Deal diverts wetlands fine south to Eel River project
The wetlands that state officials say the Lorusso-Bristol Stone Corp. of Weymouth destroyed in Hingham and Weymouth can not be restored, but wetlands farther south -- in Plymouth -- will benefit from the penalty the company has agreed to pay.
Although the company "vigorously denies" the charge, it has agreed to a $400,000 fine, as well as a $180,000 contribution to improve water flow in the head waters of the Eel River in Plymouth where wild trout once thrived.
State environmental regulators have suspended $200,000 of the fine as long as the company -- which owns a quarry on Pleasant Street in East Weymouth -- carries out its agreement to assist the wetlands restoration effort. The full fine can be imposed if Lorusso-Bristol Stone fails to carry out the agreement.
Plymouth area environmentalists praised the state's action while bemoaning the environmental rule-breaking that prompted the penalty.
"I'm thrilled," said Mettie Whipple, president of the Eel River Watershed Association, a neighborhood organization. "The Eel River Watershed Association thinks this is a great thing," Whipple said of the head waters restoration project. "If this brings more funds to move forward, this is good news."
"On the whole, we certainly would rather not see people violate wetlands law," said Rob Johnson, southeastern Massachusetts program director for The Nature Conservancy. "But this is definitely an important restoration project that we're excited about,"
Lorusso-Bristol Stone agreed to the fine after the attorney general's office filed a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court alleging the company excavated and removed four acres of vegetated wetlands to a depth of 70 feet in order to expand its rock quarry between 1995 and 2001. The complaint also alleges the company removed a portion of an intermittent stream that flowed through the wetlands and that its excavation of granite from the wetlands caused an additional three acres of wetlands to dry up.
Aerial surveillance of the property helped make the case, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Three years ago the DEP began taking systematic aerial photos and matching them against photos taken of the same areas a decade or more earlier.
The use of aerial photography to enforce environmental law shows "violators who think they can get away with illegally filling wetlands in the 'back 40' are sadly mistaken," said Arleen O'Donnell, the DEP's acting commissioner.
In a statement, the company said that it denied the charges, and had been "prepared to challenge" them, but agreed to the settlement after deciding that "litigation... would have cost both parties extensive time and resources to no positive gain for anyone. "
Habitat restoration is regarded as an important tool to combat environmental degradation due to lost wetlands, but state officials said the depth of the excavation left them with "nothing to restore" at the site of the excavated wetlands. Officials then looked for a valuable ongoing wetlands restoration program to support and found one in the effort undertaken by the town of Plymouth in conjunction with the state's Riverways Program and area partners.
Weymouth officials could not be reached for comment on the loss of wetlands.
Plymouth officials have been trying to acquire Lorusso-Bristol's mitigation money for the Eel River ever since they got wind of the quarry case last spring, said David Gould, the town's environmental manager and acting public works director.
"It's good to see the hard work pay off," he said of the decision to apply the money to Plymouth's project.
The Eel River head waters restoration project will return 35 acres of former bogs to an idealized version of their natural state, Gould said. The project consists of removing a small dam and other water control devices used for cranberry cultivation, restoring some of the original topography to allow the stream to meander and flow freely through the bogs, and planting native vegetation, including white cedar trees. The change will encourage brook trout to swim upstream to the head waters.
The town acquired two properties, totaling more than 90 acres counting the bogs' uplands, through Community Preservation Act funds.
Among the state's Riverways Program's priority programs, the Eel River restoration program is the closest geographically to the quarry area.
"This one is moving forward," DEP spokesman Ed Coletta said. "We can help get them some money for mitigation."
Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox@gmail.com. 