“Sludge” released from Home Market

The Norwood Conservation Commission (ConCom) met last week and discussed several violations and issues around the Norwood Conservation Bylaw.

First, Norwood Conservation Agent Carly Rocklen informed the ConCom members that “wastewater sludge” was released from Home Market Foods at 140 Morgan Ave. in Norwood on August 3.

“There had been a release of wastewater sludge that had gotten into a drain, then accessed the stormwater drain system, and then a wetland resource area,” Rocklen said of the notice Home Market sent to the Conservation Department.

Rocklen said the sludge is what’s known as fats, oils and grease (FOGs).

She said Home Market also contacted the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), a licensed site professional, and an environmental cleanup company.

“They had the sludge vacuumed out,” she said. “And DEP’s Bureau of Water Resources and also the department’s Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup (BWSC) has been in contact with Home Market Foods and I’ve been in contact with the DEP. So Home Market is following all directions. The site is cleaned up at this point, and I visited the site today. Home Market Foods showed me they have some new preventative measures in place to prevent this from happening again.”

Rocklen said those measures included coverings over the catch basins to prevent overflow into the wetland areas. The sludge was released from a multi-story tank that is emptied via truck. Basically, the sludge had been released from a hose that had been left on the ground during a very heavy rain storm.

“So basically they now have a system in place where they’ll cover the catch basins temporarily and they have lengthened this hose to get it off of the trench and are planning to replace the hose with a hard pipe that will get connected to the truck,” she said. “They’ll also be conducting a test of the sludge to figure out exactly what was in it.”

In other news, Attorney David Hern came back representing Alexander Argiros and Technology Realty Ventures Trust LLC on the issues going on at 1 Technology Way.

The short explanation is that Costco is looking to redevelop the property for a new Costco retail site. There are several issues around the site, including wetlands that had previously been notated and then removed by the property owner. The ConCom ordered they be replaced, and then the property owners took longer than the time permitted by Rocklen and the ConCom.

It was then found that there might be more wetlands on the site than previously thought, and Rocklen and the ConCom had toyed with the idea of requiring a new wetlands delineation – a measurement of wetlands and the effective buffers the Norwood Conservation Bylaw would require for them – but Hern and the ConCom agreed at last week’s meeting that wouldn’t be necessary.

“The Commission requested that they or the Commission’s agent or a designee be granted access to the site at 1 Technology Way for a determination or delineation of the area,” Hern said. “We’ve indicated that we do not agree to that [request] at this point, and I conveyed that.”

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ConCom Chair Christine Walsh said the board agreed with Hern that since there is nothing pending right at this moment, such a delineation wouldn’t be necessary.

That came with a big “but” however.

“We accept your response and just know we’ll be paying close attention to any development that happens there in the future,” she said.

“I thought we’d be a little closer and file plans today, but I was told that a meeting we were supposed to have tomorrow was put off because there are some very busy people involved,” Hern said. “But I’m not referring to myself.”

Hern then requested an extension on the wetlands repair work to the end of September. The ConCom voted unanimously to approve, though the work originally had a competition date set last year to the spring of 2026, then extended to the end of July and is now extended to the end of September.