University Avenue Extension Approved After Resolving Environmental Wellfield Concerns-This Day In Norwood History-June 16, 1981

Inter-Town Water Protection Pact Formed with Westwood for Purgatory Brook Watershed

Town meeting approved last night — once again with no audible opposition — the proposed construction of the University Avenue extension. Selectmen were formally authorized to file special legislation to permit roadway construction through the protected Ellis wellfield lands. The estimated $750,000 project, funded entirely through federal and state grants, involves laying several thousand feet of roadway over an unconstructed public way that runs for a portion directly through the sensitive municipal wellfield lands. Environmental concerns have now been successfully met, a stark contrast to a town meeting session a year ago that saw the coalition block the project.

“It is a good time now to go forward with this project,” advised Margery H. McKenna, who had led the environmental coalition against the roadway project last year. Both Town Manager John J. Carroll and McKenna cited the comprehensive environmental impact report, soon to be advertised in final form, as solid grounds to proceed. McKenna explained that the final report indicates exactly how to avoid or mitigate any structural damage to the ecosystem during the construction phase. For example, drainage of hazardous road runoff will be safely contained in closed pipes instead of being allowed to flow along the open roadside. The collected drainage will then be dumped entirely beyond the wellfield area boundary, she said. Mr. Carroll also announced that a University Avenue advisory committee, named by selectmen, will recommend various ongoing environmental controls. The panel will work directly with Westwood officials to help create a new, two-town water resource protection district for the Purgatory Brook watershed, an inter-town land-use cooperation that McKenna termed “sort of a first.”

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger