Army Seeks Wetlands Permit

As I was browsing through a stack of unread Hartford Courant papers this week, I stumbled across a small article (in the Aug. 13th paper) detailing the Army Corps of Engineers' application for a permit to fill wetlands in Cucia Park. The Courant picked up the story from the Middletown Press, and I thought it worth it to reprint that story (click here to go to the original MP story):

By SLOAN BREWSTER, Press staff

MIDDLETOWN — The U.S. Army Reserve is seeking a permit to
fill wetlands at Cucia Park. The federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers is part of the Clean Water Act, and one of the legal hurdles the
military must jump in its plans to build an army reserve training center on
the 42-acre park on Smith Street. In July, Mayor Sebastian N. Giuliano
signed the contract for the $2 million sale of the park. Now he is waiting
for the money, he said Tuesday. According to the contract, the military has
until the end of the fiscal year to pay. Last month at the Crowne Plaza
Hotel in Cromwell, the buyers held a preconstruction meeting with
contractors that might be interested in building the proposed facility, the
mayor said. Construction on the three-story, 164,007-square-foot facility on
17 acres of the park will not begin until the permit is issued, said Todd
Hornback, Corps spokesman for the Louisville District. “Once the permit goes
through, we can finalize the contract,” Hornback said. The permit will limit
what can be done on the wetlands, said Larry Rosenberg, corps chief of
public affairs for the New England District. “We have to gain that permit to
see what mitigation [allows], and how much can we fill,” he explained. In
order to make such determinations, the corps must evaluate the construction
plans and consider the impact to the wetlands, Rosenberg said. “Our goal is
always net loss zero,” Rosenberg said. “The only thing that we issue a
permit on is the least damaging practicable alternative. This is a public
trust; we are charged by congress to not impact on the environment
negatively.” There have already been changes to the plans for the wetlands,
Hornback and Rosenberg said, specifying that the amount to be filled has
been decreased. Neither spokesman knew the exact specifications of the
changes, they said. The permit can be denied, issued or issued with
conditions, Rosenberg said, adding that 99 percent of such permits are
issued with conditions. The training center is a response to the 2005 Base
Realignment and Closure Act, which mandates smaller individual reserve bases be closed and replaced with larger combined locations where reservists train on alternate weekends. There is a 30-day period during which the public may file comments or request a public hearing on the permit review. Public comments must be filed no later than Sept. 11, to the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, New England District, Regulatory Division, (attn: Cori Rose) 696
Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742-2751, or e-mail cori.m.rose@usace.army.mil.

I was traveling for most of July, so I missed this news completely. Interestingly, the print Courant article reported that the City of Middletown has already received monies (I think it said $100,000, but I recycled the paper yesterday before I thought about publishing this article, so I could be wrong) that it can keep whether the purchase of Cucia Park goes through or not; this same information was NOT in the online version. If anyone knows more about this, please post an update comment!