality, Recharge and also we're mitigating the offsite rate and volume because of the infiltration systems. We're not only reducing the rate off the property, but also the volume. We have some modest reductions in the 210 and 100-year storm events from our current conditions to the proposed conditions. So I think that covers it as far as stormwater. I do have some details as far as the standard deep sump. Everyone's familiar with that. Then this is our water quality unit. It provides enhanced treatment removal. This will be the structure that the water is passed through on the west side prior to dumping into that swale. Then we have a grass swale. that's going to be replacing the existing paved swale, and then some sections of our infiltration basins. Now, one thing of note is on the eastern, let me jump back up, on The new basin on the east side, this large basin here, we're providing an outlet structure and hard piping it to the revetment here. It would be to try and do a sheet flow over, an overflow. We have the path, so this'll be a much easier and simpler way to convey it from the treated stormwater to the Mystic River. And I think, I think that covers it. We have a couple of sections of that also, the outlets, I believe. It's just a detail of the outlet at the revetment. Then also, we have a trash rack on our infiltration side and a control structure that dumps out into the Mystic River. I think that covers the stormwater. I think at that point, I'll turn it back to Tom or to the commission for questions.
[Tom Hughes]: Hey, Steve, can you also just talk about the sizing on that unit to the east? Oh, isn't it size to take?
[Steve Sawyer]: So this, this unit size, you can see it's fairly large and what we're doing is this, this potential, it's not, it's not included in this. We're not, it's not part of this project. Maybe it would be more than three years down the road. Um, and you'll also see that the parking's kind of pushed over here. In the future, I believe with the Housing Authority funding, there's funding for it, and I believe there's already a need for it. There is in the master plan to add a building here in this location. So there'd be a building with this pavements removed between this parking and here, there'd be a long narrow building located in that location. And this is sized, to handle that new impervious area of taking into consideration in the future so we wouldn't have to go back and configure it.
[Tom Hughes]: Thanks, Steve. So with that, Madam Chair, we're here and prepared to questions, take any feedback, any questions, comments, concerns, etc. And since we're still in the planning board process, it is our intent to just seeking continuance to your next meeting so we can get past at least one planning board meeting before asking for any final action from the commission.
[Heidi Davis]: Thank you for clarifying that. So I will open it up to the commission to ask questions. I have several but I will step aside for a moment. Yes, Heather.
[Heather]: Just a quick question. I was delighted to see all the new tree plantings and just quickly, approximate number. I know that we have a number of people watching tonight who have a great deal of interest in our Medford trees.
[Tom Hughes]: So before Kurt gives you the total number, I think he said 17 within your jurisdictional area, but what's the total site-wide, Kurt? Oh, jeez, hold on, give me a minute. It's more than 17, I can tell you that.
[Heather]: A rough estimate is fine.
[Tom Hughes]: A plethora?
[Unidentified]: Is that a term you looked up? 47.
[Heather]: Thank you very much.
[Craig Drennan]: I've got a couple questions on the stormwater design. So the first question off the bat is I think a lot of folks have tonight talked about this as a redevelopment project. And in the stormwater reports submitted to the commission, the response to standard seven says therefore it is not a redevelopment project and the proposed stormwater management will fully comply with the stormwater regulations. I'm not questioning that second part, but I'd like a little bit of clarification on whether or not this is a redevelopment project and how things fall within that.
[Steve Sawyer]: Yeah, this this is this would be considered a redevelopment project if it was if that box was checked that it was not a redevelopment project that that is an error on that report. Basically, my understanding of redevelopment is any new. New payment, you need to fully it has to fully comply any new paved areas has to fully comply with the standards. And what we've done with this is we've gone far beyond it. The existing, not only are we fully treating the new paved areas, we're providing full treatment for the existing paved areas. So we're actually bringing the existing site into full compliance. Other than that small, there's an area that's not part of our property that we're not changing that we're not picking that stormwater up, we're allowing it to still flow off site.
[Craig Drennan]: Okay, so that's something that I think would be worth updating in the stormwater report. Another question I have is looking at the test pit logs and the soils data that's been collected on the site, it looks like the kind of given the history of the site, it makes sense that the Web Soil Survey had the soils as unclassified kind of eutrophins and fill. But the test pits seem to show, especially where the infiltration ponds are being proposed, mostly sand. And the HydroCAD modeling report is working with infiltration rates of 2.41 and above, which per volume, I think it's volume one, chapter one, the water quality volume in areas that have a high infiltration rate should be one inch, not half an inch. Has that been considered?
[Steve Sawyer]: So my understanding with the water quality, if you're in a site that is in a critical area, you require one inch water quality volume. If you're in an area with higher infiltration rates, with a rapid rate, you're required to provide a minimum of 44% TSS removal prior to infiltration of the stormwater or discharging to that area. We didn't consider this to be a critical area of environmental concern. So our water quality volume is actually a half inch over the paved areas and not the full one inch over the paved areas. Now recharge, if it's a soil, I believe I'm trying to remember the actual number, if it's an A soil, The recharge area, it might be, I think it's the recharge is one inch. And I'd have to look at the stormwater report. And with that, I think what we considered was the new, okay, on the recharge area was all expanded or all new pavement. You, you need to provide the infiltration overall new impervious surfaces. Right now, I don't think what one thing we didn't do with the report is go back to, you know, As far as full compliance, that's what they say is all new and previous surfaces, you need to provide infiltration for that. We didn't go back and say we're providing the infiltration for the existing building and such. Absolutely. On this project. But I'll actually I'll check that as far as what our recharge volume if we use the sand material. And as far as the As far as the test pits, we were fortunate. It looks like they used decent material for the fill, which is good news. Some good sand and gravel material. You can't see, typically in fill, you can't see your staining for seasonal high. The test pits were done in early May. I believe that was prior to the drought, I think, in mid-May. I'm not sure when that was. It was probably just before the drought, but it was in the spring. But the observed water was at minus, I think, 1.8 or minus 1.8. And the bottom of our infiltration basins are well above that, I believe. I think it's elevation. three or somewhere around there, three and around elevation three. So we're four and a half feet over the elevation of the observed groundwater in mid-May. So I think we're comfortable that we have our separation there.
[Craig Drennan]: Yeah, and I didn't see any issue with the recharge. My main question is with water quality volume. And I think that's something that I'd like just you to get confirmation on. If you look at the Volume 1, Chapter 1 document, The second bullet under standard four on page nine lists the rapid infiltration rate just on its own, just as a, that is an area that has a water quality volume of an inch. So that's my first question. And my other question was regarding peak flow control. In the HydroCAD modeling report, The existing conditions model had all of the pervious surfaces on hydrologic soil group C type soil, and the proposed condition had all of the pervious surfaces on hydrologic soil group type A. I believe that should be consistent pre to post on what the subsurface soil type is. And I can give the floor back to someone else to ask questions. I've been hogging the mic.
[Heidi Davis]: I'm just not taking notes.
[Unidentified]: So one of the things I wanted to ask about was
[Heidi Davis]: When the bocce courts were constructed, I understand that the soils there were not suitable, or there was some issues with the soils there. And so I want to know if that has, has the, I know you looked, have done test pits for infiltration rates, but have you looked at any kind of constituents in the sediments in the areas of the infiltration basins? Are they suitable for infiltration?
[Steve Sawyer]: Yes, so we did test pit on the test pit one. The test pit one was within one of the foot well, basically in the inside the east or the western infiltration basin. And from eight inches to 108 inches of light brown, medium sand, some cobbles and gravel. So it was a sandy gravel material. It was a sandy material, which is very well suited for infiltration. And on the, let's see, the other test pit, it wasn't as good material, but I believe it was,
[Heidi Davis]: So I'm actually not asking about infiltration, I'm asking about is, I believe that there was some contaminated soils found in the area of the botched plants.
[Steve Sawyer]: Oh, okay. We did not, there was no notice of, as far as any odor or such, there was no indication of petroleum products or such, and as far as our evaluator, he didn't, There's nothing that raised a flag there. We did not have an LSP observing that test bed, though.
[Ciccariello]: I don't believe the soils were contaminated. I need to go back and look in the records. but that there was some areas that were just unsuitable for the type of the bocce courts. The landscape architect did an amazing job. They were engineered really well and they wanted to just get some better material up under them, but I don't think they were contaminated. It was just like the suitability of them to install the bocce courts in that area where they're currently at.
[Heidi Davis]: Thank you, I appreciate that.
[Ciccariello]: You're welcome, but I'll look into that.
[Heidi Davis]: Okay, great. So the plans here clearly show that there's a proposed grass swale. However, the notice of intent narrative indicates that there's going to be a stone, stone swale. There's an inconsistency there, stone-like swale.
[Steve Sawyer]: So which is it? We're proposing a grassland.
[Heidi Davis]: I'll change that in the narrative. Given that I also note that there is a grass buffer strip, has there been any consideration given for the planting of live stakes to help with both, well, uptake and also to prevent the erosion from the swale happening during events. So live stakes, meaning willow or dogwood, are what is usually used for live stake plantings.
[Steve Sawyer]: We could investigate that.
[Heidi Davis]: And I also have to note, of course, because there is a little overlap, the Conservation Commission applied for a grant for the design and permitting of a stormwater BMP in this very spot. What a coincidence. So I'm trying to assure that the intent of that plan is also being met with this one as well.
[Steve Sawyer]: Okay, what we can do is between that, you know, we can, I'll look at that swale and see what improvements we can do to give it a better, you know, better treatment, maybe some check dams or other things to slow and treat and again, get some uptake.
[Heidi Davis]: Great. Bear in mind, any check dams will have to be keyed into the slope well, so you don't get any scouring forming around. Yes. I'm sure you know that. Oh.
[Tom Hughes]: And Heidi, just to interject on the live stakes, depending on the time of year of construction, we may opt, if we do that, opt for tubelings. Oh. Because it's easier to get tubelings during most of the year.
[Heidi Davis]: Tubelings would be great as well.
[Unidentified]: Steve, you mentioned that there was an existing
[Heidi Davis]: detention basin someplace?
[Steve Sawyer]: No, there is no existing basin.
[Heidi Davis]: Oh, the new flared end structure on the bank. So is that currently a stone bank? Will there be any bank alteration there?
[Steve Sawyer]: It's currently a stone bank riprap, fortified slope riprap. So we'd be just placing it on that stone riprap.
[Heidi Davis]: I see. And I believe that's DCR property?
[Steve Sawyer]: I think we are on our, I'm not sure. I have to check. I thought we were still within our property line. I'm trying to, I'll have to look at where our property line is on that edge.
[Heidi Davis]: Yeah, but yeah, so the DCR membership path is going, the drainage pipe will be going underneath. Yes. So I'm just presuming that the river side of the, the river side or the bank word side of that, where the Flanders structure must be DCR property if they're putting the Clippership pathway up gradient of that.
[Steve Sawyer]: The actual Clippership, the pathway is actually on, looks to be like, it looks to be on the authority property. Oh, okay. But you are correct, I'm looking at a property line. It does extend beyond that. So that Mystic River is DCR property?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Craig Drennan]: One question on that, just while we're on the topic, on that flared end segment and the discharge from that infiltration basin, the work to kind of install that into the existing protected banks is outside the limits of the perimeter erosion sediment control indicated on, I think, sheet one or two. So that would be, I'm assuming that's going to involve kind of pulling all that rock back and some decent disturbance. So it would be worth extending the perimeter controls to cover that.
[Steve Sawyer]: At least for that portion of the work, okay.
[Unidentified]: Good point. Thanks, Craig.
[Heidi Davis]: Just kind of as a FYI, I'm not sure which project's gonna happen first, but the DCR plans for the clipper ship include a detail note on removing the concrete, I'm sorry, the bituminous, the portion of the bituminous soil that will travel beneath their boardwalk. They kindly were accommodating the Conservation Commission grant here and agreed to remove that. So there's gonna have to be coordination at some point on who's doing what.
[Steve Sawyer]: Yeah, where that line is, okay.
[Heidi Davis]: I also want to note that, of course, this notice of intent was also submitted to MassDEP's Northeast Regional Office, and I anticipate we'll have comments from them in time for our next hearing. So we will want to discuss those comments as well.
[Unidentified]: I think that's all the questions I have for now.
[Heidi Davis]: Anybody else?
[Marie Izzo]: I did have a quick question about the flared end. I was just curious how high above ordinary or mean high water is that invert elevation?
[Steve Sawyer]: I think it's about one and a half, between one and a half and two feet above. It would be dumping on one of the rocks. It would be basically dumping on one of the existing large slabs.
[Marie Izzo]: Do we have a sense of how high potentially the river could get in flood stage, for example?
[Steve Sawyer]: As far as the higher, the staining, we can research that and try and get some information. Tom, I don't know if you have.
[Tom Hughes]: Well, I mean, FEMA maps the floodway, essentially running up to the top of the bank. So I guess how high can it get based on FEMA's mapping? We could have fast flowing water.
[Heidi Davis]: I think we also have to keep in mind that there's the dam controls the elevation here.
[Tom Hughes]: Absolutely. So, so it would be one heck of a storm that had that happen so the water standing if you look at those photos I don't know if we want to share them again but the water is really clear you have like. two bands of staining. You've got one that's the regular high water stain that's just really dark. Then above that, you have just a lighter, almost a tan line that indicates, to me, your typical just really high flow, probably when the dam's overtopping or close to overtopping.
[Marie Izzo]: That's the elevation you used? I think I heard you say that.
[Tom Hughes]: Yeah, that's what we use for I mean, we're going to be and we're going to be above that with the pipe. So I think, you know, I think if we're at a point where the mystic is one way stage, you know, I think we're going to be having such a storm that stormwater treatment throughout the area is going to be somewhat compromised. But you can see the size of those rocks, you know, just dumping what is probably not going to be a tremendous amount of flow of water onto those rocks should be fine and certainly better than the current untreated discharges going into places.
[Marie Izzo]: Yeah, the only other point I wanted to make Craig picked up and that's the sediment control around that work area. Otherwise, that's all I had. Thank you.
[Denis MacDougall]: Just to jump in, normally when we're expecting, you know, heavy, heavy rainfall, they'll usually go in the river by, you know, half foot to a foot, you know, in anticipation. Drop it. So it's usually like the day before they will. I mean, if it's an unexpected storm, usually they're pretty good about anticipating storms and anything can happen.
[Heather]: Dennis, my memory of the time, since the time you and I have been working together on this, is that this is not the area where we have experienced most of our flood issues and concerns. It has not been right in this area.
[Denis MacDougall]: So that's just a- Yeah, I mean, we did have the area besides City Hall that- Right, but not- Unexpected heavy rainfalls have gotten there, but over there, not so much.
[Heather]: Exactly, so.
[Tom Hughes]: And Dennis's description is consistent with the staining that I observed on site.
[Heather]: Okay, great.
[Craig Drennan]: And I have one more question. And then I'm, I'm out of things to ask about. On the Western BMP, I think, Curtis, you were talking about the bioretention. So The plans in the O&M manual attach this from water report, refer to it as an infiltration basin, and those have different requirements as to kind of what can be planted in it. I think infiltration basins tend to be kind of more simple and by retention, you chalk it full of plants and have it like maximize uptake. So kind of ironing that out and getting that coordinated.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, we'll do. I probably just used the wrong word. I would refer to Steve's, you know, the actual functionality of these bases. I apologize if I caused any confusion there.
[Steve Sawyer]: Yeah, probably what we'd be, you know, just thinking about it right now, even though we have a good infiltration rate, we may want to, you know, probably what's more important here is the water quality treatment. which visually, typically a hypertension cell, they look a little nicer with the plantings and such, and you get a better quality treatment. So what I'll do is I'll look to sort of move in that direction as far as be consistent towards the bioretention cell. Granted, it's not, I do like to use a reasonably good, sometimes those engineered soils and such aren't, they end up clogging and I like to have a little more coarse material in there. So they drain, they properly drain between storm events.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. And that's it for me.
[Tom Hughes]: have a couple of things to look into and we'll take care of that between now and the next meeting. We'll keep an eye out for the DEP comments. I hope they can arrive in time that maybe we can have them fully addressed before your hearing. And I know I saw we had the We'll keep an eye out for that. Certainly if anybody after the hearing has any questions, concerns or comments and wants to funnel them through Dennis to us before the next hearing, we're open to we can to iron out any issues before that next hearing. We'd like to try to move towards an approval before any risk of coming up against our funding deadlines, but I think we certainly have time, and if we had to kick it one more meeting after the next, I think we're okay doing so. But we'll see where the planning board goes at their next meeting too. Thanks, John. Yeah, and we really appreciate the commission's time tonight.
[Heidi Davis]: very welcome. So I understand that you've requested to continue the hearing. And so I asked the commission if I have a motion to continue the hearing.
[Denis MacDougall]: Motion do we want to move to public comments like anyone else's? Oh, I'm sorry. I get I, of course I'd
[Heidi Davis]: I didn't realize that we had members of the public here. If anybody from the public would like to make a comment, please do so now, but please turn on your camera and state your name and your address.
[Unidentified]: Okay, it looks like not.
[Heidi Davis]: All right, Heather, you made a motion?
[Heather]: Made a motion to continue hearing. And could, what is the anticipated date for our next hearing on this? Let's finish the motion first and then we'll get to that.
[Heidi Davis]: Do I have a second?
[Craig Drennan]: I'll second it.
[Heidi Davis]: Great, all in favor? Craig?
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Heidi Davis]: Heather? Aye. Eric?
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Heidi Davis]: And I'm an aye.
[Heather]: Okay. The reason I'm asking is they obviously have to go to planning and I'm just wondering where that will most likely fall within our schedule because you're going to want this quorum.
[Heidi Davis]: Probably Thanksgiving Eve. Hopefully not.
[Denis MacDougall]: Planning meeting is next Thursday. Our next scheduled meeting would be the 16th after that.
[Heather]: Okay. So that should work then. Okay. Thank you.
[Denis MacDougall]: So the next, so everyone else sort of watching this, the next scheduled conservation commission meeting is November 16th. The Zoom information that you use to log on to tonight's meeting will be the same one. So the link you use, just use that one and you'll be able to log on.
[Tom Hughes]: All right. Excellent. Again, I want to thank the commission on behalf of the project team, and we look forward to meeting with you in a couple of weeks.
[Heidi Davis]: You're very welcome, and thank you for attending tonight.
[Ciccariello]: Yeah, thank you, everybody. Have a good evening.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Denis MacDougall]: Do we have any other business to discuss? We do. I actually just received another filing today. You're kidding. Yeah. A gas line, uh, on Winthrop Street and going underneath. Mr. Pretty similar to the project we had about four years ago, five years ago, pretty similar style. So I literally just got it today. So they want to have it also on the, on the 16th. So that'll also be, we'll be doubling up that night.
[Heather]: Okay.
[Denis MacDougall]: So I received that. So I'm just kind of going over it today just to make sure everything's all right. Cause we have to get the. I had notice done in the next day or so, just to make sure everything was included in that. So working on that this afternoon, we sent it off to them just for their, a check from them, just to make sure everything was squared. And so that'll also be on that same week, so.
[Heather]: Okay, so two for the 16th.
[Denis MacDougall]: Yeah, but I don't anticipate anything else coming soon, but sometimes we get things without much notice, so. The project on the form of virtues I don't see anything coming on that right away they're still working on the zoning board appeal so I think they're going to wait for that to get sort of sorted before they move forward right now. And I don't know if anyone is driven by the parking lot at the convent shell but The work that was proposed, that got approved there two years ago, has begun in earnest. So there is a pretty massive construction site going on there in a fairly small area. So that has begun. And hopefully, they anticipate to get that done over the winter and have everything ready by spring.
[Unidentified]: So nothing else comes to mind?
[Heidi Davis]: This is the biggest filing we've had in a while.
[Heather]: I know. This is a huge project and it's quite amazing, actually. I'm talking about the entire building project. Yeah.
[Craig Drennan]: Yeah. Sorry for hogging. What was that? Sorry for hogging the floor.
[Heather]: No, no, no. Everything. Very, very good. Very good. If we don't have anything else,
[Heidi Davis]: I think we're all set. We can all say goodnight and see you in two weeks.
[Heather]: Do you need a motion to close or are we all set? We made a motion. That's right. We made a motion to continue. We made a motion to continue. So no, we're not closing. I make a motion to adjourn.
[Heidi Davis]: All in favor, go home. Oh, we are home. Oh no, off to the next, off to the next appointment. All right, good night.
[Heather]: Take care.