Saugus board surprised over rejection of environmental education park

SAUGUS – The Saugus Board of Selectmen will look into why plans for an environmental education park at Bristow Park were rejected by the Department of Environmental Protection at its meeting Tuesday night.The board submitted the idea for an environmental park over the summer as part of the Wheelabrator settlement with the Attorney General’s office, which saw Saugus receive $261,000 of a $7.5 million settlement.It was announced in May that the trash burning facility would pay out $7.5 million to surrounding communities for alleged environmental violations, and as stipulated in the settlement, a portion of that money is to go toward Supplemental Environmental Projects.But according to a letter from Pamela Talbot of the DEP, the idea for a research park did not meet the requirements of the settlement.”The closer and more directly a proposed SEP is aligned with an underlying violation in a particular case, the stronger the nexus and the more appropriate a proposed project,” said Talbot. “For that reason, some of your proposed projects cannot be approved.”According to selectman Stephen Horlick, the park was to feature playground equipment made out of recycled plastics and metal witch plaques telling how each piece was made. The park would also be lit using LED lights.On Monday, Horlick said he didn’t know why the plan was turned down.”We have to find out if it was the whole project or part of it that was shot down,” said Horlick. “It’s kind of a mystery to me why it would be disqualified when they wanted to have an environmental project. We have to see the reasons why the environmental park was disallowed.”In the letter, however, the DEP did accept a plan for the establishment of a $200,000 Center for Hard to Recycle Materials in Saugus.”That had come up as a suggestion several meetings ago with Wheelabrator,” said Town Manager Andrew Bisignani. “It has to be something that will help the environment. An environmental park is nice, but it’s not going to do anything.”However, Horlick said the board never discussed that project.”I have no idea where that came from,” said Horlick. “That was not brought up by the board to submit that as a project.”DEP spokesman Ed Collette said the DEP was looking for a “demonstrative environmental benefit” for the town, which is why the recycling center was accepted.”We felt that the construction of a center for hard to recycle materials would be the best use for the funds,” said Collette. “There is some limited drop off capacity in town, but this new center would allow for more hazardous materials and other waste. We felt it was a better nexus to the violations in this case.”Other projects approved by the DEP include the purchase of water testing equipment in Shrewbury, a trash truck monitoring project in North Andover and a LED light installation project in Millbury.The board will meet tonight at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the settlement followed by its regularly scheduled meeting at 7:30 p.m.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].