[Massplanners] pfas contamination and aquifer protection

[Belansky, Evan]

How are CC's and PB's approaching PFAS contamination within ground water and soils where located within a zone II aquifer protection district as part of a regulatory hearing for a project? Our project is a demolition of a 100K office building and construction of a new 90K warehouse....so soil disturbances related removal of foundation and installation of a new stormwater BMP's. Chelmsford is served by three separate and independent water district utilities and they rely on 100% of the aquifers for drinking water. The applicant has stated that the PFAS is due to up gradient properties and is seeking DEP's designation as a down gradient property which I understand means that the property may have limited legal obligations to clean up the contamination.

While the wetlands act and the zoning bylaw both include aquifer protection as interests.......it is not clear to me if the wetlands act cover "drinking water" as an interest. Out aquifer protection zoning district specifically regulates hazardous materials as defined by MGL 21e which I assume covers PFAS at this point. However the zoning bylaw appears to regulate uses and activities that generate / use hazardous materials in their operations.

My limited knowledge about this indicates that the DEP stormwater regs do not mention PFAS and do not include any guidance / or standards.
It is also my understanding that DEP regulates PFAS  contamination and the associated clean ups if required.

So....any insights , advise, comments, etc?

Thanks

Evan Belansky
Town of Chelmsford
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://masscptc.org/pipermail/massplanners_masscptc.org/attachments/20230823/061dd108/attachment.htm>