Gloucester health panel to review blasting study for planned Kondelin Road waste transfer station

A Gloucester Board of Health subcommittee meets Tuesday to look at a blasting study for the construction waste transfer station planned at 24 Kondelin Road in the Cape Ann Industrial Park.

The Eastern Waste Service Subcommittee meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, in the second floor conference room of the City Hall Annex, 3 Pond Road, and on Zoom.

What is on the agenda

According to the posted agenda, the subcommittee will:

• evaluate engineering feasibility documents filed by Seaside Legal Solutions, on behalf of the project, "to satisfy condition 19" of the board's approval,
• approve a memo to the Conservation Commission on the project's wetlands filing,
• and review a document tracking the status of the approval's conditions, for a briefing of the full board.

What condition 19 says

The Board of Health approved the site for the transfer station on June 18, 2025. Its decision lets Eastern Waste Services LLC handle up to 270 tons of construction and demolition waste a day, six days a week, inside a new enclosed building of about 11,800 square feet. The site is 1.5 acres of a 4 acre parcel.

The approval came with conditions. The company plans to blast and remove about 4,400 square feet of ledge at the south end of the site to make room behind the building, where trucks would unload. Because truck traffic on the site depends on that space, the board required the company to study whether blasting the rock face is feasible from a geotechnical and explosives engineering standpoint before it applies to the state Department of Environmental Protection for permission to build. That is condition 19.

If blasting is not feasible, the decision says, the company must ask the board to change the site approval and file revised site plans.

The documents themselves were not posted with the agenda. The city keeps the application, hearing records and decision on its Eastern Waste Services project page.

Wetlands filing pushed to Oct. 21

The project's wetlands filing, for a stormwater upgrade, parking lot repaving and a new fence near a wetland, is on the Conservation Commission's agenda Wednesday, Oct. 7. The filer has asked to continue it to Oct. 21, according to the agenda. The commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at the Rose Baker Center, 6 Manuel F. Lewis St.

Also this week in Gloucester

• Waterways Board, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 6 p.m., at the harbormaster's conference room, 19 Harbor Loop, and on Zoom. The harbormaster reports on the 2026 season: bookings, staffing, revenue and expenses. The board will also recap the Schooner Festival, discuss Magnolia Pier and its ramp and the timeline for the St. Peter's landing and boardwalk, and talk about fees proposed for next fiscal year and launch revenue.
• Gloucester Housing Authority, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 4:30 p.m., downstairs at its office, 259 Washington St. The board will interview two candidates for assistant executive director and vote on its fiscal 2027 budget, salary schedules, flat rents for federal public housing and Section 8 payment standards. Residents may speak for three to five minutes each.
• School Committee Building and Finance Subcommittee, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 5 p.m., in the Gloucester High School library, 32 Leslie O. Johnson Road, and on Zoom. Topics include the state's fiscal 2027 Circuit Breaker reimbursement for special education costs, tuition and transportation for students placed outside the district, and a new student activity account for Gloucester High theater.

The City Council committee meetings this week, on city fees, the Day Court housing permit and two police grants, are in our meetings roundup.

Earlier coverage: Gloucester planners take up Sargent Street subdivision Thursday as council panels weigh police grants (Oct. 1), the council committee and Conservation Commission agendas. Cape Ann this week: Plein Air turns 10, an Annisquam craft show and open studios next weekend (Oct. 4), which first listed the Waterways Board meeting.