BRUNSWICK, Maine — The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is reviewing a revised stormwater permit application for an Amtrak Downeaster train layover facility that was rejected by the department.
In an interview Wednesday, DEP Deputy Commissioner Heather Parent said that after regular discussions with staff of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, the department determined the permit is likely the only environmental license or approval needed from the state to proceed with the project.
“As it stands now, it appears as though the stormwater permit is the only permit that is currently necessary under the current proposal,” Parent said. “But it is premature to determine that just because we accepted it as complete that the stormwater permit will be issued.”
The department is further reviewing NNEPRA’s formal response to a series of questions about the project posed in August by DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho at the same time the application was rejected.
Many of the issues raised by the department already have been answered through verbal communication with agency, and NNEPRA’s new filing includes back-up documentation, Parent said.
Aho sent the letter in part to determine whether NNEPRA needed to obtain further licenses or permits from the state for the project, according to Parent.
Staff from nearly all DEP’s divisions are reviewing NNEPRA’s response and will make individual determinations on whether it satisfies the department’s concerns or whether NNEPRA needs to get additional approvals.
If not, NNEPRA would be free, at least from the DEP’s perspective, to begin construction, Parent said.
“If no other questions or issues come to light that determine that more is needed from us, as far as permits are concerned, then yes, they could initiate construction,” she said.
DEP accepted NNEPRA’s stormwater permit application Oct. 3. It has until Dec. 17 to decide whether to issue the permit.
“Obviously, we are hopeful it doesn’t take that long,” NNEPRA Executive Director Patricia Quinn said, noting the same application already has been submitted and approved by the department once before.
The DEP issued a permit for the site last November, but it was voided by a superior court judge, who ruled in July the DEP did not properly inform abutters about the permit application.
A resubmitted application was rejected by the DEP in August because important information either was missing or was out of place, according to DEP staff.
NNEPRA’s resubmitted application includes the items sought by DEP and provides additional information requested by DEP staff after the new application was first submitted Sept. 10.
In addition to the application, NNEPRA also delivered a lengthy response to Aho’s questions in a 16-page memo accompanied by more than 400 pages of additional information, including groundwater, soil and air-quality tests conducted in the month after receiving the commissioner’s missive.
“It’s a thorough response,” Quinn said. “I think we tried to clarify a lot of the misunderstandings and misinformation and provide clarity and back-up documentation.”
In particular, Quinn pointed to the work NNEPRA has done to clear up concerns about the impact on groundwater quality, especially to at least one private drinking water well near the site.
Tests at the site show its use as a rail yard had no negative impact on nearby water quality, indicating future uses would not “result in adverse impacts on water supply wells that may exist in the vicinity of the site,” Quinn wrote in the agency’s response to Aho.
NNEPRA also provided plans on how it intends to control lead- and arsenic-contaminated dust at the site during construction, how it intends to store and transport 55-gallon drums of lubricating oil at the facility and its plans for solid waste and septic pump-outs.
In response to Aho’s question about how the agency will deal with the possible discharge of diesel fuel or oil while idling, Quinn flatly denied the locomotives used by the Amtrak Downeaster have that problem.
“Amtrak environmental has confirmed that P-42 locomotives used in Downeaster service do not discharge fuel when idling,” Quinn stated in her response. “No evidence of chronic oil discharges from Amtrak P-42 locomotives exists,” she added.
If any spills are discovered, staff will act immediately to clean up the oil, Quinn stated.
For some of the department’s questions, NNEPRA said it would notify the department if there were any relevant changes to its facility or operation plans.
NNEPRA is proposing a the layover facility between Stanhope Street and Church Road to store up to three Downeaster locomotives overnight and to perform basic maintenance work.
The agency claims the facility will eliminate outside idling of trains in Brunswick and Portland and will allow extra Downeaster trips between Brunswick and Boston.
The project has gone anything but smoothly since it was proposed three years ago.
A group of Bouchard Street residents, under the auspices of the Brunswick West Neighborhood Coalition, have opposed the project and have filed the lawsuit to void the original stormwater permit. State political figures, including Gov. Paul LePage, also have weighed in.
Construction of the facility cannot begin without a permit in place.
“Right now, we’re just in a holding pattern,” Quinn said.