Our drinking water and environment face new challenges at Pease Tradeport on the NH Seacoast

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Wetlands Bureau recently approved a wetlands permit for Texas-based Million Air to construct a fuel farm facility at Pease. The permit also allows Million Air to  build an access road through sensitive wetlands and install a 90,000-gallon jet fuel farm immediately adjacent to those wetlands (See Map).   The  proposed project increases the risk of causing contamination to our drinking water and to our wetlands. There are available sites at Pease that do not pose any risk to the wetlands.  Million Air ignores those alternative sites. 

Million Air is looking to operate jet fueling, deicing, and other procedures involving the storage, transfer, and use of environmentally hazardous chemicals adjacent to these sensitive wetlands. The significance of these wetlands cannot be understated - they are part of the Hodgson Brook Watershed, which flows into the North Mill Pond, and out to the Piscataqua River and the Atlantic Ocean. Additionally, the wetlands are connected to the aquifer supplying the Haven Well, which provides drinking water to the Pease Tradeport (Portsmouth) and part of the town of Newington.

Our water from Pease has just been remediated from years of PFAS contamination. We cannot rubber stamp a project that could jeopardize our wetlands, the safety of our drinking water, or the safety of our surface waters like the North Mill Pond.

The Center for Responsible NH Seacoast Development seeks to alert the NH Seacoast residents of the new proposed Million Air project that threatens our drinking water and the wetlands at Pease.

Here is the key piece of information to consider: There are risk-free sites on Pease available to Million Air for their Fuel Farm. BUT, the company has instead chosen their most economically attractive site in order to enhance the company's financial gains with no consideration to the risks this location poses to our water and the environment. The PDA board has the authority to disapprove the choice of this site! 

We know the risks!

Jon Wykoff, Chairman, Advocates for the North Mill Pond, tells us "they have been trying to protect the pond for 25 years with plantings of eel grass, pond cleanups, water testing and removal of invasive species. Most people don’t realize that the pond is the lungs and heart of the city with a great variety of flora and fauna. Last year, we had a fuel spill on the Route 1 Bypass and it worked its way down to the end of Thornton Street and into the pond. A minor spill took months to clean up; imagine a 10,000-gallon fuel truck, having an accident on this new road."

We must not allow the Million-Air project to proceed as proposed. We must challenge the DES permit with an appeal to the Wetlands Council.  There were several public comments submitted to the the DES opposing Million Air's permit application.  The DES ignored the public’s concerns and issued an approval to Million Air, nonetheless. We must convince the PDA to reject the site chosen by Million Air in order to protect our wells and our drinking water from further contamination. 

Please consider supporting us by signing this petition. Help us eliminate the risk of contamination to our drinking water by keeping Million Air away from the wetlands site at Pease. By signing our petition you join our call to the Pease Development Authority Board to protect our water and to find a safe, alternative site location at Pease for the proposed Million Air fuel farm.  Thank you!

https://www.change.org/NoFuelFarmOnPeaseWetlands

"Those who forget their Pease history are doomed to repeat it. City councilors, select boards, community leaders and especially Seacoast residents must make their opposition known.”