Echo Lake Brownfield's project encompasses the remediation, capping and filling of an existing landfill on Echo Lake Road, adjacent to the CRRA facility. The landfill will be replaced with 212,000 cubic yards of soil, source unknown, and a plateau will be built to foster future industrial development following the sale of the property.

Buried under 60 feet of fill will be a piping of a tributary of the Naugatuck River.

Echo Lake Brownfield has been involved in the local land-use agencies since January 2008, when the project was given an approval, but after a failure to complete the application process, a cease and desist order was served in the spring of that year. ELB has since noted the cease and desist order was beyond the authority of the P&Z Commission.

The application process, which resumed by acquiring approval from Inland Wetlands and a new approval by the P&Z Commission, saw concerns repeatedly levied about the source and quality of fill material.

Some concerns stemmed from information on the quarterly report of Pure Earth Environmental, which owns Echo Lake Brownfield. Several people expressed concern that Echo Lake Brownfield would use the brownfield location as a disposal area for other companies that PEI owns, which dispose of hazardous waste.

The September 2 draft approval letter contains language providing restrictions on the issue of fill material.

"Clean fill" is a defined term in state statutes and means natural soil, rock, brick, ceramics, concrete and asphalt paving fragments which are virtually inert and pose neither a pollution threat to ground or surface waters nor a fire hazard and polluted soil as defined in Connecticut state regulations, which soil has been treated to reduce the concentration of pollutants to the levels which do not exceed the applicable pollutant mobility criteria.

The approval letter also includes 38 conditions of approval. Included in the conditions is, "the Commission determines no soil less than the standard of 100 percent clean fill may be brought to the site."

Further conditions address the rate of soil compaction, vehicular access which restricts traffic to a right turn onto Echo Lake Road only, the specifications of the pipe to be buried as well as an inspection of the pipe prior to installation, as well as the stipulation of meetings with the Land Use Office and Town Engineer's Office "monthly."

During the monthly meetings ELB will provide "copies of monthly summaries of the cubic yards of material deposited at the site. The summaries shall be based on the individual truck tickets and shall be certified by a licensed environmental professional." Further required documentation includes copies of fill quality records and monthly reports on work performed.

The Zoning Enforcement Officer and Assistant Zoning Enforcement Officer will also be "allowed and have permission to enter and travel onto property to inspect work under the site plan and special permit."

However, despite the approval to perform work on the site, an August 31 letter from Carmody and Torrance, ELB's legal representation, requests that Watertown Zoning Enforcement Officer Ruth Mulcahy not be involved in the project any further.

The letter states, "ELB respectfully requests that the commission assign the duties of its project manager... to someone other than Ruth Mulcahy."

Reasoning for this is stated as, "she has shown continuous personal malice towards ELB and towards its project over the past sixteen months."

The letter continues, alleging Ms. Mulcahy enforced a cease and desist order "she knew or should have known was grossly in excess of her authority... She has also repeatedly tried to raise impediments to seek limitations on ELB's project that are inconsistent with the facts and the law that applies."

James and Judith Brideau, who have been legal intervenors of the project after trees were inadvertently removed from their neighboring property by a company hired by ELB, are also named in the letter, in regards to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspending ELB's permit for fill in a wetlands area.

"The Brideau's energized the Corps of Engineers just prior to the last public hearings and that Ms. Mulcahy energized the DEP prior to September 2... to give them cannon fodder in their efforts to either prevent or severely limit ELB's development activities," the letter states.

It is not clear how these requests may effect the monitoring of the project, as the letter of approval grants authority to the zoning enforcement officer and assistant zoning enforcement officer.

In an attempt to alleviate concerns, ELB and its legal representation have made efforts to assure the project will be within compliance of relevant environmental law.

While landfill closure plans, soil investigations and approved schedules are currently in the balance of other state and federal agencies, their influence on the project's execution is written into the approval letter.

As stated in the conditions, "soils and materials removed from the site must be approved by a federal, state or local agency. Any type of soil and materials other than that which is permitted for removal by a federal state or local agency shall not in any quantity be removed from the site."