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Town Of Brewster
2198 Main Street
Brewster, Massachusetts 02631-1898
(508) 896-3701 ext. 133
FAX (508) 896-8089
Date Approved as written May 24, 2010: Vote: All Aye
TOWN OF BREWSTER MINUTES OF
COMPREHENSIVE WATER PLANNING COMMITTEE
REGULAR MEETING
Monday, March 22, 2010 at 4:30 P.M.
Brewster Town Office Building
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ComprehensiQe~ Water
Planning Cor~ittee
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Pat Hughes convened the Comprehensive Water Planning Committee meeting at 4:35 pm in the
Brewster Town Office Building with members Joanne Hughes, Dave Bennett, John Lipman and
Jane Johnson, Amy Usowski and Elizabeth Taylor.
Also Present: Sue Leven, Ed Lewis, Jim Gallagher, Chris Miller, Peter Johnson
Discuss CDM timeline, status and Community Meeting
Status: nothing new -Rob had a few questions on some of the material he had received and Ms.
Leven forwarded those questions to the appropriate people for answers.
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Community Meeting may not be able to be taped on Thursday. A discussion regarding if CWPC funds
could be used for this task. Pat had confidence that Sue will be able to find someone to tape the
meeting.
The objective of the Community Meeting was discussed. The meeting is the Town's opportunity to
meet the Comprehensive Water Planning Committee and CDM, the consultant. Leven sees this
meeting as a chance for everyone to provide input. People can sign up to be put on an email list to
learn about upcoming events pertaining to this issue. She felt there was no reason that this should not
be a positive meeting.
Pat Hughes would welcome the people and allow all committees members a chance to provide an
introduction, then the staff would be introduced (i.e. Sue, Chris Miller, etc) and finally an introduction of
CDM.
CDM would do an overview and then they would open the floor to questions.
Leven: Thought that CDM should do the following: introduce the project as a whole, set expectations
for the project, establish the timeframe and the purpose of the meetings along with the role of the
Town Planner and inform the community of the final outcome for Phase 1.
Pat: After the presentation Pat would step back in and direct the questioning.
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Leven: Are there any specific questions that the committee should ask of the attendees? (i.e. where
did they hear/see of the meeting, are there any other places that the committee should send out a
notice?)
Lipman: liked the email notice that was sent out highlighting the Community Meeting.
Leven: Noted who she had sent out the email too; the poster is here in Town Hall, and a poster is also
displayed at the Ladies Library.
Pat Hughes: Asked how that sounded to the committee? Would anyone want to do anything else?
Johnson: What exactly will the CDM presentation contain?
Leven: there will be some visuals not exactly sure what the whole presentation would be.
Pat Hughes: Requested that any documentation Sue received could she please forward to the
committee to review.
Lewis: There was an article in Cape Cod Times addressing wastewater and alternative solutions -
those questions might come up and wanted to make sure that CDM/committee was able to address.
Bennett: Noted that the water department might have leak detection kits.
Pat Hughes: asked Sue to provide a list of staff personnel/board members etc. Asked Ed how he
wanted to be involved.
Leven: Suggested that Pat introduce the committee, the staff and then the liaison from the BOS, Ed
Lewis, and then Dave Young from CDM
Peter Johnson: With all the materials that may be available over the course of the process it might be
nice to have a permanent area for people to pick up literature. The committee felt that was a good
idea.
Pat Hughes: would review the overview again with Leven prior to the meeting
Miller: asked if any handouts were available? Probably not much at this point
Leven: an email sign up sheet would be put out for attendees
Bennett: Is anyone monitoring the website to see how many hits it has over the past couple of weeks?
Leven: Just learned that anything posted on the Town web page would also be posted to Channel 18.
Pat Hughes: Asked if anyone had anything else for the Thursday nights community meeting?
Lewis: Wondered if a group would come to the meeting with a specific agenda?
Leven: there may be someone/group, but this meeting is very early in the process and it would be
good to identify who these people are so that the group could address the issues as they proceed.
Pat Hughes: Encouraged the whole committee to attend on Thursday and speak out as appropriate.
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2. Discussion of Blue Water Satellite proposal
Pat Hughes: After the last CWPC meeting, Dave Young went back and spoke with Blue Water and
they came back with this proposal: 1 scan for %2 price or 2 scans for the price of 1
Leven then did some research and developed some resolutions/recommendations on the proposal.
CDM had sent a photo of their topo map along with the Town Map -suggested that scans and the
calculations utilized would be based only on the property that falls within the Town boundaries.
Miller: recommended that whole ponds be included (i.e. Long Pond) -you can't take only'/ of the
water in situations like this.
Pat Hughes: felt there would be additional costs but that Blue Water/CDM could provide the
information.
J. Hughes: this would give us a picture of the whole Town scan and it could be a test to compare with
the Pond studies.
Leven: The Company has said that the 2 comparisons will not match exactly because you have to
look at the information at the same date, same time, and same weather conditions.
Miller: thinks the difference is only a sampling area difference -not going to be a big deal.
Leven: we have the data and they have images -essentially we would be paying them to go back and
get the historical data.
Pat Hughes: The way she looks at this is since we have so many other ponds that we don't have data
on -this would give us the opportunity to identify what the phosphorus levels are and then we could
develop an action plan for ponds that we don't have data on.
Leven: thought the value of 2 scans would be to see how the nitrogen is moving and what the impact
is on the ponds
J. Hughes: so how does that play into our planning -she doesn't really think we need to pay for
historical information -this committee is not the historical committee.
Miller: this would help to show a picture and convince the skeptics that this is why we need to invest in
wastewater clean up.
Bennett: What is the cost and what is that going to tell us now? 2001 to 2010 is a big difference in
time and significant changes have occurred
Leven: Unsure what the new images are going to show.
J. Hughes: ok with paying for 2 scans: 2001 we could compare with the ponds study and then see
where we are at now.
J. Johnson -noted that 17 ponds were done in 2001 -the later data was obtained on only 4 ponds at
a time. The information was gathered on a much broader scale. In Aug. they did more emphasis but it
is a good time to look at the scans.
Bennett: Looking at the ponds whetle we have the most data available because that would give you a
more accurate data analysis; the 2 scan you would want to look at when you can control the most
data so that the less variable change will make the best analysis. He would love to see that scan after
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a huge rain storm - he thought the value of the run off would show a lot. The Chatham weather station
can show you the days that had the most rain. This might trigger the committees' interest.
Leven: Would find out how recent the images are from this satellite -then find out the weather
conditions for that date and then finally see what date matches up with the data on most the ponds
Pat Hughes: Sounds like the committee would like to test this scan process.
Leven: it may be worth it to get the September, 2001 scan and then determine the next date for the
2"d scan.
Bennett: A quick way to do this would be to try to match it up against another September that was a
wet month and we had pond data.
Miller: Didn't want to use scans that were too close together.
Leven: We could take this information, then overlay on a GIS map and then you could see the
degrees of the layers.
Bennett: Motion to appropriate the funds of $3,000 for satellite images -'/2 of it to be used for one set
now. Seconded: Joanne Hughes.
Discussion: do you want to select a date? Chris would be happy to work with someone from the
committee on establishing the date for the second scan.
Vote: All Aye. Passed unanimously.
3. Regionalization discussion.
Pat Hughes: asked to continue to the next meeting since they were meeting in 2 weeks.
4. Discuss next steps for the Pond Study
Pat Hughes: Asked Sue and Chris to provide an update
Leven: Provided an update.
Pat Hughes: a discussion if funding was going to be needed at the spring. -Pat was not clear if the
committee had an action item or if additional money was needed now.
Leven: The committee could be looking for money in the fall. The warrant currently has a place holder
for the first piece of the next phase at $100,000. This funding would help to keep the process moving
forward and allow the consultant to keep going.
Pat Hughes: this phase process would help to give the committee the opportunity to obtain the
information to support the cost.
Miller: noted that the estimated cost to do study on all the ponds is approximately $250,000. We
could gather the information on a pond by pond basis but if you do it that way then it is a higher per
pond cost.
Leven: Any finalization on moving forward with the $100,000 on the Spring Town Meeting?
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J. Hughes: Motion to go ahead with the $100,000.
Miller: Could some of this money go to funding the pond study?
Leven: Felt the committee could use some of the money for the pond study because it pertained to the
comprehensive water planning.
Other Business:
- Review Minutes: February 8 and February 22, 2010 -would be reviewed at the next meeting.
Next Meeting is scheduled for March 25, 2010 as a Community Meeting.
J. Hughes: Motioned to adjourn. Seconded by Lipman. Vote: All Aye.
P. Hughes: noted that there was a citizen in attendance that did not have a chance to speak -she
asked if the Board could go back into session to give the gentleman a chance to speak. The
Committee agreed.
Russ Schell -Participated in the pond monitoring and had an interest in what this committee was
working on. He was attracted by the recent article in the paper that the committee was looking at a
unified approach to the wastewater solutions. He had several nitrogen related questions- specifically
the Namskaket Creek and how the nitrogen would be affected in the marsh and how other towns are
impacting the area.
Mr. Schell also noted The Brewster Ponds report which gave information on 6 of the ponds with some
of the ponds in the watershed. There are 3 ponds which are on the DE P list and have TMDL's noted.
DEP criteria for ponds that are specific for oxygen/temperature/depth relationships -Walkers Pond
fails to meet those criteria. Is the committee looking at what they have done for other ponds with their
Best Management Practices, BMP, and remedial corrections based on the Best Management
Practices for those ponds? It should be noted that the DEP's best management practices do not take
into consideration the migration of fish and it does not correlate with the minimum allowable criteria.
The draw down at certain wells could be impacted. He wanted to know who was "manning" the store.
Clear delineation of the watersheds needs to be made and identified.
P. Hughes: This committee is reviewing this information and is working on it now.
Lipman: Any way you could provide this information in written form - it is important and would like to
make sure that they take it into consideration during this process.
Hughes: Requested Mr. Schell's email address to be sure he was included: ruskiel _gmail.com Pat
requested that a public comment section be added to all agendas.
Lipman: motioned to adjourn. Seconded by Bennett. All Aye.
fitted,
Jayl~yfne Sbi/Senior Department Assistant
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