Full of unanswered questions, residents wary of Gales Ferry Intermodal project
Jul. 8—LEDYARD — Cashman Dredging and Marine Contracting, the Massachusetts company behind a plan to develop a sediment-processing facility in Gales Ferry, has had little or no contact with town officials since November and has yet to apply for local permits, the town's planning director said Thursday.
Nevertheless, residents living near the proposed development site — the former Dow Chemical property between the Thames River and Route 12 — are wary of the plan, as evidenced by the turnout Wednesday night at a community meeting organized by the Gales Ferry District, a town taxing district.
About 150 people attended the meeting at Ledyard Middle School, including state Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, and state Reps. Mike France, R-Ledyard, a candidate for Congress; Kevin Ryan, D-Montville, and Greg Howard, R-Stonington.
Among the many questions residents raised was whether Gales Ferry Intermodal, the Cashman Dredging entity formed to pursue the proposal, will be required to seek a special-use permit to build a facility that would accept dredged material shipped up the river by barge, process and temporarily store the material and either truck it or ship it by rail to off-site destinations.
Speakers, including district member Bruce Edwards and Ed Lynch, a former Planning and Zoning Commission member, disputed a suggestion that the impact of the Cashman Dredging operation would be similar to that of Dow Chemical's.
"This is not even close to what Dow operations were like," Edwards told the audience. "It's not the same. Where'd they get that information?"
Lynch noted that the site has long been zoned for industrial use and that the Planning and Zoning Commission would determine whether the Gales Ferry Intermodal plan qualified as a "permitted use." If not, he said, Cashman Dredging would have to seek a special permit that would enable the town to impose restrictions.
"We're not going to make them go away, but this has to be a limited operation," Lynch said.
Town Planning Director Juliet Hodge said the town is revising its zoning regulations. "They might be able to find something in the new regulations that's permitted," she said, referring to Cashman Dredging. "It sounds to me like it's manufacturing."
Hodge, too, rejected the suggestion that the proposed facility would be similar to Dow's operation. "Dow had nothing to do with dredged material being stored outside, which is what this would be," she said. "This would all be outside, mixing (dredged material) with other products in a stabilization process. ... I don't know what we're going to call it."
Hodge said she found it "strange" that Cashman Dredging had closed on its purchase of the former Dow property before securing the necessary approvals for its proposal. "It seems risky," she said.
Gales Ferry Intermodal purchased the former Dow property — 1761 and 1737 Route 12 — for $5 million on May 19, according to Adrianna Hedwall, Ledyard's assessor. Trinseo, a Dow spin-off that operated a latex plant at the site and continues to have some operations there, was the seller.
During an informal discussion at the Planning and Zoning Commission's meeting on Nov. 18, 2021, commission members who spoke were supportive of the proposal. Nate Woody, then the chairman of the commission, said the proposal seemed to be "very fitting" and he didn't see "any major roadblocks" to its approval. Woody since has resigned from the commission.
According to the meeting minutes, Harry Heller, an attorney representing Cashman Dredging, said during the discussion that the company's proposed uses of the site were permitted in the town's industrial zones.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection tentatively has approved an "Environmental Justice Public Participation Plan" filed by Cashman Dredging, which required the holding of a public meeting. That meeting, first set for May 11, then rescheduled for June 15, was canceled. No new date has been set.
Residents' concerns about the proposal center on the traffic it will generate, its potential impact on the environment and to what extent their quality of life might be affected by a facility that would operate around the clock at peak times.
Edwards said information Cashman Dredging has filed with the town indicates as many as 500 trucks a day could travel to and from the Gales Ferry Intermodal site. He said "wear and tear" on Route 12 would be a major concern, as would such traffic's effect on Route 12 businesses and schools in the area.
He also wondered about the proposal's impact on air quality, a resurgent eagle population and oyster beds seeded near the channel that barges and scows would ply en route to and from the site.
"We need more details," Edwards said.
In researching Cashman Dredging, which he acknowledged is "no fly-by-night company," Edwards found it agreed in 2021 to pay $185,000 to settle alleged violations of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations in its transport of dredged material from New Bedford Harbor, off the Rhode Island coast. The alleged violations occurred in 2020.
From 2014 to 2016, Cashman Dredging performed maintenance dredging in several areas of the Mystic River, transporting 159,000 cubic yards of material dredged from a federal channel to the New London Disposal Site south of Eastern Point, Groton, and removing another 27,000 cubic yards of material from state channels, according to the company's website.
More recently, Cashman Dredging was awarded a contract through the Kiewit Infrastructure Co., the construction manager for the State Pier improvement project in New London, to perform dredging and disposal operations, according to Andrew Lavigne, manager of business development and special projects for the Connecticut Port Authority.
"There is no known connection between the State Pier project and the proposed facility in Ledyard," Lavigne wrote in an email.
