Letter to Conserv. Comm. Medford

Letter to Medford conservation

CITY HALL STAFF
Room 308
Denis MacDougall
Environmental Agent (Staff)
Email:
[e-mail]
Phone: [phone]

$1,500 stipend

Hours:
Monday: 8:30 - 4:30
Tuesday: 8:30 - 4:30
Wednesday: 8:30 - 7:30
Thursday: 8:30 - 4:30
Friday: 8:30 - 12:30

Hello Mr MacDougall:
I'm writing this because I discovered that the drainage system behind the Flynn Hockey Rink in Medford is being filled with snow melting chemicals
and, I believe lime. The drainage system was made in 2025 and is essentially a large funnel shaped hole with a very basic straining mechanism at the bottom, and then a stretch of pipe leading directly into a marsh. The drainage hole is located at the edge of the pavement behind the South/West corner of the building. The Marsh winds from Woodland Avenue to Wrights Pond and serves as a large incubator for amphibians, including spring peepers, green frogs, pickerel frogs and spotted salamanders..
In the spring I noticed a boulder of white and blue that at first I thought was snow. To my surprise weeks later, it hadn't melted. I now believe this was a huge (100 lbs?) solidified clump of snow melting chemical intended to keep ice from blocking the drainage.
Then on a rainy May afternoon I noticed a white substance pouring cloud-like into the marsh. I believe they limed the sides of the hole to prevent plant overgrowth within it.
I have provided videos of both the chemical boulder and the unsettling cloud of what I believe was lime pouring into the marsh.
I don't know if it was 'Friends of the Flynn Rink Inc' or the DCR who created that contraption, but pouring 'snow-melt' and lime into in seems like it will simply stated, poison that marsh beyond repair.

In Article II-Wetland’s Ordinance, Sec.87-32 Jurisdiction it states:
Except as permitted by the Conservation Commission or as provided in this Ordinance, no
person shall commence to remove, fill, dredge, build upon, degrade, discharge into, or
otherwise alter the following resource areas: any freshwater wetlands; marshes; wet meadows;
bogs; swamps; vernal pools; isolated vegetated wetlands; bordering vegetated wetlands; banks;
reservoirs; lakes; ponds of any size; rivers; streams; creeks; beaches; etctera.

I'm no lawyer but they certainly seem like they're degrading and discharging into a marsh (or bog, wetland, swamp) to me.
Did they-whoever they are-acquire a permit for that thing? And if they did, was it mentioned they would be tossing chemicals into it?
I'm all for the hockey rink, mind you, but the damage to the ecosystem is utterly unnecessary.
Could you please look at those videos and see for yourself.
If you could get back to me on any progress I'd appreciate it;

Francis Keenan
[e-mail]