Berlin Conservation Commission Approves Carter Street Garage, Hears Coolidge Brook Contamination Alert

BERLIN — February 4, 2026 — Berlin Conservation Commission hears alarming Coolidge Brook water quality data tied to SA Farm leachate. The commission unanimously approved a notice of intent for a 26-by-22-foot garage addition at 88 Carter Street, with conditions including silt fence, wattles, and two growing seasons of native-planting survivability monitoring, before pivoting to a lengthy informal presentation by resident and Otter River Sportsmen board member Paul Anderson, who compiled DEP monitoring data showing aluminum concentrations in Coolidge Brook at 10 or more times the acute criterion of 750 parts per billion at downstream sampling points — a level Anderson said is consistent with the disappearance of an eastern brook trout population documented as healthy in a 2012 state survey. One monitoring well has also recorded arsenic at 10.6 parts per billion, above the 10 parts per billion drinking water standard, with the contamination plume moving northwest toward Northborough residential neighborhoods. Anderson said the site is not listed as a state or federal Superfund site and that metals sampling has not been conducted since 2017 to 2019. The Community Preservation Act committee separately voted the night before the meeting to recommend two commission applications to the Select Board, including $100,000 for open space acquisition due diligence, for inclusion at Town Meeting.