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Raytheon to pay $50K for destroying wetlands near Andover site

WALTHAM, MA - DECEMBER 6: Raytheon Company Chairman and CEO, Daniel P. Burnham, gestures as he speaks at a groundbreaking ceremony for the company's new headquarters December 6, 2002 in Waltham, Massachusetts. The defense contractor manufactures the Patriot Missile which was used during the Gulf War to defend Israel from Iraqi attacks. (Photo by Jacob Silberberg/Getty Images)

BOSTON — A defense contractor has been ordered to pay nearly $50,000 after a construction project overstepped its permissions and destroyed vegetation.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection gave Raytheon permission to destroy a beaver dam to provide more room for the company's fire suppression system at a new construction site in Andover. However, MassDEP says the company overstepped the permission in building its 178-acre Osgood Street Facility.

MassDEP says it received a complaint in May the Waltham-based company had violated its permissions, and officials deemed its destruction 'excessive and unauthorized.'

“The authorization of any work performed in a wetlands resource area is prescribed; it is not a blank check to do additional work,” said Eric Worrall, director of MassDEP’s Northeast Regional Office in Wilmington. “To its credit, the company quickly recognized that the work was not authorized and has agreed to restore the impacted area and pay an appropriate penalty.”

MassDEP says the company agreed to restore the area by this May and pay the fine.

The area will be monitored for five growing cycles until Summer of 2023.

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