Wood Chips
In October 2003, the Newington Planning Board approved a proposal by Sprague Energy to export wood chips to Europe via Sprague's River Road terminal. The chips are to be trucked to Newington from central and northern New Hampshire, southern Maine, and northern Massachusetts. Sprague ventured into the chip business in order to compensate for the loss of approximately half of its salt business to the State-subsidized Pease Development Authority.

In early 2004, wood chips were once again in the news due to a PSNH proposal to convert the fuel at one of three boilers at Schiller Station from coal to wood at a cost of $71 million. Schiller is located in Portsmouth just south of the Newington Town line.

The deal is a potentially lucrative one for PSNH, for the company will sell "clean air" credits to utilities in Massachusetts who will pay dearly for them in order to comply with recent legislation in that state.

PSNH proposes to truck the wood chips to the site via Gosling Road. Portsmouth and Newington officials expressed a preference for transport via rail. PSNH declined, citing an allegedly high cost of constructing the loading and unloading infrastructure.

The PSNH proposal entails 70 wood chip trucks per day. Newington Selectmen lobbied PSNH to fund the completion of Shattuck Way so as to force the majority of Newington's industrial trucking off of Woodbury Avenue. PSNH responded with an offer to donate land and $275,000 for the completion of Shattuck Way. PSNH also offered $500,000 for Gosling Road upgrades. Gosling maintenance is shared 50/50 by Portsmouth and Newington.

A copy of preliminary engineering plans (dated March 2005) for Gosling's upgrade is available at the Newington Town Hall.

Wetland Protection

In 2001, the Newington Conservation Commission retained the services of West Environmental to conduct a town-wide inventory of Newington's wetlands. Upon completion of the survey, the Commission undertook a complete overhaul and modernization of the Town's wetlands protection ordinance.

The commission's primary goal was to revise the ordinance so as to better protect those resources that are particularly important to the ecosystem. The protection of resources of lesser significance, e.g. poorly drained soils, will no longer be pursued.

Newington's first wetlands ordinance was adopted in 1988. The new ordinance was approved by the townspeople at March 2004 Town Meeting.

The Commission thereupon re-examined all wetlands and selected eighteen for nomination as Prime Wetlands pursuant to NH RSA 482-A:15. Requests to fill a Prime Wetland are subject to more rigorous scrutiny by the NH Department of Environmental Services.

Early in 2004, the proposed Prime Wetlands were mapped on a large scale tax map so as to facilitate the determination of wetland boundaries. These maps were made available for review in the lobby of the Town Hall so that Newington residents would have ample time to comtemplate the proposal prior to March 2005 Town Meeting.

These eighteen wetlands cover 257 acres, or approximately 5% of Newington's land area. More than half the acreage is located on the Pease Tradeport.

The townspeople voted in March 2005 to endorse the Prime Wetlands designation. The NH Department of Environmental Services granted final approval on January 19, 2006.

The Conservation Commission would be pleased to address any concerns or comments from Newington property owners. Alternately, you may contact our Town Planner, Tom Morgan, at 436-1252.