Friends of the Blue Hills is pleased to announce that a top Boston law firm, DLA Piper Rudnick, will represent us pro bono in challenging a Wetlands Act variance awarded to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

The variance allows MWRA to drain and fill the Blue Hills Reservoir on Chickatawbut Road in order to construct two massive concrete water tanks, and relieves MWRA of any responsibility to replace wetlands that will be lost.

Michael D. Vhay will be the lead attorney for our claim. Mr. Vhay has extensive experience representing a broad array of clients in land-use and environmental matters, and implemented the Wetlands Protection Act for nine years as a conservation commissioner.

The permit at issue, which was recently finalized by DEP Commissioner Robert Golledge, authorizes MWRA to permanently eliminate 8.7 acres of protected wetlands in the Blue Hills Reservoir without replacement. This makes it the largest net wetland loss approved anywhere in the commonwealth since at least 1990, and constitutes a radical departure from the commonwealth's long-standing "no net loss of wetlands" policy. In affirming the variance, Commissioner Golledge reversed a August decision by administrative magistrate Mark Silverstein that called on MWRA to replace the wetlands it proposes to destroy. MWRA has never acknowledged any responsibility to do so.

The $31 million tank proposal is the largest construction project planned anywhere in the Blue Hills Reservation for fifty years, and will spoil the longest water view from any road in the park. Seven legislators, two conservation commissions, the mayor of Quincy, and fifteen statewide environmental organizations have written to MWRA and DEP requesting that the project be modified to conform to the no-net-loss policy, to no avail. Neither agency evidently intends to be accountable either to the law or to those who will pay for the project.

Friends of the Blue Hills believes that Mr. Vhay and DLA Piper Rudnick will greatly strengthen our ability to contest the unprecedented exemption to the Wetlands Act granted to MWRA. Since 1970 we have worked to protect the natural beauty and ecological value that is contained in the Blue Hills Reservation. We are committed to producing a better outcome for our magnificent park.

Thomas Palmer
President
Friends of the Blue Hills