Hennessey basin comments end Oct. 24

The Town of Norwood, the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA), and consultant Stantec held a meeting recently on the Hennessey Field Detention Basin Project.

The project is slated to help localized flooding in the area of Lenox Street, Cross Street, and Pleasant Park. The basin is the first step in the Meadowbrook stormwater improvement project, which looks to reduce flooding across the entire Meadowbrook area.

The Meadowbrook area is a huge water system that covers all of Downtown and goes east until the Meadow Brook drains into the Neponset River. The area has been known to flood during big storms, and Norwood Department of Public Works Director and Town Engineer Mark Ryan said the huge project is aimed at reducing and, hopefully, eliminating flooding in that system.

The estimated price tag for the big project – that’s including Hennessey Field – was $37.4 million. But Ryan said there’s a catch.

“That’s 2022 dollars,” he said.

So it will likely be more expensive, but he said the entirety of the project will make Norwood drier.

“Before we do any of those, this has to be in place,” he said. “It’s the lynchpin of all of the Meadowbrook Study recommendations. You cannot do anything to alleviate the flooding uptown, until you figure out a way to mitigate the flows heading towards the Meadowbrook. And the Hennessey Field Detention Basin would be the project that would solve the rate of runoff towards the Meadowbrook. So before we do anything else upstream, our focus is the Hennessey Field Detention Basin.”

The Meeting recently was with MEPA and presented the Environmental Impact Report, which is currently open for comment from the public. Stantec is designing the Hennessey project and prepared the report for MEPA and the public.

Ryan said Stantec did the report and they are bringing the project to 100 percent design relatively soon.

“We’re getting it ready for bid, we’re just figuring out funding for construction,” he said.

Ryan said funding for the design has been taken care of by a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Grant Grant, as well as funds from the American Rescue Plan Act funds.

“Further design and construction of the project will be funded with probably some federal funds, state funding and local funding,” Ryan said. “We’re looking also at a stormwater utility fee. But the Town of Norwood has had enough of this flooding, and it’s time we moved forward, and to move forward, the Hennessey Field Detention Basin would have to be constructed.”

Stantec Geotechnical Engineer and Project Manager Stephen Karpenko went further on this, saying that such a detention basin would help slow down water throughout the proposed system and alleviate flooding pressure on the entire system.

“So as to not increase river flooding downstream for the next town,” he said. “We’re trying to limit the impacts and footprint of the basin, and we hope we’ll be able to continue to do that through the design process.”

The project is meant only to slow water down and will be mostly empty unless there is a storm. The design calls for a meadow around the area, which has historically been a bit contentious. A group of residents have said they want to keep the wooded area instead of the detention basin.

Karpenko said the new basin will help reduce flooding in the adjacent Pleasant Park.

Stantec Environmental Planner Michael Paiewonsky went through the environmental resources in the study area, and said this was “probably one of the only projects where there are no wetland resources within 100 feet of the study area.”

Paiewonsky said there are no endangered species or historic resources in the resource area.

Paiewonsky went through the design alternatives for the site, which basically amounted to no basin, a larger basin, or a smaller basin. The current plan is for a 6-million-gallon detention basin. The first alternative would be to basically make no changes, and Paiewonsky said that would be problematic, to say the least, both locally and for the Meadowbrook stormwater system as a whole.

“Just let the water sheetflow across Lenox Street onto Murphy Field,” he said. “That would result in flooding and make Lenox Avenue impassable during a storm, so we did not advance that alternative.”

The next was for installing rip rap – jagged edged rocks – to help slow the water in the Hennessey Field area. Paiewonsky said this would have more impact, require more of the park, and have less water reduction.

The current preferred design is for a 6-million-gallon basin. The basin size also had other alternatives that would collect and slow down the water – 9 million gallons and 18 million gallons – and the 6-million-gallon option appeared to be the best bang for the buck. The size of the basin would also allow for vegetation planting – as it wouldn’t be too deep – and amenity construction as a park.

MEPA Environmental Scientist Eva Vaughn had the only questions at the meeting, and she is the contact to send comments on the project. Comments will be accepted until Oct. 24, and you can send them to Eva.Vaughan@mass.gov

To download the Expanded Environmental Notice Form and any related documents, go to https://gvimes.link/hnnsypge