First of all, thank you Southborough voters that attended night 2 of the Special Town Meeting this past Tuesday and voted to approve the additional borrowing required for the completion of the Solid Waste cleanup at Breakneck Hill Conservation Land (BHCL)! The work is required under an Administrative Consent Order (ACO) with MassDEP under the Solid Waste Regulations. Unfortunately, we had to return to Town Meeting to request additional funding due to the unanticipated presence of asbestos containing materials (ACMs) buried beneath the surface throughout 2/3s of the dump area. Due to the age and fragility of the materials, the remainder of the excavation needs to be classified as soil containing ACMs, which comes at a higher cost for removal. The approved total funding now allows us to complete the removal of materials and restoration of the property.
With the necessary funding acquired, the Town's contractor will begin to mobilize by dropping off material and equipment this Friday 10/4, and begin work to improve the access road to the 'farm dump' on Monday 10/7, and the remedial portion of the work to begin on Monday 10/14. Once excavation begins, it is expected to take approximately 5 weeks to complete the work, and then the site will be stabilized and/or final restoration completed depending on the weather conditions. It is likely that the site will be temporarily stabilized over winter and the contractor would return in the spring to do final loaming and seeding of the area.
For questions, please reach out to the Conservation Agent Melissa Danza at mdanza@southboroughma.com or 508-281-8984.
