Mass. Business In Trouble with Agency

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has cited a Brockton, Mass., scrap metal recycling business for violating the Wetlands Protection Act.

South Shore Scrap Metal Inc. has been issued a DEP enforcement order to "cease and desist from all unpermitted wetland resource area activities and unpermitted storm or stormwater discharges."

The enforcement order comes after DEP representatives conducted an inspection of the property earlier this month. The enforcement order includes among the violations the digging of a trench on the property leading to Trout Brook.

Anthony Pusateri, president of South Shore Scrap Metal Inc., earlier in the week said he had not received a copy of the DEP's enforcement order.

"They did come back and look into the trench. The water does not even run through the trench," Pusateri said.

City officials began investigating the property after they received complaints about possible contamination flowing into Trout Brook from a trench on the property. The Trout River flows into the Salisbury Plain River, which empties into the Taunton River.

During a Public Safety Committee meeting earlier this month, attorney Jake Creedon, who represented the company, said although there was some discoloration seen in the waters of Trout Brook, it did not come from the trench. Creedon could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The enforcement order instructs the violator, identified as Thomas McGinnis of McGinnis Family Trust, to file a notice of intent with the Brockton Conservation Commission and obtain an order of conditions to fix the violations and for any other work the company proposes to do within the regulated area.

The enforcement order also states South Shore Scrap Metal Inc. "shall cease and desist from discharging pollutants to the surface waters of the Commonwealth without a permit" from the DEP.

Pusateri, though he had not yet received the DEP's enforcement order, said he believed the trench was a "non-issue with the city now."

He said the company has filed for a determination of applicability with the Conservation Commission, seeking permission to fill in the trench and clean up the property.

The company is on the Conservation Commission's May 13 agenda. Representatives from the company will also appear before the Public Safety Committee on May 12 for a license renewal hearing.

Mayor John T. Yunits Jr., who was notified of the violations by the DEP, said the trench is an issue with the city.

"It's a very significant issue," Yunits said. "It's not just the trench. It's the suitability of the site ... it's not something that's going to be glossed over lightly."

The mayor said city engineer Jacques Borges will be conducting daily monitoring of the site for the city.

Yunits said he does not want to see the city's natural resources abused.

"Ultimately the responsibility of protecting brooks and streams comes down to city government and the state," the mayor said.

Yunits said he is worried about what may have been discharged into the brook from the property.

He and City Councilor Dennis DeNapoli, the latter who represents Ward 5 where the company is located, said they are seeking to work with South Shore Scrap Metal to rectify problems.

"Our objective is to work with them, not hurt them and to seek a resolution that doesn't hurt their business but doesn't hurt the environment," Yunits said.

DeNapoli has walked the property with the city's code enforcement task force. He wants to know how long the trench has been at the site and who put it there.

"It didn't fall from the sky," DeNapoli said.

City Conservation Commission Chairman Carolyn La Marre said the board has sent staff out to look at the South Shore Scrap Metal site.

La Marre said when the company received the enforcement order to appear before the Conservation Commission it made a request for a determination. That filing asks the board whether the wetlands near the company have to be protected by the city and whether their activities will affect the land. The board will have to determine whether the Wetlands Protection Act applies to the property, La Marre said.

La Marre said the board will have consultants it will use to advise the members. They will also be looking at aerial photographs taken during a number of years to try to determine whether the businesses on the property have been encroaching on the wetlands.

The Public Safety Committee earlier this month asked South Shore Scrap Metal Inc. to prepare a clean-up plan before returning before the board.

Pusateri said the company has been replacing some of the truck trailers that ring the property with four-foot concrete walls. It is awaiting permission from the Conservation Commission before it can clean up some areas that are within 25 feet of Trout Brook, he said.

"Some of the debris that's there has been there for years and years and years," Pusateri said. "They are basically asking us to clean that up, which we don't have a problem with." Brockton (Massachusetts) Enterprise