Army Base Wetlands Permit Process Proceeds

Residents of Boardman Lane were alarmed last week to see engineers examining the wetlands on the 88-acre parcel which they thought had been rejected by the US Army Corps of Engineers for a Military Training Facility to be built in Middletown. However, the activity turned out to be part of the normal process for the Corps to gain a wetlands permit for the site that the Army ultimately selected, Cucia Park.

Debbie Terrell, who rents and farms the property originally selected by the Army, told me that on Thursday, "there were 8 people, women and men, taking pictures." At least one resident was concerned enough to contact the City Planner, Bill Warner. Responding to a comment from another neighbor on The Eye, Bill Warner wrote, "The Boardman Lane site was not evaluated in the environmental assesment. I dont see how the Army could jump to that site." Warner was referring to the environmental assessment released April 13th, which did not evaluate the Boardman Lane site, but instead evaluated a site on Ken Dooley Drive which does not include the Boardman Lane land. That environmental assessment selected Cucia Park as the military's preferred site. The City agreed to sell the Park to the Army for $2M, this sale is dependent upon the Army obtaining all necessary permits for construction.

The construction at Cucia Park will require filling of some wetlands, and the Corps of Engineers team, led by project manager Diane McCartin, needs to have a permit from the Corps of Engineers Regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do this. Part of the environmental review, according to an article by Sloan Brewster in the Middletown Press, requires a determination that the preferred site is the "least damaging practicable alternative." Thus, the review often includes an evaluation of other possible sites for the facility.

McCartin confirmed this in a phone interview with The Eye, saying that the EPA was doing "due diligence to determine if Cucia Park is the least environmentally damaging site. Visiting previously considered sites is something they decided to do before they would issue a permit." In addition to Boardman Lane, the regulators wanted to tour a site off of Ken Dooley Drive (this property abuts the rear of the Boardman Lane property), Cucia Park, a property owned by Walter Manthay at Middle and Bell Street, and a property owned by Krane Development on Atkins Street. In an email to Warner, McCartin indicated that regulators asked them to delineate the wetlands on the Boardman Lane site "because the regulators believe there are more wetlands there than originally delineated and they want this information for their records."

Larry Rosenberg, corps chief of public affairs for the New England District, told The Press that 99 percent of wetlands permit applications are approved with conditions. These conditions might include a mitigation plan, wherein the Corps would enhance or protect other wetlands within the same watershed.