At their final meeting of May, the Hudson Board of Selectmen debated the best way to move forward with the controversial Target Logistics Center at Green Meadow.
“There have been a lot of questions and concerns at some point,” said Town Engineer Elvis Dhima. “As this project started, we started having some dust events, you got the emails, it started in March of 2024. They had something in place related to fugitive dust remediation that was originally dated to December of 2023, and it was updated as of March of 2024. What happened is that there’s not much you can do in March with winter conditions, there was a perfect scenario where the ground was exposed and they could not apply water with the low temperatures. The lines froze, and you basically saw a site out there, you saw out there that looked like it was from the Dune movie set.”
The resulting dust led to backlash from surrounding residents who complained that the dust remediation efforts were inadequate, failing to account for the possible lack of snow cover. The site had two water trucks to control dust, a method which has struggled to manage so-called “fugitive dust events,” even with the return of warmer weather.
“Residents were advised to reach out to the state,” said Dhima, who noted that the state, not the town, regulated most environmental and permitting issues related to the site. “The owner of the site is expected to do everything they can to reduce the dust and mitigate that, but I don’t think anyone was under the impression we were going to prevent it 100%.”
According to the Town Engineer, updated remediation policies included an “additional organic layer” on exposed areas of the site.
“Having visited some people down in that neighborhood and understanding that they’re trying to mitigate dust and dirt, I think part of what’s coming up is the amount of dirt that’s physically on their houses because of the project, and the amount of dirt that is flying in,” said Selectman Heidi Jakoby. “That’s some of what we’re hearing.”
Air quality stations were later built following an inspection from the NH Department of Environmental Services.
Due to its location near the Merrimack River, dust was not the only concern following the announcement and later expansion of the logistics site.
“The soil testing is testing the type of soil that is there. Does it also test if there are contaminants in that soil?” asked Jakoby. “It’s a lot; it’s a big site.”
Dhima stated contaminants were not included in the tests, which focused more on the type of soil being disturbed, although he expected soil scientists to take notice if they found a compelling reason, like evidence of oil contamination.
“As they were doing testing throughout this site, there was no indication warranting anything else,” he explained. “If there’s a significant discrepancy where the contract isn’t being followed, or the developer isn’t listening to staff, we’ll shut the job down and send it back to the Planning Board. I won’t sit there and argue with the developer, but that hasn’t happened.”
“Was there a stop work at one point? A conversation?” asked Jakoby. “As each request or concern came up, they worked with you well?”
Dhima stated that a stop work order had never been put into effect for the project, although he did need to threaten it at one point over a disagreement over tree line requirements and unauthorized tree removals.
“What the staff had them replace was twice as much as was there, but a healthier buffer,” noted Dillon Dumont, referring to the tree line dispute. “Where there is authority, we’ve taken action where necessary. I understand it’s not where everybody would like, but we all have to follow certain guidelines.”
Information related to the Target Logistics Site is available online.
