Grafton & Upton Railroad (G&U) Discussion

That depends on what type of soil is between the ground water and the facility. If it is relatively organic free, coarse sand and gravel the pathway to the ground water is open. If you have organic rich fine material like clays and silt the contamination would be greatly retarded for traveling to the ground water. It also depends on the direction of flow and slope of the water table. Working in the field one of the biggest threats we are facing is the contamination of ground water from salt. States use large amounts of road salt and brine to keep our roads safe in the winter, unfortunately that salt has to go somewhere like surface water such as ponds and lakes or seep into the ground water.

Hi
Does anyone happen to know what days the railroad will be running to Franklin? or is it going to be just an as-needed basis. OK Thank you, Pat.

BandA wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:02 am

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:15 pmMotion for dismissal with STB: https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... 301631.pdf

My question, can you operate a railroad and a rail yard without eventually contaminating the groundwater below? It seems like all rail yards are contaminated. Therefore you can't safely locate town wells near rail yards or rail yards above aquifers.

Probably 99% of rail yards in the US are on sites that pre-date modern environmental regulation. Meaning the contamination may have more to do with the operating practices of the 1950's (or, indeed, the 1890's) than anything currently.

The way to protect the ground water is to do like is done with landfills. Excavate down a few feet. You don't need to go deep. Put down geotextile fabric (always water to pass through, not the clay), add and compact a foot or so of clay, than grade with topsoil and prepare the area for track. This forms a barrier that will prevent the contaminant from reaching the ground water, giving you time to cleanup and remediate any spills before they contaminate ground water. I believe the G&U's Upton yard is built on an old landfill that was remediated and has this underlying clay liner.

(From the Milford Town Crier, February 26 2021, Vol. 13 No. 3)

Town Holds on to Land Eyed by Railroad
By Kevin Rudden
Staff Reporter/Columnist

The Milford Select Board voted unanimously on February 8 to not sell a 0.78-acre parcel of commercially zoned land on West St. (Rt. 140) that was being eyed by the Grafton and Upton Railroad as an access point to land it recently acquired in neighboring Hopedale...

More at the bottom of Page 1 at http://www.towncrier.us/pdf/milford/MTC%2021.02.26.pdf

Meaning?

Like it says, the town isn't selling the land.

Obviously it's a very small piece of land but is it the only place the railroad can get access? If so then the town has made their play. The description says it is a steeply sloped parcel so maybe it's really not so useable as an access road. I got a feeling G&U will figure out an alternative if necessary.

G&U may try to acquire the land via eminent domain, if they don't have other alternatives.

Looks like no matter what, there's wetlands to deal with. Even with exemptions.. I don't see any "great" alternatives..

This one should get interesting. The railroad has every right and the power to cease that land by eminent domain, as we have learned from the previous issue last year. The town has no good reason not to sell that land to them, other than to try and prevent further development by the railroad. The only thing those communities have ever done, is push back against this railroad's development and progress.

Not to change the subject re: the proposed Hopedale transload yard, but here's a picture from Sunday 2/28/21 of the ongoing demolition of the Draper Mill building in downtown Hopedale. It doesn't appear that G&U is getting any business hauling the resulting C&D out. Wouldn't this be a good location for an expanded transload yard? But I'm guessing Hopedale citizens might object.

Sad. Would been a great location for some unicorn rail served industry or shop.
Can a railroad take town property by eminent domain? The town should place it under conservation restrictions to make things tougher.

BandA wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:40 am The town should place it under conservation restrictions to make things tougher.

The town could put it (the land in Milford) under the aegis of the town's Conservation Commission but cannot place a CR on it. I believe the transfer from any other town agency (treasurer/collector, Parks & Rec., BOS etc.) would need to be voted at Town Meeting. Currently it is shown on the Assessor's card as under the "Legal Department". I'm presuming it is via a Treasurer's Deed. Currently zoned as "Highway Commercial".

Wow, I think we were talking about two separate sites: a swampy-forest and the mill site. And three towns!

Why can't Milford place conservation restrictions on their own parcel? They don't have to "coordinate" with Hopedale.