NEMT Forest - The rock outcrop is where the Hentz’s Red-bellied Tiger Beetle, a MESA (Massachusetts Endangered Species Act) species lives, is scheduled to be blasted. We cannot recreate igneous rocks.
Action Alert:
NEMT School Virtual Meeting on Blasting plans, Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 7:00 PM on Zoom
Zoom Link: https://northeastmetrotech.zoom.us/j/81813603814
Dear Friends of the Forest,
Though the MASSDEP site permit is pending, the NEMT School project plans to begin blasting at the Forest site in early October. In our appeal to MassDEP, we have highlighted scientific evidence that blasting in the upland areas, the buffer zones, and near the wetlands, will have serious and irreversible consequences on the ability of the wetland-buffer zone complex to function as habitats.
The blasting permits were granted without due diligence and a public process. Multiple citizens wrote to the Wakefield Fire Department and town officials about their concerns and questioned the lack of a public forum to review the blasting plans. The NEMT project has now scheduled the first public meeting on their blasting plans.
Please attend the NEMT School virtual meeting on blasting plans, ask questions, comment and voice your concerns.
You can also see information on the Facebook page of the Save the Forest and Build the Voke group.
Empower yourself with the following documents and be better informed about the months-long blasting for the NEMT school project, safety concerns, and the lack of a public process. Be sure to raise your questions at the meeting tomorrow.
1) Click here: The 158 page Blasting Plan
2) Click here: Letters to Wakefield Fire Department from Dr. Christine Rioux
An excerpt from Dr. Rioux’s letter listing safety concerns -
Important information missing from the plan:
1. Where are the specific monitoring locations? There is no figure showing this.
2. What specific protections for noise and vibration have been put in place around the vocational high school school, Wakefield high school and the early childcare location for children and youth?
3. What is the expected duration ( in weeks or months) of the blasting operation?
4. Have the teachers, students, and parents of the vocational school and Wakefield high school been informed of the hourly duration (hours from 8:00 am to 4:00 PM) and intensity of the blasting operation?
5. Have the parents of children in the early childcare program been informed?
6. Will accommodations be made for students who cannot tolerate the noise and vibration impacts?
7. Will student outdoor activities be curtailed during blasting operations?
Letter to Deputy Chief Purcell (pdf)
3) Click here - Letter from a concerned citizen
4) Click here - Issues with the Blasting Plan
5) Click here - Construction Project Engineer’s thoughts on the NEMT Build by David Alexander
Published here in the Saugus Advocate, March 10, 2023
Excerpts:
3. The area to be blasted is ledge. Nobody knows how deep it is or how extensive. This isn’t like a big rock sitting in sand that can get blown up with no collateral damage. Blasting contractors are required to use blast pads to prevent any material from flying away from the blast zone. But what happens above ground is not nearly as important as what happens underground. Shock waves from blasting can travel long distances through solid rock potentially impacting abutting houses.
4. The blasting area is very close to massive high voltage electrical transmission towers which are not necessarily designed in this part of the country to be earthquake proof. The shock waves from blasting are roughly equivalent to an earthquake. Safe distances for blasting near electrical transmission towers are not firmly established anywhere that I could find.
7) Blasting impacts in our Request to Affirm Wakefield Conservation Commission denial of project
8) Information below on whom you can write to.
Please call or email the Wakefield Fire Department, Town Council, and Town Engineer, to voice your concerns about the blasting plans.
Wakefield Fire Department
Deputy Chief Thomas Purcell - Email: tpurcell@wakefield.ma.us | 781.246.6435
Capt. David Shinney - Email: dshinney@wakefield.ma.us | 781.246.6435 x4
Town of Wakefield
Town Administrator, Steve Maio - Email: smaio@wakefield.ma.us | 781.246.6390
Town Councilor, Mehreen N. Butt - Email: councilor.butt@wakefield.ma.us | 781.307.8710
Town Engineer, William Renault - Email: wrenault@wakefield.ma.us | 781.246.6301 x 3
The following is from a Post on Save the Forest and Build the Voke FB page
There are several incorrect, absent or highly misleading statements in tonight's [September 26, 2023] unsigned front page story of the Wakefield Item regarding the 'Voke blasting meeting Thursday".
1) There is no mention that it was the public who demanded a public forum to be arranged so that residents can ask questions and raise concerns about the blasting PRIOR to the blasting permit being granted.
2) The article states, "The blasting will be one of the first steps toward constructing a new $315 million …school."
There is no mention about the cutting of 2000+ trees, 18 wheelers up in the forest hauling away logs and debris on Wakefield residential streets, or cutting a road through the forest and near wetlands to accommodate the increased traffic.
Note that none of this would be necessary if the school were to be built on one of the alternate building sites.
3) The article states. "The project team anticipates that some blasting will occur while students will be in school.
It did not mention that blasting will occur approximately 80% of the time students are in class.
4) The article states, "…a plan has to be approved by the Wakefield fire department prior to any blasting."
The permit and blasting plan have ALREADY been approved and granted. The article makes it sound like this virtual meeting
will happen prior to such approval. That is not true.
5) The article indicates that a blasting subcontractor has not yet been awarded.
That is incorrect. Maine Drilling and Blasting submitted the blasting plan that has already been approved.
6) The article says, "All blasting activities will strictly follow the blasting plan that is developed specifically for this project."
Keep in mind that the plan is 158 pages, with nearly 130 pages of boilerplate and very little specific information. The glaring gaps have been summarized by Save the Forest personnel and sent to the Fire Department.
We cannot recreate igneous rocks. Once blasted, the rocks are gone forever. There is strong scientific evidence that grubbing and blasting alters geology, hydrology, storm water pathways, and impacts wetlands, which receive nutrients and minerals by the actions of water carrying sediments from upland soil and rocks. Blasting sterilizes the pristine and nutrient rich forest soil, kills the soil dwelling organisms and microbes, and destroys the dormant and living seeds of spores of undiscovered species. The project will bring in soil of unknown origins and introduce non-native species, further upsetting the rare forest ecosystem that remains. They will call it a ‘school in the woods’. A school of technology should be grounded in science, but there appears to be reverence for scientific principles at neither the NEMT vocational school nor the MSBA which funds these projects.
A tussock moth caterpillar walking on the barrier delineating the area of destruction at the Forest. The caterpillar was safely released at the perimeter and is safe.
Mycorrhizal network of fungi and roots of trees and plants are crucial for the proper functioning of a forest ecosystem. Here are fruiting bodies that have emerged.
We came across this wonderful little toad at the periphery of the NEMT Forest. His/her kind have been killed at the core of the Forest, which has been cleared out, despite all the pleas and concerns.
The project is proposing to build a road cutting through this beautiful wetland buffer zone complex. The project will be violating WPA regulations if the project goes ahead. So speak and up lend your voice to the letter to MassDEP.
Blasting will decimate unique species such as the Pinesap - a flowering plant which cannot make its own food and relies on nutrients from a fungal host.