Environmental Real Estate

Framingham residents someday may get clean drinking water and lower water bills from the Birch Road wells. But town officials say the land around the wells must be protected to ensure the success of the $20 million project. And they're looking closely at a proposal for 685 units of housing on nearby land.

The town stopped using the wells in the 1970s in favor of water from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. But water prices have risen so much since then that officials say the wells, which would pump an estimated 4 million gallons a day from the ground, will save the town more than they will cost.

"If we're able to do it, it's going to pay itself back many times over," Town Manager George P. King Jr. said last week in a phone interview. He emphasized that the $20 million price tag is a rough estimate, because testing and engineering work have not begun in earnest.

Hoping to keep pollution from possibly seeping down into the underground aquifer that feeds the wells, officials are taking a close look at the proposal for the Villages at Danforth Farm.

The project, which is also slated to include some retail, is to go before the Planning Board on Tuesday. The land is owned by New England Sand and Gravel but is being purchased in stages by National Development as each phase of the development is ready to go, according to Andrea Carr-Evans, a Planning Board member.

Carr-Evans said she hopes developers will assent to "green" rules, such as limiting the use of artificial fertilizer, or using none at all, on landscaping, for example.

The town began the well-reactivation project in the spring after Town Meeting approved $300,000 to start the process. Then, during last month's town meeting, members approved the next step, which was to protect a half-mile radius around the wells, known as a "Zone 2" in state regulatory parlance.

Development is restricted in that area. For example, a new service station probably will not be permitted because of the threat to water quality, said Carr-Evans, who lives in the restricted area.

There was some concern at last month's Town Meeting that residents would be restricted in ways they would find objectionable. But officials assured members that they are unlikely to notice the change residents already there are grandfathered and can continue to use fertilizer on their yards. Residents who seek a building permit to do work on their homes, however, might trigger more questions than usual.

The Villages at Danforth Farm is mostly inside the "Zone 2" area.

Christine Long, chairwoman of Town Meeting's standing committee on public works, said she would attend the Planning Board hearings on the project with an eye toward water protection.

"It's going to protect that district from pollution," said Long, referring to the Zone 2 restrictions. "In order for us to reactivate those wells, it's necessary."

The next step for the well project, which is still a decade away from being completed, will be to conduct tests, which will indicate the quality of the water and where it's coming from. That information is expected to lead to some adjustments in the Zone 2 restricted area.

In the 1980s, the land was contaminated by the Air Force, which conducted tests there on a material to be used for repairing runways damaged by bomb blasts. That material contained tetrachloroethylene, which leached into the soil and ground water, according to a consultant who conducted studies for the Air Force . After years of studies, the state Department of Environmental Protection cleared the site, and no further cleanup action is required, according to department spokesman Joseph Ferson.
by Lisa Kocian 508-820-4231 or lkocian@globe.com. Boston Globe: Nov 25, 2004. pg. 3

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TOWN WARY OF HOUSING NEAR WELLS ; DANFORTH PROJECT AT ISSUE

2004-11-25

03:51:29 TOWN WARY OF HOUSING NEAR WELLS ; DANFORTH PROJECT AT ISSUE

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