4/8/2005

State certifies CMI track won't hurt Bearcamp River

Opponents say more approvals needed, including town wetland permit

Nate Giarnese

TAMWORTH—The state has issued Club Motorsports Inc. a "Water Quality Certification," telling federal permitting agencies that by New Hampshire standards, runoff from a 251-acre motorsports country club will not pollute the Bearcamp River, its unnamed tributaries and wetlands.

The N.H. Department of Environmental Services certification is a required step for all development seeking federal permits under the U.S Clean Water Act, according to Paul Piszczek of DES. CMI is currently awaiting a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision on a federal wetlands permit, applied for in the fall of 2004.

"(The certification) is for anybody who needs a federal license or permit," Piszczek said Monday. "The state certifies that the project will meet state water quality standards."

The Derry company is waiting to break ground on its $28 million-dollar Tamworth project, slated to carve 3 miles of winding asphalt into the north bank of Mount Whittier. The multiphase construction plan may eventually erect a hotel and conference center on the property, resulting in what developers have called a country club for driving enthusiasts.

Citizens and environmental groups have testified passionately before DES and the Army Corps that CMI will endanger area waters, including the trout-filled Bearcamp, and underground Ossipee Aquifer — a drinking water source for regional communities — exposing them to runoff and exhaust from toxic high-performance racing fuels.

The DES findings, however, certify that CMI has planned steps to mitigate expected track runoff, including oil and grease, and likely copper, lead and zinc, from 45 acres of new asphalt and other impenetrable surfaces, according the DES report, which says wetland impacts will remain under acceptable levels.

"This project includes the creation of approximately 45 acres of impervious surfaces, such as roadways, and buildings, and the use of roadways by motorized and non-motorized vehicular traffic can cause deposition of metals such as copper, lead and zinc, and petroleum-based compounds such as oil and grease on impervious surfaces. The applicant proposed stormwater runoff treatment for the activities associated with this project through the construction and operation of best management practices such as vegetated filter strips, catch basins, detention basins, and advanced treatment units," the certification reads.

"Stormwater runoff resulting from construction or operation of this project is not expected to violate surface water quality standards provided in the construction of this project," according to the state report.

CMI is calling the certification, a third in a string of successful state permit applications, further indication that its locally contested project fully complies with state environmental standards.

“We are proud to take another step forward in the development of our private driving and exhibition facility,” CMI President and CEO Lloyd Dahmen said in a press release. “This is another positive development in the permitting review and approval process, and we will continue to work proactively with NH DES, and the Army Corp of Engineers on remaining permits.  We are pleased that our project has met all of the standards required to receive this water quality certification, as well as the DES wetlands and site specific permits before it.”

Members of citizens' group, Focus: Tamworth, who filed an appeal of one of CMI's DES permits, expected to go before the N.H. Wetlands Council later this month, and are suing CMI for the company's failure to seek a town wetlands permit, however, said the CMI project remains far from a done deal.

"They still need several more permits," Focus press secretary Kate Vachon said Monday. "They still haven't applied for local permits. The Tamworth wetlands ordinance permit specifically."

CMI mysteriously pulled out of a scheduled appearance before the Tamworth planning board in August of 2004, enraging local officials and area citizens who came expecting to address a issue billed as critical to the region. CMI said after withdrawing its application, that the company would reapply only if it deemed necessary. Spokesmen for CMI would not explain in detail the reasons behind the last minute withdrawal.

"And they still don't have an Army Corps of Engineers permit," Vachon said. "CMI has a long way to go."

Hundreds of local citizens and area officials swarmed an October Army Corps hearing, warning federal and state officials that the track would drive Tamworth into an economic and environmental downward spiral. Attorneys and engineers presented a grim post-track vision of a local economy — based now on pastoral quiet, they said — driven to ruin by what many fear will be an unregulated raceway, buzzing overweeningly with fast cars and motorcycles.

The Army Corps announced this winter that it would hire an independent sound expert to parse through two conflicting noise level studies: one funded by CMI after decibel limits raised by a conflicting Tamworth Foundation study, CMI officials said, wouldn't allow a lawnmower to run on their property.

Tamworth voters at Town meeting this March passed a noise ordinance to regulate the facility, using decibel limits derived from the Tamworth Foundation study.

Many expect the restrictive ordinance will prompt CMI to sue Tamworth, a route CMI lawyers said they avoided, when they sidestepped a town racetrack ordinance, also bearing the noise ordinance's sound level limits.

CMI said they chose instead to lobby legislators to pass the now infamous SB 458. The state law, now RSA 287-G, exempted CMI from the town racetrack ordinance, including its sound limit clause, by redefining the planned track as a practice facility, rather than a racetrack.

The highly controversial law inflamed local legislators, who said they were "snookered" by sponsors and blamed its unanimous passage on deceptive back room dealings. Citizens and most area selectmen, except the Tamworth board of selectmen, felt town control of the CMI project had been robbed by the law.

A House committee recently disagreed, and voted to kill a repeal drafted by Rep. Harry Merrow, R-Ossipee. An amended form of the repeal of RSA 287-G is up for a full House vote Wednesday.