Charlton board hears update on Flint Road landfill capping, PFAS monitoring

Gary Magnuson, a member of the Town of Charlton Board of Health, briefed the board on progress at the Flint Road landfill and related PFAS monitoring on April 8.

Magnuson said the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) approved the town to proceed with capping on March 3, and the town must provide MassDEP with a project schedule by May 1. He told the board the team received a MassDEP file number and a handful of non‑substantive comments from both MassDEP and the conservation commission’s third‑party reviewer (Grama Engineering) that will be incorporated into plans and specifications.

Magnuson said staff will ask the conservation commission for a continuance at the next conservation meeting because the MassDEP comments arrived only days before the commission hearing and the engineering team needs time to revise plans. He said the intent is to present final plans and obtain local approvals in late April or early May, with construction not expected to start for months.

On procurement, Magnuson said the project team is drafting the bid specifications and will provide a draft to the board for review before advertising the work. He said the bid documents will include standard boilerplate and several project‑specific items for the board to review, and the project team will aim to provide members a couple of weeks for comment.

The board also discussed groundwater and residential sampling. Magnuson said the town successfully won approval to reduce sampling for five homes under criteria the town and MassDEP agreed on; the board laid out a protocol so additional addresses meeting the criteria can be approved without returning to the board each time. He said the town will submit a similar request to reduce sampling frequency for 1,4‑dioxin and for volatile organic compound (VOC) testing where historical data support a reduction.

Magnuson said one near‑term piece of field work is planned drilling at 15 Old Town Road, likely in May, to better evaluate potential operating sources. He said the public works director and others will join the work on site. On budgeting, he said staff will estimate monthly financing needs by extrapolating per‑acre costs from a recently bid project and dividing by an expected 24‑month schedule; he cautioned that a final project cost is not yet known pending bids.

Board members asked several clarifying questions about timing and sampling; Magnuson said no new PFAS detections or treatment failures have been reported and that the project remains largely “status quo” pending the next rounds of approvals.