Hadley Conservation Commission Closes 1990s Landfill Permit, Clears Way for Solar Project

HADLEY -- April 8, 2025, Hadley Conservation Commission closes a decades-old landfill permit and advances a UMass wastewater energy research facility near the Mill River. The commission voted unanimously Tuesday to issue a certificate of compliance for Conservation file 170-113, retiring an Order of Conditions issued in the 1990s for the Hadley Landfill cap, a prerequisite before the town can file for a new solar installation on that site. A Notice of Intent for a new roughly 4,400-square-foot UMass Amherst research building adjacent to the Amherst Wastewater Treatment Plant was continued to May 13 after late-arriving DEP comments raised questions about sequencing of near-water work and stormwater reporting; members Gary and Steve will visit the site April 16. The board also issued an emergency certification for the replacement of two failing culverts on Moody Bridge Road, one collapsed, with a single 48-inch culvert, and accepted a substitution of a Cascade CS5 stormwater device for a previously permitted Storm Scepter unit at the Belise Subaru construction site at 150 River Drive, with third-party testing showing the replacement device achieves a 97 percent total suspended solids removal rate compared to the originally permitted 77 percent.