The Westborough Board of Selectmen will hold a public hearing on the proposed CSX chemical transfer station off Flanders Road on Tuesday. The transfer station, which would be located about a mile from the Southborough border, has some residents concerned about safety, environmental impact, and traffic.
The proposal for the station calls for up to ten new rail lines and two new buildings to be added to the site at 19 Walkup Drive.
While it’s outside of their jurisdiction, Southborough officials have been keeping tabs on the project. Earlier this year Southborough selectmen expressed concern over the proposal, despite assurances from Fire Chief John Mauro Jr. that the project poses little risk to the town.
Mauro said 30% of the material moving through the proposed transfer station would be hazardous as classified by the federal government, but none would be in the class of extremely hazardous materials that includes things like poison gas, explosives, flammable solids, or radioactive materials.
Earlier this month CSX asked the Westborough Planning Board for permission to haul in 100,000 cubic yards of fill to prepare the site. The soil would arrive on an estimated 60 to 80 trucks every day for three months, many of them traveling through Southborough.
At their meeting on June 14, selectmen said they would send a letter to the Westborough selectmen “strongly opposing” the truck traffic.
The public hearing starts at 6:15 pm on Tuesday in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room in the Westborough Town Hall (34 West Main Street). You can see the full agenda for the meeting here.
Update 2:15 pm: More information on what to expect at Tuesday’s meeting from Westborough Town Manager Jim Malloy: “Our departments have not had adequate time to provide comments so CSX will make a presentation and then there will be questions from the Selectmen and public and then it will be continued to another date, probably July 12.”
Related posts:
CSX site preparation could mean increased traffic for Southborough (5 comments)
Local environmentalists challenge CSX project
Selectman questions CSX safety record, encourages residents to ‘rise up’ (9 comments)
Selectmen express concern, urge due diligence on CSX project (22 comments)
Fire chief says proposed chemical transfer station poses ‘little risk’ (8 comments)
