WESTFIELD – The Conservation Commission voted Tuesday night to continue its review of a Notice of Intent (NOI) filed by Con Edison Development, Inc., to reclaim 12 to 15 acres of a former gravel pit off Russellville Road and construct a solar generation facility.
Con Edison officials and their environmental consultant, Milone & MacBroom, presented details, focused primarily on the environmental impact of a solar farm which is proposed for construction at the 31-acre property of at the former J.W. (Wayne) Cowles Construction located at 219 Russellville Road.
Con Edison Project Manager Mark Chrisos said the estate of the late Wayne Cowles attempted to auction the former gravel pit, but that the property did not sell because of environmental concerns related to a stockpile of construction debris.
“We identified this site about a year ago,” Chrisos said. “We’ve been walking this site for a while. It’s a classic brownfield because of the construction and demolition debris. We will deal with those debris stockpiles.”
The stockpile contains 56,000 tons of asphalt from roads and other demolition and construction debris. The estimated cost of mitigating that material is more than $300,000.
Chrisos said the debris is composed of bituminous concrete (asphalt) and concrete, some of which is reinforced with rebar steel. The rebar will be removed from the concrete prior to the crushing process and removed from the site.
The Conservation Commission issued conditions last summer to Con Edison to reclaim the property by crushing the debris piles and using the reclaimed material to grade the solar facility construction site.
Con Edison Development is now seeking approval of permits from a number of local, state and federal agencies needed to initiate construction of the solar farm which will have about 9,000 six-by-three-foot solar panels.
The project is currently under review by the Army Corps of Engineers, which is expected to issue a decision by the end of this calendar year. That decision will affect which agencies are involved in further review of the project and determine the level of oversight under which the project will proceed.
The primary environmental issue is a wetland on the site. There are naturally occurring wetlands, which existed on the site before Cowles begin to harvest sand and gravel and wetlands created by the harvesting of sand and gravel, when Cowles removed soil and exposed the groundwater table which created isolated wetlands across the site.
Con Edison is proposing to use the crushed demolition matter to grade the site so that stormwater runoff supports the naturally occurring wetland and to replicate the isolated wetlands to also support naturally occurring wetlands.
William Root of Milone & MacBroom said the stormwater management plan will consist of a detention basin and grassy swells to slowly channel water toward resource areas while removing sediment and silt before the water enters the wetland and bordering vegetated buffer.
Root said that the site will be seeded after construction of the solar array using New England Conservation Mix, seeds of native plans to create a meadow environment in and around the facility and New England Wet Mix around the wetland and bordering vegetation. Invasive species will be removed during site preparation.
The proposed two megawatt solar farm will produce enough energy to provide electrical power to up to 200 homes in the city. Chrisos said Con Edison, through Westfield Solar LLC, has a 20-year agreement with the Westfield Gas & Electric Department to purchase the solar-generated power and a separate 20-year tax incentive financing (TIF), approved by the City Council last June under which the property owner will pay property taxes and a fixed tax revenue to the city for the solar facility.
The council approved the agreement which will require Consolidated Edison to pay the city $8,000 a year for the solar farm equipment, which is taxed as personal property, for the first half of the agreement, and then pay $10,000 a year for the last 10 years of the agreement.
The Conservation Commission, which asked a number of questions and requested that Con Edison respect the city’s ordinance requiring a 50-foot buffer around wetlands, was generally supportive of the proposal but can not vote until the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issues a project number, hence the motion to continue the hearing to Dec. 8.
Conservation Commission member Henry Bannish said the project will benefit the environment.
“This is a vast improvement over what is there now. It will make that property better,” Bannish said.
Con Edison Development will present details of the solar facility project to the Planning Board next Tuesday, December 1, 2015. The company has applied for a special permit, site plan approval and a stormwater management plan.
