I have begun to create 3D panoramas of a number of the points of interest around the Lake and on a recent hike, and with Sept 11 approaching, I decided to capture one at the Judith Larocque Memorial:

On the west side of Lake Cochituate’s North Pond, a nipple of town land juts out into the lake that can be reached by following Snake Brook Trail off Commonwealth Road. A memorial bench made of split logs to which a bronze plaque is attached was placed on top of the hill by the daughters of Judy Larocque, a Wayland High School graduate who was killed when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the World Trade Center.

‘Wayland A-Z’: ‘M’ is for ‘Memorials and Markers’ – Wayland, MA – Wicked Local Wayland

You can imagine my surprise when there was no bench to be found and no evidence of it’s existence remains.

I was unable to find a picture of it online and will look through my files for ones that I took a few years ago.

If anyone knows what happened please contact me.  It would be tragic if the bench was carried off by the kids who frequent and party there.

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(For those unfamiliar with the Watershed, the old GM plant is at the source of Beaver Dam Brook.)

By Danielle Ameden/Daily News staff

Posted Oct 22, 2010 @ 12:54 AM

Decades after it was dirtied by pollution, the former General Motors property on the Southside may soon be fully cleaned up.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry and U.S. Rep. Edward Markey announced yesterday the state has landed $2.3 million to finish the cleanup project. The funds come out of a new $773 million trust the Detroit automaker’s liquidation company, Old General Motors, agreed to create for site cleanups across the country.

Selectman Ginger Esty said it’s about time the company takes responsibility for environmental damage it did when it ran a paint shop on Western Avenue.

“It’s long overdue,” she said. “Hopefully this means that there will be some action. The more that they can clean up – they cannot avoid the plume that has left their property and continued down poor Beaver Dam Brook.”

GM opened its Framingham shop in the 1940s and sold the property in 1994.

The company left behind three contaminated parcels, said Ed Coletta, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection: a waste landfill over toxic soil; a stormwater runoff lagoon that contains lead; and the shallow Beaver Dam Brook that was tainted with lead, zinc and petroleum hydrocarbons.

Coletta said his agency held GM responsible in 2006 for cleaning up the contamination and set deadlines. He said the company has made some progress.

“This money will definitely help to move the rest of this along,” he said. “A lot of this work stopped when GM filed for bankruptcy.”

The $2.3 million adds to $787,000 in other funds reserved for the Framingham site’s cleanup and long-term maintenance, held in a trust controlled by the state, Coletta said.

He said the DEP is still waiting for final cleanup plans for the brook.

“That’s one of things that this will help move forward,” he said.

Adesa now operates a wholesale auto auction house on the former GM site.

Esty said she worries about the contamination there as the Beaver Dam waterway flows into Lake Cochituate.

“We’ve been living with this for a long time,” she said. “I’m just concerned about whose responsibility it really is and how long this has gone on with a lot of talk and no action.”

The White House announced the $773 million GM environmental trust settlement as “unprecedented” in size. The federal government divvied up the funds.

“We’re happy to have a path forward that addresses the needs of former auto communities,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement. “This trust – the largest environmental trust in our history – provides support for aggressive environmental cleanups at these sites, which will create jobs today and benefit the environment and human health over the long-term.”

Kerry, D-Mass., said the program “will create jobs now and protect the environment and help develop business tomorrow.”

Markey, D-7th, added, “GM has a responsibility to the community to ensure that the site remains capped and subject to ongoing monitoring.”

(Danielle Ameden can be reached at 508-626-4416 or dameden@cnc.com.)

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September 9, 2010, 11:32am EDT

The owners of a nondescript commercial building and two empty railroad plots in Natick have tapped a contractor to begin construction on the controversial, two-tower apartment development known as Chrysler Apartments.

Chrysler Apartments LLC, a joint venture involving Newton-based real estate concerns J.W. Katzen Co. and Forest Properties Management, has hired Tocci Building Corp. of Woburn to design and ultimately build the proposed 407-unit complex, which will feature a parking garage and clubhouse. The so-called 40B development also will offer at least 10 percent of those units at rents that qualify as “affordable,” per a state formula that takes a given town’s median income level into account.

Katzen and Forest acquired the development’s primary plot, a 5.7 acre property located at 5 Chrysler Road in Natick, for $12.5 million in January 2008. The seller in that deal was a partnership involving New York’s Gibralter Management Co. and Gateside Corp. The transaction was partially financed by a $6.2 million loan from Webster Bank of Connecticut.

The Katzen-Forest partnership acquired two additional properties abutting railroad tracks along Natick’s Speen Street for less than $200,000 in total. The seller in those transactions was CSX Transportation Inc.

The proposed development came under attack shortly after it was announced in 2008. The Town of Framingham, whose border is within view of the Chrysler properties, sued to block the project on the grounds that it would negatively affect traffic in the region. That suit was dismissed last year by a state land court judge.

via Developers advance Natick apartment plan – Boston Business Journal.

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(The full Labs release was reported earlier with the map of the affected area here.)

By Charlie Breitrose/Daily News staff

The MetroWest Daily News

Posted Jun 26, 2010 @ 12:24 AM

NATICK —

A hazardous spill into Lake Cochituate near the Natick Labs is being cleaned up more than 20 years after the accident that led to the contamination.

This week, crews stretched a line of buoys across Pegan Cove on Lake Cochituate to start the process of removing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from sediment on the lake bottom.

The hazardous material flowed into the lake through a storm drain after an electrical transformer exploded on the nearby U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center, or Natick Labs, in the mid-1980s.

The site made the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act priority list in 1994. In 2006, the Army and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed an agreement to clean up the area.

The EPA is overseeing the cleanup. Army officials said in a press release that they hope to remove the PCBs so they are not at a level dangerous to humans.

“The cleanup is intended to reduce the average PCB concentration in sediment to less than one-part-per-million (ppm) across Pegan Cove,” the statement reads. “This cleanup goal was selected because it is protective of humans who catch and eat native fish from the NSSC shoreline, is similar to existing PCB sediment concentrations observed at the higher-elevation Fisk Pond, and is consistent with goals selected at other PCB sites in New England.”

The cleanup was triggered when a study found that fish caught near the shore of Natick Labs had PCB concentrations slightly higher than allowed by the EPA.

The cleanup started Thursday, according to Army officials, and will continue for about eight weeks, up to six days a week, during daylight hours.

Crews will dredge sediment from the bottom and install a silt curtain to prevent it from spreading. The sediment will be put on shore, and the water will be removed and treated.

The areas where the sediment was removed will be filled in, and the area will be monitored.

During the cleanup, boating access to and fishing within Pegan Cove will be restricted.

For more information, see the EPA website for the cleanup: www.epa.gov/region1/superfund/sites/naticklab/.

(Charlie Breitrose can be reached at 508-626-3964 or cbreitro@cnc.com.)

via Lake Cochituate being cleaned up from 1980s Natick Labs spill – Framingham, MA – The MetroWest Daily News.

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Jun 24, 2010

By USAG Natick Environmental Office

Cleanup activities started on Lake Cochituate and continue into the summer for approximately 8 weeks, up to 6 days per week during daylight hours. Activities will include site preparation, mobilization, silt curtain installation, dredging, dewatering, water treatment, backfilling, monitoring, and site restoration. During the cleanup, boating access to and fishing within Pegan Cove will be restricted.

Cleanup Activities

The objective of the cleanup is to reduce the potential for human health risks associated with the sediment due to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in fish caught near the NSSC shoreline. The cleanup plan, selected by the Army with input from regulators and the public, will address PCB contamination of NSSC shoreline sediment in Pegan Cove. The Army selected the plan after completion of a Feasibility Study, which evaluated several possible risk management and cleanup alternatives. The cleanup is intended to reduce the average PCB concentration in sediment to less than 1 part per million (ppm) across Pegan Cove. This cleanup goal was selected because it is protective of humans who catch and eat native fish from the NSSC shoreline, is similar to existing PCB sediment concentrations observed at the higher-elevation Fisk Pond, and is consistent with goals selected at other PCB sites in New England. The cleanup action will reduce the volume and concentration of PCBs in sediment at the NSSC shoreline. The elevated levels of PCBs are likely related to an historic release from an electrical transformer at the NSSC facility.

Lake Cochituate is transected by several major roadways and surrounded by highly developed residential, commercial, and industrial areas. Lake Cochituate is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (MassDCR) and is used recreationally.

The selected cleanup plan involves the removal of PCB contaminated sediment using a hydraulic dredging technique from three “hot spot” areas within Pegan Cove. This technique basically vacuums the desired depth of sediment from the lake bottom.

Before cleanup activities begin, the Army will post signs on the NSSC security perimeter fence along Pegan Cove to limit boating in the area of the dredging activities and prohibit fishing within Pegan Cove during the cleanup action.

A hydraulic dredge will remove contaminated sediment from the lake bottom and convey it through a pipeline to a dewatering processing area consisting of a series of geotextile tubes, set up within open areas along the eastern shoreline of the NSSC facility. Water from the geotextile tubes will be collected and treated on-site with sand, fabric, and carbon filters. It must meet stringent water quality standards before being discharged back into the lake. Odor and dust will be monitored and controlled, as necessary.

Two silt curtains, which are barriers suspended from the top to the bottom of the lake, will protect lake water quality and stop the spread of milfoil outside the dredging areas by preventing their escape. Real-time monitoring at locations surrounding the dredging operation will ensure the effectiveness of the silt curtains.

Post-dredging sampling of each dredged area will be conducted to verify that the cleanup goals have been met. If necessary clean fill material will be used to backfill the dredged areas. Removed sediment will be tested to determine which type of licensed off-site disposal facility it will be transported to. At project completion, all equipment and materials will be removed from Pegan Cove and the NSSC property. Any onshore or shoreline areas that have been altered will be restored to their previous condition.

Site Investigations and Risk Assessments

The Army conducted human health and ecological risk assessments using data from numerous studies, with oversight by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), the MassDCR, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The risk assessments were completed in 2009 and indicate the following:

• It is safe for adults and children to swim, wade, and boat along the Natick Labs shoreline.
• Potential risks associated with eating native fish species (e.g., large mouth bass) caught near the Natick Labs shoreline within Pegan Cove are slightly greater than the U.S. EPA acceptable range. Since fish may take up contaminants from sediment, these estimated risks are the basis for the

Army’s decision to clean up contaminated sediment.

• Ecological risks due to contaminants from NSSC-associated sediment are negligible for bird and mammal species. Numerous other studies have been conducted on Lake Cochituate since the early 1990s. Detailed reports are available for public review in the Information Repository maintained at the Morse Institute Library in Natick.

Additional information is also available at the US EPA web site:

www.epa.gov/region1/superfund/sites/naticklab

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By Charlie Breitrose/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News

Posted Jun 15, 2010 @ 12:23AM

NO DATA —A special harvesting boat is making progress clearing an aggressive weed from Lake Cochituate, a town official said yesterday.

The diver-assisted suction harvester, or DASH, boat is targeting milfoil in five acres of the Middle Pond of Lake Cochituate, just off Rte. 30.

Natick Conservation Agent Bob Bois said areas where the boat has harvested look much better than other sections.

“This time of year, you can see the areas where it has not been treated” Bois said. “The plants themselves ride on the surface, and you dont see them in the areas which have been cleaned.”

Work began in late May when the DASH boat, run by AB Aquatics, started removing milfoil from the areas near the state beach, public boat ramp, and kayak and canoe rental area. Bois estimated that 80 percent of those areas have been cleared of weeds.

Officials chose the boat as an alternative to other removal options, including herbicides.

The cost will be covered by a matching grant, with $25,000 coming from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation and $12,500 from the Natick Conservation Commission.

The state will use the results to see how well the boat removes the weeds.

“The DCR is going to do the follow-up study,” Bois said.

In a separate but related project, another DASH boat company is clearing a channel for boats in the waterway that connects North Pond with Middle Pond.

“When all thats done, hopefully it will stop boats traveling between ponds from creating fragments of milfoil,” Bois said.

The weed spreads when pieces float and take root in other areas.

Charlie Breitrose can be reached at 508-626-3964 or cbreitro@cnc.com.

via DASH boat making progress removing weeds – Framingham, MA – The MetroWest Daily News.

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Excerpt of an Email from Mike Lowery

Tom Flannery asked that I notify the Wayland, Framingham, and Natick Conservation Commissions that the Diver-Assisted Suction Harvesting of the boat channel between Middle and North Ponds will begin on Monday at 8AM. The work will last an estimated five days. During this time, a fragment barrier will close the entrance to North Pond from Snake Brook Cove to boat traffic between lakes.

The work is being done under contract by A.E. Commercial Diving Services under contract with Aquatic Control Technology.

Priorities are: Extend the channel so that it connects with DASH activity to be completed in Middle Pond, clean existing channel, widen existing channel time permitting.

At the conclusion of the work, the indicated buoy markers will be set to the length and width achieved.

Mike Lowery, WSWQC

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Sucking up weeds in Lake Cochituate

Posted May 25, 2010 04:00 PM.

By Jason Woods, Globe Correspondent

In keeping with an agreement made between the town of Natick, the state and local environmental groups, divers have begun using a suction harvester to vacuum massive tangles of Milfoil weed from the bottom of Lake Cochituate rather than using herbicides to kill the weed.

The agreement was struck earlier this year between the town, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, Protect our Water Resources and the Friends of Lake Cochituate.

Natick is contributing $12,500 to the project, while the state agency will spend $25,000, to remove milfoil from more than 5 acres.

“This is a partnership grant project, set up with DCR,” said Rick Sullivan, commissioner of the agency. “We have capital funding we can use to match, in this case 2-1, projects that go to improve a DCR facility; Lake Cochituate is under our stewardship, so we worked with friends of Lake Cochituate and Natick to do this match program, which is a pilot program.”

Sullivan said if the project is successful, it is something that may be looked at for future sites.

“The real emphasis is protecting the natural resource and the recreational resource of Lake Cochituate,” Sullivan said. “But we to do it in such a way to not introduce chemicals in the water; Natick has a drinking water source nearby and has concern with chemical use.”

“There are a lot of uncertainties about chemicals,” said Carole Berkowitz, who works with Protects our Water Resources and helped organize the project. “But with this there is no uncertainty. It’s going to take out the milfoil, and leave the native plants and leave the structure of the lake in place and not interfere any of the biological processes that go on in a living lake. From our point of view, you use this first and see its effectiveness, then we’ll have discussions.”

The invasive weed can get so thick that it entangles boat propellers and can be a danger to swimmers. The divers have cleared a portion of the lake used for swimming and were working Tuesday in the area of the boat dock.

Lindsay Patterson, a diver with AB Aquatics, shows Milfoil that she and her father, Bob, pulled up from the bottom of Lake Cochituate.

Divers first remove the Milfoil from the bottom of the lake with their hands and then vaccuum it to a boat on the surface using a large hose.

“We have to get down there and pull out the roots,” said Lindsay Patterson, a diver with AB Aquatics, the group contracted for the job. “If we don’t pull out the root, it will just grow back; the Milfoil just takes over the area, they grow so tall they affect the other plants.”

Patterson, who dives with her father, Bob Patterson, said each milfoil weed could grow between 12 and 15 feet. Her father said depending on the conditions, it can take him five to ten days to clear a small area.

via Sucking up weeds in Lake Cochituate – Natick – Your Town – Boston.com.

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NATICK —

It may not be much to look at, but the platform on a floating pontoon near Cochituate State Park’s boat ramp has made a dent over the past few days in the lake’s invasive milfoil.

The craft, known as a diver-assisted suction harvester or DASH boat, has been hired through a collaboration between the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the Natick Conservation Commission and a citizens group called the Lake Cochituate Watershed Council.

Bob Patterson, along with his daughter, Lindsey, have been out on the lake for the last few days removing the weeds that have taken over parts of the lake. Patterson is the diver for the DASH boat, and owner of AB Aquatics, which got the contract to remove weeds from about five acres around the state beach and boat ramp.

The tops of the milfoil plants poke up through the surface of the lake, and underwater, the stalks stretch down to the bottom.

“They can be 14 to 16 feet long here,” Patterson said.

Patterson swims to the bottom of the lake, and pulls the plants up, complete with the root.

“You have to pull it from the bottom or else it grows back like a dandelion,” Patterson said.

In silty areas, like around the boat ramp, the plants come up pretty easily, but removing plants in the sandy area near the beach requires more effort. He said he brings down a trawl to dig around the roots and then pulls it. Then he puts the plant into a long tube that sucks it to the surface and into a basket on the boat.

He also collects any fragments of milfoil that float to the surface, because milfoil spreads by floating around and dropping to the bottom where it takes root.

The project is a test to see how well the DASH boat will do removing the weeds that affect Cochituate and other lakes in the state.

“That's part of what we are trying to figure out – how long it takes to clear an area and how much it will cost,” said Jonathan Yeo, director of water supply protection for the DCR.

Patterson’s work will be paid for by a grant, with $25,000 from the state and $12,500 from the Natick Conservation Commission, said DCR Commissioner Rick Sullivan.

“This shows their solid commitment to eliminating or controlling the milfoil,” Sullivan said. “The beach is a much used water resource and this work will allow people to use it safely.”

Patterson will be in the area for a few more days, then return in June to check how the areas are doing and remove any new plants. He will return in August or September to make one last check, said Jim Straub, DCR’s lakes and ponds manager.

State Rep. David Linksy, D-Natick, said the grant will help improve an important resource in MetroWest.

“Lots of people have been saying over the last several years, Linksy, what are you doing about the milfoil’s; Linsky said. “The lake is part of the Natick water supply, so it is a very sensitive issue.”

Carole Berkowitz, of Protect Our Water Resources, was among those opposed to using chemicals to control the weeds. She has pushed for the DASH boat for years and is confident it will be a vital weapon in the fight against weeds.

“We knew chemicals are a temporary solution,” Berkowitz said. “I know this will do a better job over time.”

This week's project is actually the second time a DASH boat has been used on the lake. Last year, one cleared weeds from a channel near the tunnel between the North Pond and Middle Pond of Lake Cochituate. That was done in conjunction with chemicals to control weeds in North Pond.

Tom Flannery, an aquatic control ecologist with DCR, said the North Pond has remained milfoil-free to this point. A floating barrier between the two lakes has helped stop fragments of the plant from drifting into the North Pond.

Mike Lowery, of the Wayland Surface Water Quality Committee, said he would like to see lakefront homeowners allowed to pay for someone to clear milfoil from in front of their property.

That is now difficult because of bureaucracy.

“I hope the DCR and local conservation commissions will get an order of conditions (for the work) in the hands of a contractor who residents can call to pay to do the work,” Lowery said. “If they don’t get permission, they will get in their boat, drive through it and make fragments of milfoil.”

For more information about the project at invasive plants, see the Lakes and Ponds Web site at www.mass.gov/lakesandponds/.

(Charlie Breitrose can be reached at 508-626-3964 or cbreitro@cnc.com.)

via Diver, DASH boat attack milfoil in Lake Cochituate – Framingham, MA – The MetroWest Daily News.

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