Wayland Conservation Commission issues final warning on high school turf field runoff

WAYLAND — June 28, 2023 — Wayland Conservation Commission threatens fines over high school turf field runoff. The board voted Wednesday to issue a final warning letter giving Wayland Public Schools two weeks to respond on both an unresolved 2020 spill and interim mitigation after a recent rainstorm pushed crumb rubber past catch basins, silt fencing and into adjacent wetlands. Chair Sean Fair said the track was visibly blackened with "millions of crumb rubber." Town facilities staff said the perimeter drainage system had been professionally jetted just two weeks earlier and failed again within days; a Friday meeting with the architect, contractor and manufacturer is set, and destructive testing of the field is now on the table. The architect "says none of the other fields they've ever built have done what this is doing," staff told the board. The commission separately closed hearings on the Council on Aging renovation at 368 Boston Post Road and a reduced-footprint addition at 5 Lundy Lane, and marked the final regular meeting of member John Sullivan, who first joined in April 1983.