25A-190 (21) Thank you for your attention to this matter. If you have
any questions, please call Larry Smith at the above number, X263,
or Tom Nicoletti, X289.
Yours truly,
Ralph Emrick,
Vice-chairman
Conservation Commission
Enclosure
cc: Robert Terenzi, DEQE
Western Mass. Bus Lines
RE/jad
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City of Northampton, Massachusetts
Office of Planning and Development
City Hall • 210 Main Street
Northampton, MA 01060•(413) 586.6950 $
• Community and Economic Development
• Conservation Historic Preservation `s
• Planning Board•Zoning Board of Appeals
March 31, 1988
Robert D. Manz
Pioneer Valley Transit Authority
Market Place, 2nd Floor
1365 Main Street
Springfield, MA 01103
Dear Mr. Manz:
At our meeting on March 14, 1988, the Northampton
Conservation Commission voted to issue the enclosed Enforcement
Order against PVTA for an oil spill that occurred in January at
your facility at 54 Industrial Drive, Northampton. We had
received reports on the presence of oil in the adjacent wetland
and stream, and when we made a site inspection on March 12, we
learned from personnel at the facility and from resident
neighbors some of the details of the spill. The Department of
Environmental Quality Engineering, which had responded to the
notification of the spill in January, has since provided further
information. Part of our concern stems from the fact that none
of the parties involved - Western Mass. Bus Lines, PVTA, and DEQE
- notified anyone in city government until well after the fact.
Our Commission is very concerned about this kind of spill
(of which there have been several at the PVTA facility) and the
effects on the quality of the ground-and surface-water in that
area. Therefore, as a condition of the Enforcement Order, we are
requesting that a representative of PVTA appear at the next
Commission meeting on April 11 prepared to explain the drainage
plans for the facility and a means for ensuring that such a spill
does not recur. We are told by DEQE that your facility does
contain oil-water separators inside the building and that this
spill occurred "overland, " where the oil, which had been captured
in snow in the parking lot, flowed out when the snow began to
melt and then crossed the parking lot and drained into a catch
basin. If, indeed, the separators are functioning, we would like
to see a contingency for handling this type of spill. It would
seem reasonable to expect, for example, that there be separators
installed in the catch basins.