This story has been updated with comments from a water official in West Springfield.



SUFFIELD, Conn. - A citizens organization is appealing the decision to allow tree-cutting and mining on the shore of a body of water that lies in Southwick, Massachusetts, over concerns that it could have a devastating environmental impact and no one will be keeping an eye on it.

Shannon Watson's family lives less than a quarter of a mile away from the site where Lakeroad Materials wants to continue mining for valuable sand and gravel after a decade-long hiatus. The site itself is within a short walk of wetlands and the South Pond of the Congamond Lakes, where the shore forms the state line.

Watson is deeply concerned about the impact the work could have on the area, so she and several dozen neighbors formed the Congamond Lake Environmental Protection Organization (CLEP) and hired a lawyer to fight it.

The town will allow Lakeroad Materials to physically move Lake Road so its trucks can access the site, then dig for materials that lie on top of an aquifer. They can dig to within five feet of the water table, and there is no protective clay layer to keep workers from accidentally hitting it.

Corinne Fitting, an aquifer specialist with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said the agency doesn't regulate this kind of work in Suffield because the town's residents use private water wells. DEEP shared a list of best practices with the mining company to avoid contamination of the water, but there will be no monitors and there are no enforcement mechanisms.

Southwick also will have nothing to do with the project, will not monitor the work or enforce regulations, and leaders there are only having conversations with officials in Connecticut rather than formal meetings. That's according to Randal Brown, Southwick's director of public works, who added that the entire town's water supply comes from the aquifer in question.

Westfield gets water from the aquifer, and so does West Springfield. Charles Darling of the Westfield Water Resources Department said the city was not aware of the work until he was contacted by MassLive.com, but they also have no control over the project.

Jeffrey R. Auer, Deputy Director of Water for West Springfield's DPW, also said he had no idea the mine was planned.

"Any kind of changing of the natural state is going to have some effect, but we don't know what those effects are going to be," said Auer. "It's best to have people tell us what's going on."

The lack of oversight is "definitely going to be an issue" and legislators from both states should work together to make sure future projects like this are monitored, but, he said, he would be much more concerned about the impact on the lake than on West Springfield's water supply.

The principal owners of Lakeroad Materials are Frank E. Bauchiero, Jr., the current chair of the Suffield Zoning and Planning Commission, and J. Scott Guilmartin, a former chair. Bauchiero did not vote on whether to allow the work. MassLive.com tried to reach him for comment, but his contact information is not publicly available.

Guilmartin said the company has an obvious interest in making sure the mining doesn't hurt the water supply or the lake: he and Bauchiero live in Suffield.

"We're very concerned about protecting the environment (and) would never do anything to jeopardize it," he said. He added that the work will follow all guidelines and regulations.

Guilmartin said that once people have a better understanding of exactly what the project entails, they will support it.

But Watson's not so sure.

"Accidents happen. ... It doesn't take much for something to go wrong," said Watson. "It's not their property values that will be impacted, they won't be breathing in the dust or listening to the noise or living in constant fear of one of their kids getting hit by a truck."

As it stands, Lake Road is extremely narrow at the intersection with Copper Hill Road, and the permits do not allow any work to be done on the first quarter-mile, meaning drivers and pedestrians will have to share the road with heavy mining equipment and trucks six days a week.

Which route will the trucks take to get the mined materials where they need to go? If they go straight down Copper Hill Road, they will be forced to make a hard 90-degree turn almost immediately and travel north. The only alternative is to go south.

But it's not clear if going in either direction is truly safe: no one ever performed a traffic study. And it's not clear where the material is going because the information is not listed in public documents and Guilmartin didn't say.

In court documents appealing the decision, CLEP's attorney wrote that this permit never should have been granted.

"The application filed with the Commission was incomplete because it did not include a great deal of information that is required for such applications, including but not limited to a drainage report, traffic study, environmental report, identification of natural aquifers and aquifer protection, and erosion and sedimentation plan," the documents read.

MassLive.com confirmed that zoning regulators do not have any of those documents on file, except for an erosion and sedimentation plan.

Furthermore, "No consideration was given as to whether the proposed use complies with Suffield's Plan of Conservation and Development ... the application was not submitted to the Suffield Conservation Commission for review... (and) no formal recusal was made by the commission chair," according to CLEP's appeal.

Technically, the permit for the mining is simply a renewal of the one that was granted more than 10 years ago at a site in the same neighborhood. But CLEP argues that, since 2003, the lack of operations, the change in tax status to "vacant land" and a complete absence of erosion control or maintenance mean that the permit can't be renewed.

They're asking a Hartford Superior Court judge to reverse the commission's decision and force them to deny the permit.

The town argues that operations actually ended in 2005, but that doesn't mean they can't continue under the same permit.

Guilmartin goes one step further, asserting that the neighbors live in houses built on a mine that goes through periods of inactivity. He said that, once all the mining is done, the site will be transformed into something that greatly improves its value and its contribution to the neighborhood.

Rather than the mining, CLEP wants to see the space become "a wildlife reserve or something along those lines," said Watson. "We haven't gotten any information about what will be done once they've taken anything out, except for basic remediation."

Minutes from the May 19 meeting of the commission showed that no residents spoke in favor of the proposal, and 23 people objected to it for a variety of reasons, including the possibility of plummeting property values, the danger of limiting emergency vehicle access to the neighborhood, the damage to roads not meant to bear such heavy loads, and the unanswered question of whether anyone on the commission stood to profit from the project.

After that meeting, news reports in Connecticut revealed Bauchiero's connection. In June, more people spoke against the plan, but it was approved unanimously with Bauchiero sitting out.

A total of 115 people live within 200 feet of the site, according to the permit. Work will be allowed Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. The permit reads that the project will be completed "in a timely manner to be determined by market resources and weather."

"They're going to cut everything down, tear everything out and leave a big hole," said Watson.