Case 1: The Worrisome Wetlands

The place: 1175 Elm Street – a protected wetland on town land.
The players: MIG – an Acton-based contractor, MassDEP, and Delia Kaye.
Problem 1: MIG was contracted $21,900 to move 365 tons of soil from Acton to 1175 Elm Street in Concord. This later ballooned to 14,000 tons of soil on the site, with no further charge (that we know of).
Where did this soil come from? Who paid MIG to  move it? More importantly, why are town officials ignoring that MIG may have dumped 38x more soil than was approved?
 Problem 2: Under Concord bylaws (and state law), there cannot be any activity within 25 feet of wetlands without special review. This is called a no-disturbance zone (NDZ).
Take a wild guess where 14,000 tons of mystery soil was dumped…
The question is… did Delia know about the illegal dumping? If not, why would she let it continue?
Want to dig deeper?
According to the MassDOT contract dated 7/27/2022, MIG was to earn $60 per ton to “dispose unregulated (clean) soil” from Kelly’s Corner in Acton.
For moving 365 tons of soil, this would have given them a $21,900 payday.
A few months later in November, Town Manager Kelly LeFleur signed off on a three-year access agreement to MIG, allowing them to stockpile the soil at 1175 Elm St. in Concord. Again, based on the MassDOT contract, this should have been 365 tons of soil.

It has been suggested that Ms. LeFleur never actually charged MIG for storage of the soil – and if she did, there is no money trail from Concord showing this. Did MIG keep the $21,900 from MassDOT and store the soil on Concord land for free?
Why would this be allowed? Some are saying that much more than 365 tons of soil was dumped in Concord.
Verified numbers from Anderson Krieger suggest MIG dumped 10,000 cubic yards, or 14,000 tons, of soil at 1175 Elm St. If charged at the same rate, this could have potentially netted $804,000 for the Town of Concord (excluding the extra cash Concord would have made reselling the soil back to MassDOT etc..)
Is it possible that…
  • No money was charged for use of 1175 Elm St. as a dumping ground for the soil?
  • No insurance was required and the Town’s insurance company was not notified of this work?
  • No special permit to the Zoning Board of Appeals was applied for, as this would have required detailed plans, meetings, and presentations, thus bringing more attention to the deal?

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