Plainfield Conservation Commission Continues Solar Hearing to July Over Unanswered Peer Review

PLAINFIELD -- June 25, 2026, Plainfield's Conservation Commission continued a solar project hearing and fielded a first-of-its-kind forest cutting plan at its June 25 meeting. The commission voted unanimously to push the public hearing on the Middle East Energy Solar Project NOI, filed by New Leaf Energy at 6 Newark Union Street, to July 29, after the applicant failed to submit its engineering response to a peer review by Vesk Associates before the meeting deadline; the peer review had identified deficiencies in test pit data and stormwater basin calculations at the proposed solar site. A resident with a DEP background told the commission that Massachusetts stormwater standard two, requiring that post-construction runoff not exceed pre-construction levels, is the central regulatory test for the proposed infiltration basins. Separately, the commission received what its chair called a first-ever properly sequenced forest cutting plan application for a two-lot parcel on North Union Street near the Hawley town line, covering a timber stand accessible only via a wetland stream crossing; a member with forestry permitting experience explained the commission's 10-day window to flag concerns to the DCR service forester before the signed permit issues.