Carmen Lorentz: Addressing misinformation about Mill Pond development in Ashland

To The Daily Sun,

I’d like to address misinformation circulating about the status of environmental investigation at 35 Mill Pond Lane in Ashland, the site of Lakes Region Community Developers’ proposed Village at Mill Pond housing development.

The site was formerly developed as the Ashland Paper Mill and is an active brownfield. LRCD is working with the Lakes Region Planning Commission’s Brownfields Program, which helps to pay for the environmental investigation and remediation planning required for redevelopment of a former industrial site like this.

LRCD has experience remediating brownfield sites for housing development. We successfully completed two such projects in Laconia, in 2004 and 2016.

Brownfield remediation is a highly regulated process overseen by the NH Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Ashland Planning Board does not have jurisdiction over the environmental aspects of the Mill Pond project.

The environmental services team at Nobis Engineering completed the Phase I environmental site assessment (ESA) in October 2024. The report can be found online at LRCommunityDevelopers.org/MillPond.

Not surprisingly, the Phase I identified recognized environmental conditions (RECs) on the site, so Nobis was commissioned to conduct a Phase II ESA. This involves collection and laboratory analysis of environmental samples. Nobis has completed their field work and is in the process of compiling the Phase II ESA report, which must be reviewed by NHDES and the EPA before it is released. When the Phase II ESA report is released, we will publish it online at LRCommunityDevelopers.org/MillPond.

Construction will not begin until after NHDES has approved a protocol for addressing any identified environmental concerns.

The Mill Pond project will improve the environment and help address the very serious housing crisis in our region.

Carmen Lorentz

Laconia