WESTFIELD – The Conservation Commission last night approved conditions to allow a Texas company to expand its propane transfer station on Medeiros Way (Summit Lock Road) requested to accommodate an increase in business.
DCP Midstream of Houston initiated the Conservation Commission review in October to allow modification to its facility, located next to a wetland resource area. The company is planning to relocate a fence and install an access road at its offloading facility.
Propane is brought into the site next to Brickyard Brook by rail and transferred into storage tanks until it is then pumped into trucks for delivery.
Katie Bednaz of Levesque & Associated, presented details of the project at the October meeting. The hearing was continued to last night to allow comment from the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program because of turtle habitat areas next to the site.
The Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program (NHESP) is part of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. The agency’s highest priority is protecting the vertebrate and invertebrate animals and native plants that are officially listed as Endangered, Threatened or of Special Concern in Massachusetts, with the goal of protecting the state’s wide range of native biological diversity.
Bednaz said the fence at the rear of the property, bordering the wetlands, would be moved back further to accommodate truck movement within the site and that brush growing along the fence would be cut back for security reasons.
“They plan to move the fence back for vehicular traffic movement,” Bednaz said. “There will not be much modification to the wetland buffer. The fence is 50 feet from the wetland area and there will be no tree removal.”
The project includes construction of three offloading towers and access staircases adjacent to the railroad spur in addition to relocating the fence.
The commission attached a number of conditions to its approval to limit impact to the environmentally sensitive wetland area.
“Natural Heritage put a restriction that they cannot do the work when the turtles are laying their eggs, typically late spring,” Commission Chairman Dr. David Doe said this morning. “The applicant was fine with that restriction.”
“They also want to cut the brush back 15 feet to allow room for truck traffic and to prevent trees from getting large and falling onto the fence which could damage it,” Doe said. “They will also remove an old chain-link fence (installed by a previous tenant of the site) extending into the wetlands, so that will be an improvement.
”Everything they proposed is fine with the commission,” Doe said.
