ConCom approves Lee Burbank Hwy. gas tank demo project

  The Conservation Commission approved the Notice of Intent for the massive gas tank farm demolition project on Lee Burbank Highway on Wednesday night. The approval, with the condition that the property owner notify the commission of any newly discovered spills or contamination on the property, is for the first phase of the project.

  Saracen Properties of Waltham and Link Logistics Real Estate of New York City have formed a partnership to acquire and redevelop the 44-acre Global Petroleum oil storage facility that is located directly north of the Irving Oil Tanks. The new project – called the “Trident Logistics Center” – will be a modern, technology-enabled warehouse and distribution campus with a focus on responsible development, environmental resiliency, and sustainability. The site currently houses 29 above-ground-storage tanks that will eventually be cleared to make way for the development.

  Trident Logistics Center will be developed in two phases and at full build-out will consist of two state-of-the-art logistics facilities totaling 668,500 square feet, with associated parking areas. The Global Oil tanks on the southern portion of the property will continue to operate at this time, and environmental engineer Kevin Trainer said the project will have a separate filing for the second phase of the project when it is ready to get underway.

  “The work will be decommissioning and demolishing the above-ground storage tanks and then construction of the new building and facility,” said Trainer. “There are not going to be direct impacts to the wetlands resource area itself.”

  The tanks and piping in the first phase of the project have all been cleaned and certified as having no product remaining in them, Trainer said. “So – one thing – I think it’s self-evident, but there’s a tremendous environmental benefit that the tanks are no longer storing product and transferring product in that phase one area,” said Trainer. “The possibility of future spills from those tanks and pipes has been eliminated.”

  Trainer said his firm, Verdantas out of York, Maine, has been retained by the new owner to conduct response actions, assessments and cleanup activities for any potential spills at the property during the demolition and construction phases. “We will have a presence on-site and we will respond if there’s contamination encountered, and we will conduct the investigations and cleanup that’s required under the Massachusetts contingency plan,” said Trainer.

  Over the history of the property, Trainer said, there have been 60 documented releases or spills on the property, with five that are still active response areas that are currently being addressed. The majority of the releases have been remediated and determined to have no significant risk, he added.

  There are several areas of impacted soil on the property that cannot be built upon, but Trainer said the new development will not be touching those portions of the property.

  “This type of project is up the fairway for us; believe it or not, this is really what we do,” said Dan Connaughton, Link Logistics vice president of development for the eastern region. “We try to unlock these more environmentally challenged sites, redevelop them, repurpose them, clean them and turn them into state-of-the-art logistics facilities that will bolster local and regional economies.”