On August 9-10, 2014, the Amesbury Sports Park hosted a return of the Spartan Race series to Amesbury. The Spartan Race is one among a number of very popular 'challenge'-type athletic events, where participants climb over and under obstacles, navigate hazards, carry or drag weights and objects, wade through mud pits - you get the picture.
On August 12, I walked some of the course that the Spartan Race used in Amesbury, as part of an ongoing project of citizen-mapping trails by the new Amesbury Trails group that go through various City-owned conservation and park land. In addition to GPS-enabled devices that could track trail data to overlay later with maps, we had data downloaded from the internet of a Spartan Race participant's own GPS file. Our primary objective was to explore and map the City-owned Merrimack Landing Conservation property that abuts Riverfront Drive to the South and various properties along South Hunt Road (including the Amesbury Sports Park) to the North. But our secondary objective was to see if there had been any damage from the recent Spartan Race, run just days before. My companion had seen possible damage from the Warrior Dash Race held earlier this year and he was worried that the Spartan Race may have gone through the same areas.
Here's the GPS data file overlaid a map indicating the properties that the 2014 Spartan Race ran through. A layman can see that the Race went through sensitive areas, including a Superfund site, a capped landfill, and private and public conservation land.
We very quickly found indications that there may have been some serious impacts from the Spartan Race (the weekend Spartan Race posted results for at least 6,500 participants). We took a number of geo-tagged pictures and decided that this information needed to be reported to the City as soon as possible. The Conservation Commission has authority over any wetlands use violations on public and private property, the Con Comm is also the managing authority of record on the Merrimack Landing Conservation Land deed, and we were worried about the use of closed landfill property for a mass event. Here are some of the pictures that I sent to the City, taken on City-owned Conservation Land.
The first two photos show a very wide path of churned mud cut straight through what appeared to be a wetland or at least a wetland buffer zone. The third shows extensive trail damage from runners and tracks from a motorized vehicle (the Merrimack Landing Conservation Land deed explicitly prohibits the use of motorized vehicles on this property).
I'm not a conservation lawyer but I know enough about the Massachusetts Wetland Protection Act and its implementation in Amesbury's own Wetlands Protection bylaw that alarm bells were ringing in our heads. At that point, we didn't know if there were also trespassing and land use violations with the course having gone through other private property (including property controlled by Waste Management, Inc.), though it was very hard to believe that they would have allowed thousands of runners to climb their capped landfill or dig mud pits and build obstacles on Superfund land. (What's Superfund? Read more HERE.)
Making no assumptions, however, I sent a number of the photos that I took that morning, along with the created map of the course, to folks at the City, in the Economic and Community Development Department, since that is where the City's Conservation Agent resides (oversees Wetlands Act enforcement, in concert with the Amesbury Conservation Commission). I also submitted queries about whether or not the City had issued permits for this event on this course and what, exactly, the City's event permitting process was.
I was informed that the City had received my complaint related to the Wetlands Protection Act and that it was following up on it, including contacting the MA Department of Environmental Protection (MA DEP, ultimately responsible for enforcement of the Act). As reported in the Lawrence Eagle Tribune today [LINK to story], a follow-up investigation was conducted by the DEP and by the City and that they have determined that there were violations and an enforcement process has been initiated.
The story also reports that the City will not allow the Sports Park to hold the Mudderella Race scheduled for next weekend.
I am heartened that the complaint has elicited such a strong response.
Here are my concerns and questions, which I had upon walking the course and that have only intensified in thinking more about it all:
- This is not the first time that such challenge/obstacle races have been held in Amesbury (not just hosted by the Sports Park). What process does the City have in place to comprehensively review and permit large events (held on both public and private property)? And, if we do have one, does it comprehensively manage risk to participants and the City by requiring a comprehensive review? I know that some of the organizers of previous events have worked closely with the City and folks like the Conservation Commission and public safety departments to design and execute safe and compliant events, so it can be done right.
- But some of the same routes through Merrimack Landing Conservation Land property have been used at least by another Sports Park race earlier this year and, likely, in the past, as well. So, are we talking about one bad actor here or is the question one of not having a robust enough event permitting system in place in Amesbury, so that we can best prevent rather than respond to problems in event designs before they occur? I'm guessing the latter. It is definitely the case that we have no ordinance in place the requires event permits, described conditions and requirements, and lays out a schedule of penalties for non-compliance (that would come in handy about right now).
- You can find a 2 page event form HERE that is definitely in the right direction (multiple department head sign offs, etc), but it is directed to the Youth Services Director and primarily has to do with holding events in City sports fields and facilities. The current event form and the related regulations don't, in my mind, fully address the many public interests in regulating and permitting events that are held beyond sports field and public facilities (such as Camp Kent or Lake Gardener). I think that we are due for an upgrade in our event permitting process.
- I checked with Chief Oullette of the Amesbury Police Department about this event. He was aware of it and the Sports Park had contacted his office with a traffic plan designed to mitigate problems from past mass events. This is why for the Spartan Race, everyone parked at the greyhound track in Seabrook NH and and they were bussed down and back (great idea, by the way; there had been some real traffic control nightmares for some of these events at the Sports Park previously). Were other department heads or the Mayor's office aware of the event, its course and the fact that temporary climbing structures were being assembled? I assume that some folks were aware of the event on some level (you don't just sneak 7,000 people into town) but I also fear that no one had particular or clearly delineated responsibility for reviewing the various land use questions involved. This is not the first obstacle event put on by the Sports Park this year (including one that also likely had trespassing and wetlands violations) and there are/were three more coming up on their calendar before the end of the year! What eyeballs are on these events as they roll through town and how are they vetted by the City?
From my end, I've reached out to the Mayor indicating my concerns with our current process and indicating my interest in working with his office to improve it. I haven't heard back from him yet so I'll be filing a proposed event permitting ordinance for our upcoming September City Council Meeting. I look forward to working with the Mayor, my colleagues on the City Council other stakeholders (such as the Chamber of Commerce) to develop this ordinance.
My take-aways from this are: we have a system for permitting events in place that clearly has some weaknesses, that the Spartan Race may have been a 'wake up call' but it does not appear to be an isolated event, and that we can protect Amesbury's interests better with a more robust event permit management system in place.
Posts
