Andover Residents!
Your Urgent and Immediate Response is Needed!
 Below is a copy of the ENF filed for the Powder Mill Square Project.
Below that is a list of what we find wrong with the request for this project.
Your Comments are Needed
This Must be Responded to by Friday 9/29/00!
See Below for Address

Folks;
Some of you must have seen this already but here it is in PDF.Also included is a list of contentions compiled by the Hadley's and other interested parties.It is best if Andover residents can respond by sending certified return receipt mail to:
Bob Durand, Seceratary
Executive Office of Environmental Affairs
Attention: MEPA Office
Dick Foster, EOEA No.12306
251 Causeway St., Suite 900
Boston, MA 02114

1.The ENF report is full of errors and is not consistent with other filings by the developer of this project.

2.The amount of impervious area existing is significantly less the 3.89 acres reported in the Summary of Project Size. The proposed percentage change is significantly greater than minus 0.31, in fact there is a positive percentage gain. The 3.58 total acres of impervious area is thus not correct except under the proponent 5 data.

3.In 1996 we had an 80 year flood at this location that resulted in evacuation of
130 residents of the assisted living facility Marland Place which abuts the
development site. The water was at the 100 year 39 foot elevation.

4.In 1998 we had a 20 year flood and the flood water pushed contaminated water into the cellars of neighbors and abutters of this project site. The flood water was at 36 foot elevation.

5.We have had 2 major projects built at abutting sites that have had significant area hot topped and made impervious: in 1988, U.S. Post Office and in 1994, Marland Place. No compensatory storage was added.

6.Structures information is erroneous: existing structures are approximately 26,700 Sf, not 34,500 Sf.

7.Change to 118,316 Sf is erroneous. The proponent conveniently left out the two story garage structure.

8.Transportation information is false. Existing vehicle trips per day is not 876.
Where they get that number is a big question. For 30 years the 104 parking spaces were not used. In the late 1950s the area was filled in and hot top added.
Prior to that 1/2 of the property was a flood pond area at 20 feet elevation.

9.Water/wastewater is questioned. Do a vacant health care center and a few houses use 4,980 gallons per day?

10.This project is in a FEMA 100 year flood plain.

11.Part of the apartment building is in the FEMA map floodway.

12.Again the developer has misrepresented by marking no to Historical/Archeological Resources. This project takes down several State Registered historic buildings. It involves demolition and destruction of listed, inventoried historic properties.

13.This project digs up and destroys the first American powder mill to be up and running in the Revolution, a very important archeological asset. Built at this site March 1, 1776, it must not be lost forever.

14.This area is of critical environmental concern as it sits on the banks of the Shawsheen River. Today, every spring we have sewer water mains overflowing into the river and onto the property of abutters.

15.Just a few years past the houses and medical center were in good repair and well lived in and used. Present land owner purchased houses one by one and let them go downhill in upkeep.

16.The project location is a major traffic jam area due to the adjacent shopping mall and abutting Post Office.

17.An alternative project was approved a few years ago: restore the existing, vacant medical building which is an historic structure within the Andover Village Industrial District.

18.Alternative plans for the site should also include restoration and return to residential use of the houses that are designated historic properties.

19.Because of frequent flooding, the lower half of the property should be restored to original flood pond by taking out the 10 feet of fill added and paved over.

20.The density calculations for this project are incorrect. The apartment building (72 units) is the basis used (as if dedicating 100% of all acreage to it) for calculations to meet town standards. In fact, 1/2 of the property  acreage is devoted to a new, large medical center.

21.There is a dam at the site that in 1994 was targeted for clean up and repair. No action to date.

22.The lower part of the existing parking area has 10 feet filled in with material dredged from in front of the dam.

23.The project calls for a bizarre plan to circumvent local parking regulations by having a   2 story underground parking garage. During floods the garage becomes a flood storage area and shuts down. The lack of parking would shut down the medical center. The medical center could not perform its critical purpose as the first floor of the garage would stay flooded and  contaminated for days.

24.The Shawsheen River at the abutting Post Office is the watershed test area with the highest fecal contamination (Fecal Coliform: 840 - 1100 and E.Coli: 620 - 1100) measured for the Merrimack River Watershed Council with assistance from the town. This is the river water that will flow into a medical center underground garage. This is a major health hazard and puts visitors to the medical center in harm's way!

25. The proposed project would place children into an isolated area with nowhere to play but the contaminated river or the abutting McDonald or the video store in the strip mall etc. When they inevitably cross the street to these places, the children are pedestrians in harm's way.

26. The proposed project involves cutting down many large shade trees.

27. The proposed project would eliminate an historic stone wall.

28. There is solid and hazardous waste at the site. We have asked for testing as neighbors. Remember what was here: powder mill (1776 - 1796); paper mill 1780 - 1830); textile mill (1830 - 1960); electroplating company (1960 -1969Est.); and a medical center for about ten years until 1995. All were at this exact site and left who knows how much waste yet to be cleaned up.

29. Town Meeting this year voted down two warrants pertaining to this proposed project. Voters see this area under water with frequent, not just spring flooding. They know the sewer line interceptor does overflow every spring and has for 30 years. They know the traffic problems they face at the Post Office and the only strip mall in town.

We respectfully request a fail safe review of this proposed project.