Bill Ashe, environmentalist and longtime Harvard resident and volunteer, says he “favors return of jurisdiction over Devens because it brings a revenue base to the town. It provides a solution to Harvard’s financial problems long into the future. We could limit change because we would be in control of change,” he said in a recent interview.
“There are those who want to have the town stay the same. But,” he said, “you need to generate development that brings you income without changing your social and cultural condition.”
Ashe said that “Devens fits into the mosaic that makes up the town,” adding that “Devens can be a neighborhood just like Still River or Shaker Hills.”
[I] favor return of jurisdiction over Devens because it brings a revenue base to the town.
—Bill Ashe
At issue for Harvard today is whether or not to reclaim Devens land and its green space. This issue demands attention to conditions created by the Army during its jurisdiction over Devens, specifically attention to land contaminated with pesticides at housing sites and with petroleum-based products along Cold Spring Brook and other sites.
Cleanup of contaminated sites at Devens is likely to be a major expense for any governmental agency with jurisdiction, whether it is the Army, MassDevelopment, or the towns of Harvard, Ayer, or Shirley. The Army spent $110 million at Devens before it left the base and remains responsible for ongoing cleanup projects. Ashe said, “The Army is trying to get out of its responsibilities. There was no contamination when the Army took it over.” He said he believes that “the federal government should clean it up to a condition like the one in which they found it, not to something that is cheaper.”
“Big organizations are big organizations,” he said, referring to the Army and MassDevelopment. “They come in, do their thing, and get out. And you,” he said, referring to the towns, ”have the problem.”
Today, cleaning up Devens is the responsibility of the Army and of MassDevelopment.
Ashe said, “The Superfund Act defines responsibility with the party which caused the problem in the first place, but then whoever gets into the chain of titles is subject to penalties,” he warned. “Harvard can protect itself, but it has to be very careful. It has to assure that it has taken the correct legal steps.”
“I have fought for the highest level of cleanup possible and the reasons are obvious,” he continued. “What if, down the road and because of a lesser degree of cleanup, problems arose. For example, Salerno Circle is above Mirror Lake, which is tied directly to the high-yield aquifer; you could have contamination problems years from now that would have to be addressed.”
Referring to efforts to make the highest level cleanup possible, Ashe said, “It saves the commonwealth and the town money in the long term.”
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| Map of Devens and surrounding towns. Shaded areas are protected open space. Solid line represents the town of Harvard, dotted line represents Devens. Source: 2006 Devens Reuse Plan, Disposition Executive Board. |
For decades, Ashe has been monitoring Devens activities to ensure that the Army and MassDevelopment are maintaining their cleanup efforts.
“It’s not just about economic development,” he said. “It’s also about responsibility to protect cultural, historical, and environmental assets of the towns.”
He emphasized that he has seen economics take over all other concerns. You don’t go in and develop haphazardly. For example, you don’t go into Barnum Road and put in a sludge plant,” he said, referring to one of the proposed uses of Devens in the 1990s, “because you pay for it in the long term. That’s not economical.”
“If not for the oversight by our citizens and volunteers, that sludge plant would have happened,” he declared.
Ashe went on to say, “It has taken a lot of volunteer time to maintain the character of the town. If we continue to have tax increases and overrides, you will change the character of the town. Senior citizens, many of whom are on fixed incomes, feel that they have to leave town. Look at the committees in town—many of them are senior citizens who have the time and use it to good effect. You lose them, and you lose a lot of what makes Harvard ‘Harvard.’”
In the past, Devens has been targeted as a possible international airport, nuclear waste site, solid waste disposal, recycling center for hazardous materials, and other uses. Ashe and others helped raise public awareness on such proposals and worked to ensure that development of Devens was ecologically sustainable and advantageous to Harvard. He cited several examples of how active citizens have protected the character of Harvard by monitoring activities of the Army and of MassDevelopment.
Ashe cited the case in the 1990s, when the Weld administration proposed Devens as the site for a major international airport.
“Oxbow was a major factor in the decision not to build a second international airport in Massachusetts at Devens,” he said. “There are executive orders which discourage the location of airports near major wildlife facilities, and we used that to defeat the airport proposal. There were participants from Ayer, Bolton, and Shirley who joined Harvard in that effort.” He described an event at Fruitlands with the secretary of the Army and Senator Ted Kennedy at which “citizens brought in a wheelbarrow containing 5,000 letters objecting to the airport. It had an effect.”
When MassDevelopment was going to rehabilitate and sell Grant Road housing, Ashe and others objected, citing contamination by pesticides. He said that MassDevelopment “was going to just sell the buildings without cleaning up the pesticides.”
“They said they would put a codicil in the deed,” he said, “but who looks at their deed after 15 years? These are residents of Harvard and you are going to put them in this situation?”
After negotiation with Ashe and others, MassDevelopment went back to the drawing board and Grant Road is currently one of the areas being cleaned up.
Ashe said he has ongoing concerns about Salerno Circle, “which overlays a high production aquifer.”
“MassDevelopment has done a decent job for the most part, but it’s because of the oversight of our citizen groups. It does make a difference,” he said. He pointed out that “Devens’ relatively pristine aquifer is one of the things that attracted Bristol-Meyers Squibb and Evergreen Solar.” But, he noted, “there are also companies like Nestle who are interested.” He said he hopes that they (MassDevelopment) won’t sell water outside Devens.
“They should be developing that area in a sensible, sustainable, balanced way. That is their charge. Economic, social, cultural balance. This is encoded in law,” Ashe said, “and MassDevelopment and the Army must follow it.”
Ashe cited Chapter 498 often and emphasized that it was aimed at “achieving a balance of economic, social, and environmental needs. What are the impacts on local communities; how are you going to balance local, regional, and state interests?” he asked. “Don’t just pick out what you think is important,” he said, referring to the current emphasis on economics, “follow the law.”
Beginning in the mid-1970s, leveraging his experience and skills gained while working with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Ashe began working with General Services Administration (GSA), federal and state legislators, and Harvard activists to apply for parcels of land from Fort Devens to incorporate into the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge.
“I was a resident of Harvard, knew how to establish refuges, and decided to do this in my home town,” he said.
To build momentum for Oxbow, Ashe worked with legislators like Congressman Chet Atkins, Massachusetts Department of Fish and Wildlife Administrator Dick Cronin, and local activists like Millie Chandler, Julie Brezek, and citizens from other towns, such as Marion Stoddart, a Groton citizen who helped found the Nashua River Watershed Association.
Today, Oxbow consists of approximately 1,667 acres of upland, forest, and wetlands along nearly eight miles of the Nashua River corridor. Oxbow was formed by three land transfers from the former U.S. Army base at Fort Devens and a recent purchase of private land in Harvard, much of which was the result of Ashe’s work. A letter from Harvard’s Board of Selectmen at the time tells the story: “The residents of Harvard are fortunate to have someone of your background, knowledge, and dedication guide the effort to preserve this resource.”
Ashe’s dedication to Harvard’s environment once again came into play in the early 1990s, when the Army announced the disposition of Devens. During those years, Ashe worked as a selectman and member of the Devens Joint Boards of Selectmen (JBOS) to help define the zoning of Devens so that the Nashua River formed a green space through Harvard. The map of protected open space (above) shows the Nashua River as it flows through Devens and joins with Oxbow, just above the Fruitlands viewshed. Harvard’s Devens lands naturally complement the Oxbow Refuge, forming a natural green corridor that bounds Harvard to the west. Ashe believes that this viewshed and green space is a fundamental characteristic of the town of Harvard.
Given the current acceleration of Devens disposition, Ashe’s attention is once again focused on ensuring the sustainability and integrity of Harvard’s environment and green spaces.
“I’ve been involved with land use planning for 50 years. I found a long time ago that you plan to do things right, not to do things fast. I guarantee you that it has saved the commonwealth and saved the towns in the long run,” he said.
Bill Ashe of Myrick Lane is a longtime Harvard resident whose experience includes work with the federal government as deputy regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service at the Department of the Interior. In that role, he managed environmental projects for all the Northeast states and several Middle Atlantic states.