Stonington to begin environmental testing of boathouse park site

Town needs to develop remediation plan to acquire work permit from DEEP

“We’re pretty excited to get to this point from where we came with the initial vision of creating this facility.” JASON VINCENT, STONINGTON DIRECTOR OF PLANNING

Stonington — The town has announced that it will begin environmental testing of the Mystic River boathouse park property next week.

In 2016, voters approved $2.2 million to buy the 1.5-acre property just north of Mystic Seaport on Route 27 and create the park after a preliminary environmental review and testing gave the town “a comfort level” that there were no serious environmental problems with the site, according to Director of Planning Jason Vincent.

For years, slag, a byproduct of coal burning, was hauled to the property from the Rossie Velvet Mill across the street and dumped into the Mystic River. A large portion of the boathouse site park was formed by slag.

The town now needs to develop a remediation plan for the site in order to acquire a permit for the work from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The state Department of Community and Economic Development has approved a $200,000 grant for the town to plan the cleanup. There is also money in the bonding approved by residents to perform the actual remediation.

Vincent said the environmental review will allow project manager Kent + Frost to understand the environmental constraints of the site as it develops both the remediation plan and master plan, which will show where parking, the boathouse, docks and other features will be placed.

Vincent said the town is not anticipating that it can’t do something it planned based on the findings of the review.

He said the review also will allow the town to pinpoint exactly what areas of the site need to be cleaned instead of remediating the entire site, which eventually will save the town money.

He said the review will take several months to complete. The town will hold more public forums once Kent + Frost finishes its master plan and before it is submitted to the Planning and Zoning Commission for approval. He added the town will wait to submit its plan to the commission until after DEEP has approved a permit for the cleanup. He said this will save the cost of changing the plan based on the DEEP review.

“We’re pretty excited to get to this point from where we came with the initial vision of creating this facility,” Vincent said.

The town also has reached an agreement with the Friends of Stonington Crew. The organization will raise money and construct the dock and boathouse on the property for use by the Stonington High School crew team and the public. The group already has begun fundraising.