Norwood Memorial Airport

Teaming with Dubois & King, Epsilon led the permitting effort associated with this taxiway realignment project. This involved preparing an Environmental Assessment for review under the National Environmental Policy Act. Epsilon prepared and submitted an Environmental Notification Form and both the Draft and Final Impact Reports filed with the MEPA Office. The project impacted state jurisdictional wetlands, which required the design of an 18,000 square foot wetland replication area and additional floodplain compensatory storage.

Epsilon’s scientist led a long list of additional permitting efforts, culminating in the Variance Order of Conditions from MassDEP.

These included:

• A Notice of Intent under the Norwood Wetlands Protect Bylaw
• Water Quality Certificate Application in accordance with Section 401 of the Clean Water Act
• Pre-Construction Notification for a General Permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in accordance with Section 404 of the Clean Water Act
• Project Checklist under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act
• A Notice of Intent and Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan under the NPDES General Construction Permit

Additional services included providing the required environmental compliance monitoring and reporting during construction, and leading a Wildlife Hazard Assessment (WHA). WHAs help to identify and minimize risks of aircraft-wildlife collisions, which then helps to save both human and animal lives, and reduces aircraft downtime. For this effort, Epsilon staff visited the airport throughout a survey-year to identify wildlife species at the airport and their numbers, locations, local movements, and daily and seasonal occurrences. In wrapping up the assessment, Epsilon provided a description of wildlife hazards to air carrier operations and recommended actions for reducing wildlife hazards to airmen and air carriers. We worked closely with the airport, FAA, and MassDOT to provide a management plan that helps the airport reduce hazards and address habitat and operational improvements.

Norwood Airport eliminated an FAA designated “hot spot”. It now has a taxiway with a standard runway to taxiway separation distance and a typical hold line location on Taxiway A. These improvements, along with a WHA and Wildlife Hazard Management Plan, have enabled the airport to provide improved safety conditions for airport users.