Residents battle city over the future of Chelsea Creek

The site on Condor Street in East Boston was home to Hess Corp. fuel tanks until 1998, when Hess removed the tanks under community pressure. The Boston Redevelopment Authority bought the riverfront acreage for $1.9 million three years ago, but its development plans were delayed by the financial collapse and credit crisis.

Environmental activists and some neighbors of the East Boston site, meanwhile, were forming their vision of a natural wetland and bird habitat. To make the dream a reality, they have set their sights on a substantial pot of federal money that came available last year and is aimed specifically at funding environmental restoration in the Mystic River watershed.

The money comes from a $6.1 million pollution settlement that federal lawyers won last year from ExxonMobil after the oil giant pleaded guilty to criminal violations of the Clean Water Act in connection with a spill in 2006 at its Everett oil terminal which leaked more than 15,000 gallons of diesel and kerosene into the Mystic and Island End rivers.
The US District judge in that case set aside $4.6 million of the settlement for a special fund managed by US Fish & Wildlife under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. The money must be spent in Massachusetts with preference given to communities affected by the fuel spill.

The Chelsea Creek Action Group has applied to the federal program for $500,000 to buy the brownfield from the BRA and another $1 million for an ambitious project to turn the land into a marshy wetland suitable for migratory bird habitat, some public access and a system to manage storm water.

But without backing from the BRA and support from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, it’s unlikely that the activists’ application can make any headway with the selection committee at the wetlands conservation fund, which will determines eligibility for applicants in late September.

‘‘We don’t fund acquisitions unless there’s a willing seller,’’ said Rachel Levin, a spokesperson at the US Fish & Wildlife Service in Arlington, Va.

And so far, despite months of grassroots lobbying by the Chelsea Creek environmentalists, the BRA won’t budge.

‘‘Our goal is to have some sort of manufacturing green technology use there. We think East Boston deserves decent wage jobs,’’ said Richard McGuinness, the BRA’s deputy director for waterfront planning.

For now, the site is dormant, and engineers hired by the BRA last year reported that it could cost more than $4 million in repairs to make the land ready for industrial use.

Meanwhile, McGuinness said the BRA has submitted its own application to the federal wetlands conservation fund for $1.6 million to improve bird habitat along the Chelsea River, the official name of the creek. Its proposal is to rebuild marshland with eel grass and spartina grass on five smaller parcels farther east of the former Hess site.

‘‘The intertidal areas all have great potential for salty marsh restoration or restoring shellfish beds,’’ McGuinness said, arguing that the BRA stands a better chance of winning the money than the community activists’ plan.

While the Chelsea Creek Action Group doesn’t oppose BRA intentions to improve wetlands along the creek, the environmentalists feel that city officials have turned a deaf ear to what residents want.

‘‘They didn’t consider the community,’’ said Melinda Alvarado-Vega, a lead organizer for the group and a lifelong Chelsea resident. ‘‘Environmental justice, a clean watershed and access to the water are immensely important to residents of East Boston and Chelsea.’’

Alvarado-Vega said youth activists collected more than 1,000 signatures in support of their proposal for the brownfield and sent that petition to the mayor, but they still have not been able to sit down face-to-face with Menino.

At a community meeting last month at the Maverick Landing housing complex, neighbors complained that there’s already too much industry and truck traffic along Condor Street.
Antonio Gambale has lived right across from the old Hess site for 38 years and said the land is already a slice of nature.

‘‘It’s a magnificent piece of God’s work,’’ Gambale said. ‘‘My wife and I enjoy the birds, ducks and geese, egrets and Great Blue Herons. The best thing (the BRA) could is leave it alone and give it away as wetlands.’’