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The planned construction for an expansion to the University of Maine Advanced Engineered Wood Composites building (AEWC) — delayed for more than three months — will finally start on Nov. 1 as the Army Corps of Engineers issued the last required permit for the project Oct. 9.
The permit will allow the project to go forward after a delay that caused at least four layoffs for one subcontractor involved and had the potential of slowing the center’s research concerning its role in deepwater offshore energy projects in the state.
The $4.9 million expansion will create an extra 18,500 square feet of space that will house the equipment needed to test large windmill blades and other research components. The delay had been a source of confusion and frustration for many of the parties involved, with everyone from local construction companies hired to complete the project to the center itself expressing concern. The expansion was scheduled to start in May and be finished by January 2010, but due to a misunderstanding that resulted from an unrelated issue in 1997 between the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) and UMaine, the project stalled, causing a host of setbacks and bringing about the involvement of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
According to Elaine Clark, the executive director of Facilities Real Estate and Planning at UMaine, the university was required to apply for a permit with the MDEP because a portion of the expansion will be built on freshwater wetlands. When the university applied for its permit in March 2009 with the MDEP, it was passed on to the Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction of and reviews all permits relating to wetlands. The corps told the university there was an unresolved issue from 1997 with the site.
“Section 404 of the Clean Air and Water Act provides us with the job of protecting wetlands; we were just doing our job,” said Shawn Mahaney, the project manager from the corps.
The corps said in March that in 1997, during unrelated construction of a portion of the commuter parking lot located in front of what is now the Collins Center for the Arts, gravel and dirt had been improperly dumped into a portion of the wetlands where the current AEWC expansion will be built.
“When the permit got to our office, it raised a red flag,” Mahaney said. “Wetlands have many functions in the environment, and we wanted to make sure that everything was properly attended to before construction started. Things like drainage and the grade of the land all have an impact on the way these areas function environmentally. It’s important that they are filled correctly.”
Since the matter had not yet been resolved the corps would not allow construction to go forward. The EPA was brought in to enforce UMaine’s obligation to clean up the fill.
“It was a surprise to everyone who was involved then and now, so upon being told that we had an outstanding issue with the USEPA and the ACOE, we conducted an investigation that revealed the problem,” Clark said.
The university’s investigation revealed staffing changes at the EPA and the corps had caused a failure on behalf of both to follow up on the improper wetland fill. The corps also confirmed this to be true.
“Turns out the claim, made back in 1997, got lost in [the] system,” Mahaney said. “It was a total administrative error. There were position changes at the ACOE, USEPA and at UMO that caused everyone to unintentionally overlook the issue.”
The university also uncovered evidence that showed if the EPA and the corps had followed up, they would have discovered the map used in 1997 by the university and both federal departments to determine the location of wetlands in the area was incorrect.
“The university brought to our attention the fact that the map we had all been working with was more like a sketch. It was not accurate,” Mahaney said. “In my opinion, it wasn’t the university’s fault or ours for working with a bad map; it was the environmental consulting firm that had drawn it up for them in the early ’90s.”
The sketch identified wetlands where there were none, and failed to identify areas where there were wetlands.
The university hired a new environmental consulting firm called Stantec to take aerial photos of the area from a helicopter in order to create a correct map. The new map allowed the university to replace the outdated sketch and correctly identify the wetlands. The new map showed gravel and dirt had not been improperly dumped into any wetlands in 1997, as the corps had accused UMaine of doing. What the map did show was that other wetlands in the area had been improperly filled over time due to the incorrect sketch the university had been working with.
“Once we realized this, we wanted to get the matter behind us forever,” Clark said. “We determined that about a half an acre of other wetlands around the area of the planned expansion had been improperly filled over time due to the inaccuracy of this old sketch. We then submitted this information to the ACOE. They were extremely cooperative with us, and they simply assessed a fee that is currently being processed. This allowed us to obtain our permit and we will begin construction in November.”
According to Clark, the fee is a stipulation involved in the wetlands permit process that would have been assessed anyway as the expansion of the AEWC will require some filling of surrounding wetlands. The fee is determined by the square-feet of wetlands to be filled. Since half an acre was improperly filled, the corps assessed a fee of $33,863.24 — close to what the university would have originally paid.
Despite having paid the fee, Clark said there is a possibility UMaine might have to pay an EPA fine related to the filling of half an acre of wetlands, which Mahaney confirmed to be true. He added the EPA would probably not issue a fee in UMaine’s case, as the EPA usually collects fees from willful violators or those that refuse to cooperate, not because of accidents. The fee is also unlikely as the permit shows that there are no further objections from the EPA. UMaine expects the construction to be complete in June of 2010.
