Loading...
HomeMy Public PortalAboutComprehensive Water Planning -- 2010-03-22 Minutes\\\\\~~~~~~~111111UfIINlUl1///l~~/~ / \ ~~~` '6Ft E W ST~O~~i e ~~ ~=.r. 3= ~ ~.~ ~'. _oU a~a= to __ 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 . ~.. .._.~ v I .~_ ComprehensiQe~ Water Planning Cor~ittee ~~ 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. w :~ ~; w-• ~z: ~, 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. 3-22-]0 www.TOWN.BREWSTER MA US Page 1 of5 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. 3-22-~o www.TOWN.BR~WSTER MA US Page 2 of 5 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 3-22-~o www.TOWN.BREWSTER MA US Page 3 of 5 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? 3-22-] 0 www.TO WN. BRE W STER.MA US Page 4 of 5 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 3-22-]0 www.TOWN.F3REWSTER.MA.US Page 5 of 5