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.