HomeMy Public PortalAboutWater Quality Review Committee -- 2023-08-25 MinutesDate Approved: 12/22/23
Vote: 6-0-0
TOWN OF BREWSTER
Water Quality Review Committee
2198 Main Street
Brewster, Massachusetts 02631-1898
(508) 896-3701 x1121
FAX (5081896-8089
TOWN OF BREWSTER
MINUTES of WATER QUALITY REVIEW COMMITTEE
Friday, August 25, 2023, at 9:00 AM
WQRC MEETING AGENDA
Attending Committee Members:
Amy Von Hone convened the Water Quality Review Committee meeting at 9:OOAM with members
Ned Chatelain (Brewster Select Board), Robert Michaels (Brewster Planning Board), Davis Walters
(Building Commissioner), Amy Von Hone (Health Director), John Keith (Board of Health), Susan
Brown (Water Commissioner), and Chris Miller (Natural Resources Director) and deemed there to
be a quorum.
Members Absent: None
Open Meeting Law statement read.
Agenda
- Review the Zoning Bylaw
Guests: Jon Idman, Town Planner
Item 1: Review the Zonin B law
Jon Idman (Brewster Town Planner) - was asked to review the Zoning Bylaws
Amy: At the request of Amy, Jon was asked to come in and provide a high-level overview of the
Zoning Bylaws and how they impact the WCRC
- In your packet there is a copy of the Zoning Bylaw
- I have tried to highlight the areas of the Bylaws and how this Committee fits into the
process
- Requested that we keep the conversation informal.
Jon ldman's Overview
Jon Idman: The most important point to recognize is that the Committee is solely derived from
its jurisdiction and responsibilities which are solely associated with the Zoning Bylaws.
- There are no other planning functions or external functions of the Committee outside the
Zoning Bylaws.
- More specifically the Roles and Responsibilities and Jurisdiction of the Committee derive
from the Water Quality Overlay District Article of the Zoning Bylaw with a subsection
dealing with Water Certificates.
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- The Water Quality Overlay District has existed in the Zoning Bylaw since the 1980s
- Zoning Bylaws have been altered in the 1990s and again in 2000. Essentially in the form
that you see today.
- The Committee and Certificate have also existed in that district since the early 1980s
- The Committee's Principal Role is the administration of the Water Quality Certificates that
are required in the district.
- The function of the district is to look out for ground water and related resources to
establish standards and limitations that overlay underlying zoning residential,
commercial, and industrial districts within this overlay district to protect ground water
resources and other related resources like: estuarian resources in the Pleasant Bay
Water Shed.
- The district is made up of the following:
o Zone 2 — which are areas that contribute to the Town's public drinking water wells
o Pleasant Bay Water Shed which is an estuarian watershed.
- Certificates are the principal role and responsibility of this Committee
- The Bylaws allow and require that this Committee issue Certificates in the first instance
unless there is a special permit which is also required for a development. In that case the
Certificate is rolled into the special permit and usually it is the Planning Board that is the
granting for the Special Permit.
If there is a Special Permit then the role of the WQRC is advisory only.
- The Planning Board will provide a notice to the WQRC of a certain project and plans.
The WQRC will provide comments back to the Planning Board that will take them under
advisement. It will integrate those comments into the Special Permit.
- At that time, the Certificate will be integrated into the Special Permit.
Note Certificates are usually tied to a Special Permit.
The primary role of this committee is a compliance review of Certificates that have been
issued. The Bylaw provides that every three years the Committee look at Certificates
that have been issued and determine if there is further action required to determine if the
project associated with that Certificate is still compliant.
Having the Building Commissioner and the Health Director involved are some of the
questions you ask upon compliance review every 3 years. Have there been changes to
the project like footprint, wastewater system been altered, and/or changes of use under
the building code.
If there have been changes, the Committee will ask the Certificate owner to come to a
meeting to review any changes.
Upon compliance review, your roles ties back into the Certificate that has been issued
which needs to be reviewed every 3 years
If a Special Permit is involved, the Planning Board can require that a review takes place
more than every 3 years.
Certificate types of projects are commercial or industrial addition or new constructions or
change of use under the building laws for toxic or hazardous waste.
Amy: Can you give us an example of what type of projects are coming before the board?
Jon Idman — Sand and Gravel mining, has an associated certificate with a 2 -year review. There
is not a lot of development in that part of town, the commercial district is very small.
Rob — We have reviewed only a few; one was a camp the other a church. What was the rational
for those two buildings triggering a requirement of a Certificate?
Jon Idman — The trigger is very broad, is a Special Project required in the district or is there
construction that is not single family residential. That is a good point, and this will lend itself to
subsequent discussions. However, the Committee has the same review process regardless of a
church or a sand and gravel request. Every 3 years the Certificate needs to be renewed. If the
Town sees a need to change the Bylaw and the obligations and responsibilities of the
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Committee for a Certificate, so be it, but what we are working on now are the existing conditions
of the Zoning Bylaw.
Amy — Bottom line any residential use that is not a single family. Any development that meets
that criteria that falls within the DCPC is required to obtain a special permit.
Jon Idman — That is true under the Zoning.
Amy — That determination is made by the Building Commissioner whether that project meets
that criteria of requiring a Special Permit which would include a Certificate.
Jon Idman — Note multiple family houses can only be done within the CH high density district
which is very small. This is an example of a Certificate being rolled into a Special Permit which
would imply that this Committee would play an advisory role.
John Keith — How does this apply to single family developments where you are adding a new
infrastructure? How does this apply to campgrounds?
Jon Idman — Dream Day Camp of Cape Cod abuts Nickerson, but it is not within Nickerson.
State land used by the State is beyond the Towns's zoning jurisdiction. Nickerson does not
apply to the Zoning Bylaws. The Dream Day Camp does have an active Certificate.
Subdivisions in the DCPC area can go through a process called Natural Resource Protection
Design which is a type of subdivision that can only be done by right in the DCPC. It allows for
very high level of flexibility, where in some cases you don't even require roadways just
easements.
Amy - a new subdivision for residential is being proposed, it is in the DCPC, the building of the
lots will fall under Building and Health jurisdiction. For example, I need to be concerned about
nitrogen loading because of Zone II under Title V. The subdivision itself will need to be
reviewed by WQRC?
Jon Idman — Not necessarily, is subject to the subdivision control law. It becomes a Zoning Use
in two ways:
- Zoning Use called Natural Resource Protection Design which is a type of subdivision or
division of land that can be in the DCPC / water overlay district. It allows subdivision to be
done as a matter of right.
- Special Permit can be used to support a more typical subdivision
- There are two Special Permit provisions in the overlay district, which are the following:
- One states that certain projects are going to the WQRC for review and advisory
- The other does not, this one does not include reference to needing WQRC review
- There are nitrogen loading standards.
- There is also storm water review
Amy — The storm water bylaw would take into consideration drainage
Jon Idman — The WQRC takes into consideration Water Quality and Quantity
Ned — I have been on this Committee for 6 or 7 years; it feels like we are having a little bit of an
identity crisis with regards to our role and obligations. We are closer to a Staff Review Level
entity to provide guidance and review checkboxes on an application. We are Not a Planning
Board oversight style of a committee.
Jon Idman — As a practical matter, the Committee issues just a few Certificates. I think the
principal role of this committee is the compliance review of the Certificates as required. Water
Quality in Brewster is an important issue and because Water Quality is so important, it assumes
that this Committee should be doing more than what is defined.
Ned — we are not looking to expand the role of this Committee, but rather to clarify how it is
being applied now and how it should be applied in the future. We have not denied an application
in my time or applied significant constraints on a Special Permit application with regards to a
Certificate. I think we are doing a good job as a "backstop", but we are not doing much
constructive regulation.
Jon Idman — The make up of this Committee is important. The members of this Committee can
provide a level of expertise or fine grain review for these Water Quality issues to help the
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Planning Board. The focus is really on toxic and hazardous materials and the scrutiny which is
going to be raised for certain projects and not others. How do we negotiate our Town Wells and
Industrial in our Overlay District.
Chris — I have participated on this Committee the longest, but I am not an official Committee
Member. The original role was to oversee these significant Water Quality risks like sand pits
going from small to large, we do walk a fine line between Planning and Advisory.
Jon Idman — For certain Special Permit, the Planning Board has to come to the WQRC to play
the role as Advisor. This Committee does drive the approval of a Certificate and an advisor of a
Certification aligned to a Special Permit.
Susan — One item that is not addressed is PFOS, which could contaminate our wells. We will
be testing our water for 29 specific PFOS levels in October 2024.
Rob — There are two things that I heard. One is there is no such thing as too much Water
Quality in the Town of Brewster. The other thing I am hearing is identity crisis, not enough to
do. Which are two competing things.
Jon Idman — This is a high level item that the Select Board is charged with because we have a
Water Quality Task Force, and we have a Water Quality Review Committee.
Ned — I think this one tool in the toolbox to ensure the Water Quality: drinking water and pond
quality. I think we should escalate this conversation with regards to toxic and hazardous issues.
We need to find a way to strengthen our toxics mandate and strengthen it with our other
counterparts like The Ponds Coalition.
Amy — As a staff member that is an excellent response as far as a path forward. This regulation
and our regulations with regard to Title V regulation is conflicting and what we are trying to do
with the DCPCs and Zone Twos. We need to ensure that everything is matching up and who
should be doing what.
Ned — I will talk to Peter Lombardi about putting this on the Water Quality Task Force next
meeting. We can send a proposal to the Select Board for consideration.
John Keith — What about private wells? How do we protect private wells?
Jon Idman — This is lacking within the Commonwealth and unfortunately, we only have limited
historical information on these wells. They are important to protect. This goes back to my point,
there is a much larger issue than WQRC. It doesn't mean that within that section 17957 overlay
district that scrutiny over private wells can't become a standard.
Amy — There are a couple of different Board of Health regulations where you are required to test
your well water periodically.
Chris — With regards to Water Quality, even when they are testing, they are only testing for
bacteria and not PFOS.
Jon Idman — there is some housekeeping that needs to be done between the bylaw and section
17957
- It is not totally clear with regards to special permit conditions stating two totally different
things and it is a little unclear what the trigger is for water quality review committee, one
section says it's new construction and the other section references additions.
- It is important that we have a post decision compliance review
- It is more important to focus on the development that could have an impact on Water
Quality and not the church that once was required to have a certificate but has no
evidence of toxic or hazardous issues.
- Double down on the properties that have monitoring wells
Davis — NRPD requirements?
Jon Idman — NRPD is a type of division or subdivision of land that can only be permitted in the
DCPC area. It's by right and it allows you to develop land in a flexible way that is more sensitive
to the natural environment. It does not require road layouts or defined frontage but does set
aside a large area of open space.
Chris — have we had any applications under the NRPD?
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Jon Idman — We have but they are Brewster Conservation Trust. There has not been an NRPD
that has been provisioned and then divided. Provided more information with regards to the
NRPD. I think you should be doing a Natural Resources analysis when you are looking at a
larger subdivision.
Ned — go to the Water Quality Task Force and add an agenda item to review the direction for
the WQRC
Item 2: Discussion and Vote on the Reorganization of the Committee
Amy: Cindi Baran has been replaced by Susan Brown, and Cindi Baran was acting as our Chair.
We need to fill the Chair position. The Health Director should be the Vice Chair. Review the voting
members. I am willing to stay Vice Chair. We will need to replace the Chair. Rob Michaels is
interested in being the Chair of the WQRC.
MOTION to approve Rob Michaels as the new Chair of the WQRC
MOVED by Ned Chatelain. Susan Brown second.
Roll Call Vote: Amy von Hone — yes, Ned Chatelain — yes, Chris Miller - yes, Davis Walters -
yes, Susan Brown- yes, John Keith - yes
VOTE: 6 -yes 0 -no
AVH: provided a list of names and email of the WQRC members
Item 3: For your information section _
- May and July monitoring reports for Cape Sand and Recycling, will need to do a site visit next
year
o There is one particular well that is in the area that may be the cause, or it could be the
boat area
o This site is a considerable distance from our wells
o The well at the boat storage area was closed
o Boat storage is not permitted in that area and it is currently being cleared
o Enforcement letter was sent out
Item 4: Matters not reasonably anticipated by the Chair
- No items to review.
Next Meeting: September 22n at 9:00 AM
MOTION to adjourn the meeting at 10:01 AM.
MOVED by Susan Brown. Davis Walters second.
Roll Call Vote Amy von Hone — yes, Ned Chatelain — yes, Robert Michaels — yes, Davis
Walters - yes, Susan Brown- yes, John Keith — yes, Chris Miller - yes
VOTE: 6 -yes 0 -no
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