Wetlands issue will cost city (08/16/2008)

The possible destruction of wetlands on the site a former sports park is costing the city of Portland.

Portland is feeling a financial slap after the Indiana Department of Environmental Management determined that wetlands had been disturbed at the former site of XPLEX Extreme Competition Park, located on county road 100 North.

The wetland allegations are another headache for the city, which regained control of the land after former owner Glynn Barber ran into financial problems and ceased operations at XPLEX.

Wetlands can be difficult to define, but the general description is an area where water is present above the soil for all or most of the year.

"The overall situation is that there were some wetlands that were cleared and filled in," Amber Finkelstein, public information officer for IDEM, said recently.

"We have asked the city do what is called a delineation. We are asking them to take a look and see what exactly has been cleared," Finkelstein said.

The city will need to complete a survey of the area and send a report to IDEM before the next steps are determined. Portland has contracted RW Armstrong of Indianapolis to come in to handle the review at a cost of $12,881. Portland Mayor Bruce Hosier said Thursday he hopes initial work will be completed within 30 to 45 days of work starting.

"We've taken a cooperative and partnership approach with IDEM and again, I think they've been very understanding that the city of Portland didn't create any potential issues out there," Hosier said. "We've been trying to work in cooperation with them to make a determination of the facts and once those have been done then we'll determine what appropriate action needs to go forward and who's responsibility that is."

Three options may be available to the city once the delineation is completed, either a restoration of the disturbed wetlands, an application for an "after the fact" permit, or the creation of new wetlands at a different site.

Hosier said he had been informed of options, but at this point wasn't going to voice a preferred method to handle the problem.

"I don't want to premature on any judgments of what could be done or what should be done out there until RW Armstrong comes back to the city with the determination of what the facts are," he said.

According to IDEM, a construction permit to work in the wetland area was never filed with their office. That's likely one area RW Armstrong will research in its investigation.

"I take (IDEM) for their word on that, that would have been the responsibility of the developer and the engineering firm to follow the process," Hosier said.

Any of the options will cost the city more out of its pockets. Portland spent more than $18,000 in June to fix soil erosion problems at the site.

At this point, however, both sides appear to be open to figuring out the extent of what happened and how to fix it.

"We intend to work with the city to determine the next step once we establish the amount of the impacted area," Finkelstein said.

"We're interested in taking a proactive approach and getting things resolved," Hosier said. "We've had good relations with IDEM and we'd like to continue that relationship."

However, that doesn't stop the mayor from being a little disappointed with another issue popping up at the XPLEX site.

"The city of Portland went in on good faith to have a potential, what we anticipated was a potential, excellent development project out there for that, so I am a little taken aback," Hosier said. "I'm just a little disappointed that we're in this situation right now and I guess I'm not real clear how we got to this point."[[In-content Ad]]