East Lyme - The companies building a field of solar panels at Grassy Hill and Walnut Hill roads will develop a plan to remove sediment from silted-in wetlands on the property that followed a recent rainstorm.

The solar field's sediment control-basins overflowed and partly failed, after a heavy downpour brought more than 5 inches of rain to the site over the weekend of March 28, said attorney Ted Harris at Monday's Inland Wetlands Agency hearing. The water flowed over frozen ground onto the eastern part of the property.

The town issued a cease-desist-and-correct order on Friday, instructing Greenskies Renewable Energy and Centerplan Construction Co. to submit a full mitigation plan by the end of the month.

The order cites "sedimentation within an onsite wetlands and watercourse as a result of stormwater management system failures and failures of erosion and sedimentation controls."

In response to a question from the board about preventing more flooding, Mike Lombardi, the president of Centerplan, said they had installed additional silt fences and riprap to prepare for Monday's rainfall.

The solar field's plan call for planting grass on the property. Chairwoman Cheryl Lozanov suggested the companies consider additional plants to further mitigate flooding.

The incident at the solar field did not require emergency management services from the town, said Emergency Management Director Dick Morris.

"There is no electricity on the site or biohazard on the site that we were concerned with at this stage of the project," said Morris in a phone interview Monday.

The companies are working with environmental consultants and engineers to prepare a full mitigation plan with upgraded sedimentation controls, which they will present at the agency's next meeting at 7 p.m. May 5 at Town Hall, according to Harris.

The solar field, which will supply 5 megawatts of renewable energy to the electric grid through a purchasing agreement with Connecticut Light & Power, is slated to be completed later this spring.

k.drelich@theday.com