The Route 20 South Landfill Visioning Committee focused its Dec. 1 meeting on narrowing potential non-housing uses for the 17-acre property. It includes a capped, but unlined landfill, with a low dike lying between the eastern end of the landfill location and the Sudbury River and Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge land. The landfill ceased operations in 1980.
Public Works Director Tom Holder told the committee the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection advised that a full environmental assessment required new subsurface data. Weston & Sampson drilled three borings across the landfill, from east to west, showing waste depths of about 12 feet on the eastern portion, 18 feet in the center and 29 feet on the western parcel. Holder said the results confirmed expectations that the waste is shallowest toward the east and deepest toward the west. Additional test pits will determine how close the waste extends to Rte. 20 and how far it reaches into the eastern lot.
Holder said the presence and depth of the buried waste, along with MassDEP guidance, make both commercial and residential buildings “a stretch” for the site. He said constructing structures on the cap would require more permitting and might require digging up and removing buried waste, which MassDEP has discouraged. Fay said commercial buildings would be removed from further consideration.
The committee also debated the idea of creating a wastewater leaching field on the parcel. Holder said public sewer is already available along Route 20 and that new developments are expected to connect up to the Town Center treatment plant, where capacity expansions are anticipated. He said creating a landfill-based leaching facility would not be practical and would be unlikely to receive state approval.
Recreation Commission member Asa Foster urged the committee during public comment to prioritize an athletic field at the site. Foster called the location accessible and said it offers adequate parking without the significant tree removal he believes would be required at the Holiday Road landfill. He said he thought the Route 20 landfill would be well-suited for a turf field if the town’s turf moratorium is lifted.
Committee members discussed grass and turf options, with Fay noting recent town sentiment against turf fields, and the maintenance and downtime required for grass surfaces. Mark Norton said existing athletic fields are “stressed,” need time offline and that the town does not have enough capacity to meet expanding program demand. Cliff Lewis pointed out these were the same comments made for building the Loker grass field that opened in 2023.
Members also reviewed potential relocation of school bus parking, rail-trail connections, restroom design and solar options. Holder said the parcel could physically accommodate the 21 buses that are currently parked at Town Building and that a future design would require a traffic study to assess Route 20 impacts. He said canopy-style solar over parking areas may be viable even if ground-mounted arrays on the cap are limited by a steep slope on the western portion.
The meeting adjourned early when it lost a quorum. Fay said the committee will refine its short list and plans to hold a public forum before making recommendations to the Select Board.
The advisory committee was created in Oct. 2020 by the Select Board, extended on Sep. 15, 2025 and will now sunset on Feb. 27, 2026.
For prior article, https://tinyurl.com/FutureLandfillUse
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