CONTACT: Office of Rep. Anne Paulsen
Rosie Hunter, 617-722-2140
Representative Anne Paulsen (D – Belmont) is pleased to announce that legislation recently passed by the Massachusetts Legislature will help Rails-Trails expand and flourish in Massachusetts. “A rail-trail is a great asset for a community to have, and I want to help bring more of them to our state’s residents.”
A rail-trail is technically a trail built on land that was previously used as a railroad. Typically, the railroad tracks are removed and the trail is paved over with a firm surface. A community gets many benefits from having a rail-trail in its backyard. A rail-trail provides a free, convenient, and enjoyable way to get exercise. Children can use the trail to bike or walk to school. Adults can use the trail to bike or walk to work. By reducing car usage, a rail-trail can cut down on a town’s traffic congestion and improve its air quality. Local experience also shows that a rail-trail often creates or expands businesses located near the trail, and provides added opportunities for tourism. Rails-Trails have become proud fixtures of many of the state’s cities and towns. Some of the state’s more prominent rail-trails are the Minuteman Bikeway and the Cape Cod Rail Trail.
A town can develop a rail-trail when the MBTA or the Executive Office of Transportation leases or conveys the land to it. However, many municipalities have been prevented from moving forward with a rail-trail because of an environmental liability catch-22. Before it will lease or convey land to a city or town, the MBTA requires that the city or town hold the MBTA harmless for any pre-existing environmental contamination, but it will not allow testing to take place before the lease is signed. The combination of these two regulations has often created an impasse, and held up development of a rail-trail.
For example, in the spring of 2005, Acton’s Community Preservation Committee approved the use of money for the design and construction of the Assabet River Rail Trail. However, they have been unable to proceed with the project because they could not gain access to and control of the land due to such an environmental liability concern.
As co-chair of the Legislature’s Rails-Trails, Bicycles, and Pedestrians Caucus, Representative Paulsen has been working to overcome this obstacle. Now Senator Pamela Resor (D - Acton) and she have been successful at including in the recently passed “Economic Stimulus” Act a solution to this dilemma. Under the Act, there is $500,000 each year in matching grants to cities and towns to help them purchase environmental liability insurance for the development and maintenance of a rail-trail. The insurance will cover both the city or town and the MBTA. The insurance policies will have coverage limits of at least $3 million per incident, and a maximum deductible of $50,000 per incident.
Acton is already planning on applying for the grant. “This issue has held up our Assabet River Rail Trail for several years,” said Town Manager Don Johnson. “This grant would allow us to move forward on that, and on the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, for which we have just appropriated the design monies.”
Steve Anderson, a prominent environmental attorney from Anderson & Kreiger who represents a number of towns on rail-trail projects, also praised the legislature for its handling of the issue: “By providing a subsidy for environmental insurance and by eliminating the possibility that a city or town will be straddled with a ‘blank check’ liability for pre-existing environmental contamination, the legislature has designed a ‘win-win’ solution to address the concerns of communities, the MBTA and EOT. This action should clear one last major impediment to the development of rail-trails throughout the Commonwealth, and should result in the opportunity for tens of thousands of Massachusetts citizens to enjoy new rail-trails in the near future.”
SECTION 14. Said chapter 23A is hereby further amended by inserting after section 3H, as so appearing, the following section:—
Section 3I (a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, the department shall upon receipt of qualifying applications, expend not less than $500,000 annually in matching grants to assist municipalities to purchase environmental insurance naming as an additional insured the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or the executive office of transportation and construction, as applicable, for purposes of establishing and maintaining rail-trails, as defined in section 2 of chapter 21E and section 35A of chapter 82, utilizing the Brownfield’s Redevelopment Access 44 to Capital Policy Form or similar or replacement form, with terms, conditions, amendments and endorsements as appropriate under the circumstances of the proposed railtrail project, and with coverage limits of at least $3,000,000 per incident, a deductible of at most $50,000 per incident, and a term of at least 5 years.
(b) Unless specifically required by federal law in connection with any grant for construction of a rail-trail, a municipality that has applied for and received a grant and has purchased the environmental insurance as described in subsection
(a) shall not be required to furnish to any person, authority or governmental entity, any other form of environmental insurance, or any defense, indemnification or hold harmless agreement with respect to any claims, injuries, costs, damages or other relief arising out of or related to the pre-existing release or threat of release of oil or hazardous materials at or from the project site as those terms are defined in chapter 21E, in connection with its design, acquisition, construction, use or maintenance of the rail-trail for which the application is made.
(c) The department shall promulgate regulations, policies, or directives necessary to expedite the receipt and approval of grant applications from municipalities under this section.