Citizen’s Group Vows to Stop Development Near Nyanza Superfund Site

Early this spring, after learning about a proposed development, Ashland residents concerned about blasting on Megunko Hill near the Nyanza superfund site formed a group called, Stop Nyanza Ashland Citizens Action Group. The group hired an attorney and filed an appeal under the Ashland Conservation Commission Order of Conditions and the town’s wetland regulations.
In early June, the developers Campanelli &Thorndike began clearing trees on the 200-acre site. They plan to build 398 one- and two-bedroom apartments near Nyanza and off the MBTA access road. These apartments are phase one of a three-phase multi-million dollar project.
Around 60 residents attended a public forum held by town management and the Board of Selectmen at the Community Center on June 9 where the Citizens Action Group and others voiced their concern for public health and safety and made it clear, they want the project stopped.
Residents are concerned that blasting will disturb the 28-year-old Nyanza cap, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said is good for 30 years, and the 150-year old culvert, a piecemeal pipe carrying runoff to the Sudbury River, which could fail and flood the downtown.
Resident Paul Pehoviak, who lives nearby on South Street, said at the forum, “This project must stop.” He spoke about the 20-plus people he knew who have died from cancer from the sludge under the cap. He described how “28 acres, or 250 football fields, have been cleared and the disruption will cause the culvert to be flooded. It’s a no brainer,” he said. “We have to try harder.”
Jon Fetherston, Ashland Board of Health (BOH) chair, said that his committee voted 5 to 0 not to support this project. “We must start to do the right thing. Public health and safety must be assured,” he said.
Town Manager Michael Herbert told resident Pricilla Bennett that the BOS would not approve the blasting plan if the blasting study that is due back at the end of June shows “the worst case scenario.”
Herbert has commissioned two studies – one on blasting and the impact it could have on the Nyanza site and one on the culvert and the flooding risk. Town officials will review the studies before issuing a blasting permit.
BOS member Carl Hakansson said that “something of this magnitude should have started with town participation.” Hakansson said that his recent site walk was “a game changer” for him. He saw “how the whole thing was rock and needed to be blasted. Blasting and the slope of the land had never been mentioned,” he said.
Cara Tirrell, an organizer for the Citizens Action Group, said that she “will continue to fight and do the right thing.”
To find out more about the Stop Nyanza Ashland Citizens Action Group, go to Facebook, www.facebook.com/StopNyanzaProject; GoFundMe, www.gofundme.com/Stopnyanzaproject; and Twitter, @ACAC_StopNyanza.