By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Area residents flooded the Pembroke Academy cafeteria in opposition to a building plan they worry could permanently contaminate the water source that feeds Pembroke, Allenstown and parts of Hooksett and Concord.

The gathering was a public informational session on Monday, Oct. 30, during which representatives from the state Department of Transportation presented plans for what would be the department’s largest fleet fueling center, currently proposed for Route 106 just north of the Pembroke town line.

About 75 people attended.

Residents and some local legislators questioned the effects spills from the facility ­ proposed to sit atop the second largest aquifer on the state ­ might have on the water source. While the location is compliant with state environmental standards, DOT representatives said, it is about 300 feet from wellhead protection areas in Concord and Pembroke, and 2,000 to 3,000 feet from a Pembroke well.

“I think you’re taking a terrible chance with a natural resource that can’t be replaced,” said Pembroke resident Joyce Heinrich. “Why can’t that (facility) be placed somewhere else?”

DOT Contamination Program Manager Dale O’Connell said the department has been eyeing the site next to the DOT’s new highway garage to replace its current Stickney Avenue, Concord, fueling location for years.

“Our fleet is there,” said O’Connell, “so it makes sense to have our fleet fueling center there.”

Preliminary plans include three 10,000-gallon tanks, two for gasoline and one for diesel. The fueling facility, which would be self-service, 24 hours a day, could serve the DOT fleet, along with a host of other state and local government agencies, O’Connell said.

Project engineer Ronald Laurence, from Portsmouth’s Jaques Witford, said the proposal, whereby each fuel tank would have two fiberglass walls surrounded by a concrete vault, well exceeds state environmental standards. Laurence also outlined a number of mitigating tools, like elaborate alarm systems, that could be taken to protect the water supply in the event of leakage from the tanks, or fuel runoff from the site.

The DOT, which has scores of fueling tanks statewide, is in the process of updating all its single-walled tanks to meet double-wall standards. The Stickney Avenue, said O’Connell, meets current regulations, but has been slated for replacement for years.

“The major reason we’re moving it is because we want it to be by the highway garage,” said O’Connell.

Funding for the proposed Route 106 facility, estimated to cost about $750,000 to build, was actually scheduled for next year, said O’Connell, but the timing of the project has been pushed back.

Some state legislators, several of which showed at the recent meeting, have been lobbying for a change in location for months, and the DOT held a similar informational meeting with the Concord Planning Board recently after a directive from the governor’s office.

DOT representatives also expect to meet with Allenstown residents on the subject, said O’Connell.

“This is not a done deal,” he said of the facility. “We’re willing to hear you out.”

O’Connell suggested a fueling facility on any new site is a tough sell.

“No matter where we put this, we’re going to impact something,” he said.

Some area residents, however, testified to the specific value of water as a resource.

“If there’s anything more precious in the United States today than water, I don’t know what it is,” said Pembroke resident Bob Sala.

Allenstown resident Armand Verville asked, “If contamination occurs, how will my family be safe?”

“This is something you’ve got to be thinking about,” he said. “There’s got to be a better place for that.”

O’Connell said a time has not yet been scheduled for the Allenstown public informational meeting.