Water Management Committee - Minutes, Meeting of January 13 2009
Members attending: Sandy Bayne, Marcel Boelitz, Don Nuendel, Bill Nugent, Meint Olthof,
Stephen Wasby; Karl Weiss; Muriel Lightfoot, Alternate
Members absent: Daniel Schwebach; Joan Sullivan
Others in attendance: Martin McDonald, Selectman (part); Judy Cannon, Search Committee liaison (part); Jane Crowley, Health Agent; Sara Raposa, Town Planner; Paul Gabriel, Environmental Partners; Tom Johnson; Joe Bayne (part); Marilyn Miller, Cape Codder.
The meeting began at 2:00PM and ended at 3:50PM. The minutes of the December 22, 2008, special meeting were approved unanimously as distributed.
The governance structure for the Water Management Committee was unanimously adopted, on motion of Stephen Wasby, seconded by Sandy Bayne, to have a Chair, two Vice-Chairs (one for water, one for wastewater), and a Clerk.
The following officers were nominated and unanimously approved:
Chair: Sandy Bayne
Vice-Chair, Water: Karl Weiss
Vice-Chair, Wastewater: Meint Olthof
Clerk Stephen Wasby
Karl Weiss presided over the meeting, at Sandy Bayne’s request.
I. Updates:
A. Wastewater.
(1) Olthof asked where the library of material from the training sessions would be located, and Crowley indicated that once the Town has the material, it will be put on the public access TV station, and she will keep CDs and DVDs and similar relevant material.
(2) As to the Town-Wide Wastewater Study, on January 20 at 1pm, there will be a meeting to go over a draft report from Stearns & Wheeler. Crowley suggested reestablishing a subcommittee to examine the report. She also reported a meeting, also attended by Selectman Martin McDonald, with Orleans about their sewering plans. Bill Nugent suggested looking at VOCs from Rock Harbor, but it was noted that this is not in S&W’s charge.
(3) There was little to report on either Orleans wastewater or Chatham wastewater.
(4) Crowley briefly commented on the status of projects as to funding; Town Planner Sara Raposa also noted projects on the list that were to be aided through the state economic stimulus package, although other are not sufficiently planned to be ready to “go” in a few months and thus cannot be so aided.
B. Weiss distributed the annual report of committee activity which he had prepared with the assistance of Olthof and Bayne.
C. Water. Weiss’s meeting with the Board of Selectmen about the article was cancelled, but the Town Administrator included this in the budget she presented. The one-page-plus statement prepared by Mark White of Environmental Partners on the steps in the permitting
WMC Minutes - January 13, 2009 - page 2
process was distributed and was explained by Paul Gabriel of EP. He said the permitting process can take 2-3 years. Large-diameter pipe wells would be used for the well-testing. He indicated that the steps in the distributed document could be matched to the steps in the Committee’s Proposed Phase 1, and that will be done. There was further discussion of how much water Orleans could supply.
Wasby noted that the Library would not be on the warrant for the May Town Meeting.
Bayne reported hearing that the debt-exclusion vote still applies. She noted she had also heard from a Wellfleet Water Committee member about having discussions between Wellfleet
and Eastham.
II. Presentation.
Tom Johnson made a presentation, “Water In-Water Out,” which included material about an experiment he will perform with nitrate-removing grass; an argument against a town-wide water system, in which he asserted that problems with nitrates are caused by failed septic
systems; and a proposal to bring Orleans water to the Brackett Rd. Area, with a variety of categories of properties being connected, which was asserted to cost less than a town-wide system. Among the numerous questions posed were challenges to Johnson’s data and the basis for his casual estimates (by Don Nuendel, Olthof, and Crowley) and questions (by Weiss and others) about the relationship between failed septic systems and Title V. Marcel Boelitz questioned taxpayers paying for private (commercial) benefit, and later said we should be supportive of at least some of Johnson’s ideas. Weiss said that Johnson had simplified. Wasby said he had heard advocacy and wondered whether this was to be an alternate proposal to Town Meeting; at that point, Johnson distributed a petitioned warrant article
embodying the ideas he had advocated in his presentation.
III. Pond Study
Wasby questioned the relation of what was to have been done about the Pond Study at the present meeting to the meeting called for Tuesday, January 20. It was clarified that the January 20 meeting is unofficial, with some other people –the technical people– to appear there, for a more in-depth, technical discussion of the report. That meeting was posted officially to avoid difficulties should a quorum be present. Wasby criticized the extremely poor quality of the Executive Summary of the Pond Study, and several people agreed.
Because there was insufficient time remaining to have a thorough presentation, the Pond Study was put over to next month’s meeting. Sandy Bayne distributed her history of the project.
A number of very positive comments were made about Karl Weiss’s tenure as chair of the committee. A resolution of thanks to Karl Weiss for his extended service as chair was adopted.
Respectfully submitted,
Stephen L. Wasby, Clerk
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