Mansfield Conservation Commission Issues Two Wetland Enforcement Orders With Daily Fines

MANSFIELD — October 15, 2018 — Mansfield Conservation Commission escalates enforcement against two property owners for illegal wetland clearing and stream-bank disturbance. At its October 15 meeting, the commission voted unanimously to require both the owner of 310 West Street and the owner of 1148 East Street to hire a qualified wetland scientist within two weeks or face $50-per-day fines, after Conservation Agent Caitlin Merrill documented stream-channel blockage, unpermitted vegetation clearing, and sump-pump discharge directly into tributary streams that feed the Lions Brook watershed. Merrill described the 310 West Street situation as "the worst violation I've seen in Mansfield," noting she personally cleared debris by hand from the blocked channel to prevent downstream flooding during a rain event. Both owners must appear at the November 19 hearing. In other business, the commission issued an order of conditions to Grubnail Properties LLC for a hotel redevelopment at 10 and 30 Reservoir Street, including a special condition protecting an active osprey nest on an on-site cell tower, and continued a request from the town's own engineering division for tree clearing at 499 East Street — a future regional police training site within the Canoe River Area of Critical Environmental Concern — pending review by the Canoe River Advisory Committee.