Metro Center Permit Heading Back to Inland Wetlands Commission

The Fairfield Metro Center appears headed back to the town's Inland Wetlands Commission, but it may be just a routine stop.

The commission's five-year permit for the Metro Center expires March 1, and Craig Flaherty, from Redniss & Mead Inc., the site monitor, recently told town officials and consultants on the project that the permit will expire unless the commission agrees to a renewal.

Town regulations say permit extensions are granted "unless the [commission] finds that there has been a substantial change in circumstances which requires a new permit application or an enforcement action has been undertaken with regard to the regulated activity for which the permit was issued..."

The permit was issued in 2004, but the five-year time limit started when litigation on the project associated with the state's taking of Kings Highway property by eminent domain was resolved. That wasn't until March 2006, according to Flaherty, who was quoting an opinion from Town Attorney Richard Saxl.

Meanwhile, the latest available report from Flaherty to town officials, which was based off site visits by Flaherty on Aug. 10 and 11, says Guerrera Construction Co. of Oxford has begun excavating areas on the 35.5-acre property at 21 Black Rock Turnpike where PCBs exist and those areas had been fenced, with the soil stockpiled and protected in a "soil holding area." Flaherty's report says 76 soil samples were taken from the bottom and perimeter of PCB excavation areas and that test results from 26 samples came back with one showing PCBs above regulatory targets, which means more excavation is required.

Flaherty says in the report that the excavations won't be backfilled until test results are within regulatory thresholds (meaning no more excavation is needed) and the soil with PCBs won't be taken from the site until all test results are received. Loureiro Engineering Associates, another site monitor on the Metro Center property, is directing PCB-related work and will issue a summary report after all PCBs are removed to Redniss & Mead and William Kenny Associates, also a site monitor, Flaherty's report says.

Areas on the property that contain PCBs greater than 10 milligrams per kilogram were clearly indicated on a remediation plan from 2008, but that wasn't the case with the remediation plan in 2010, and Flaherty directed George Cooper from STV Incorporated, which was hired by the town to oversee work by Guerrera Construction Co., to have the plans updated. "The indication of these areas is critical for all parties to understand. Update the plans accordingly," a July 21 report from Flaherty says. Flaherty's report based off site visits Aug. 10 and 11 says designers are complying with the request.

Flaherty's report noted seven other differences between the plans dated Feb. 15, 2008, on which town approval to begin sitework was based, and plans in May 2010, and directed Cooper to address them. The most significant appears to be the 2010 plans saying any changes in the project must be approved by the engineer, while the 2008 plans say any changes require approval from the Inland Wetlands Commission. Flaherty directed Cooper to "revise note to include Inland Wetlands [Commission] review on changes to the plans."

Flaherty's July 21 report also asks for information on a series of topics, though it's not clear if Flaherty wants the information for the Inland Wetlands Commission's approval of an extension of the permit.

Information sought by Flaherty includes a project directory, with contact information for all parties associated with the management, construction and oversight of the project; a clear diagram and explanation of the management structure of the project team, which was a condition of the permit; confirmation of the required level of certification for people to access the site on a regular basis; and a review of procedures to segregate parking and traffic between contaminated and clean areas of the site and an exhibit indicating compliance with decontamination of vehicles leaving disturbed sections of the site, which was a condition of the permit. The latest available report from Flaherty said all but the first were pending.

The Metro Center property contains from 60,000 to 100,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, most of which is casting sand from when the Bullard Co. foundry operated there. That contaminated soil will be moved around the site for grading purposes and then covered with a tarp, clean soil and asphalt.

The Fairfield Metro Center, which would include the town's third train station, from 1,300 to 1,500 parking spaces for rail commuters and nearly 1 million square feet of commercial space if fully built out, is the subject of litigation between Gary Weddle, the wetlands compliance officer, and seven residents known as "Concerned Citizens."

Concerned Citizens was victorious July 6 in a lawsuit that sought to remove Weddle because Weddle wasn't under the supervision of Town Conservation Director Thomas Steinke, but Weddle appealed Bridgeport Superior Court Judge Richard Arnold's ruling. Concerned Citizens then filed a motion to remove the "automatic stay of execution" on Arnold's ruling that came with Weddle's appeal, and Arnold's decision on that motion is pending.

First Selectman Ken Flatto removed Steinke and his staff from oversight of the project in December 2007 after Blackrock Realty, LLC, the private developer on the project, complained that Steinke and his staff were holding up the project and threatened to sue the town.