Water Management Committee
April 14 2009
Members Present: Sandy Bayne, Chair; Karl Weiss, Vice-Chair, Water; Stephen Wasby, Clerk;
Marcel Boelitz; Donald Nuendel; William Nugent; Daniel Schwebach; Muriel Lightfoot
(alternate).
= Members absent: Meint Olthof, Vice-Chair, Wastewater
= Staff absent: Jane Crowley, Health Agent
Others present: Selectman Martin McDonald; Tom Johnson, Jake McGrath, student, Lighthouse
Charter School
The meeting began at 2:00pm and ended at 3:40pm.
The minutes of the meeting of March 18, 2009, were approved as distributed.
There was a brief discussion of what should be printed and brought to the meeting, or whether individuals (except one without a computer) would print their own material sent by e-mail.
Jake McGrath, an eighth-grade student at Lighthouse Charter School, was introduced; as part of a project in which students examine public issues on the warrant, he is studying the water issue.
As to the matter of open meetings, Sandy Bayne had called Tom Shack, the Assistant District Attorney responsible for such matters, and he had said that for three members of the committee to have met to work on redrafting a document was not a violation, because it was less than a quorum of the committee’s membership. Tom Johnson said that his concern had been with e-mail among committee members.
Chair Bayne indicated that the last meeting had been uncomfortable for some people because of the byplay involving those in attendance, so that, for the present meeting, comments from the public would come only at the beginning or the end of the meeting.
Bayne will be away for the next scheduled meeting. It was agreed that while the meeting would be posted, and that Bayne would consult with the vice-chairs as to whether a meeting was necessary, but that it was contemplated the meeting would be cancelled, with the post-mortem on the water proposal to be on the June 9 agenda.
Bayne distributed a report on various meetings at which she had made presentations and most of which Stephen Wasby had also attended. She also reported on the Wellfleet meeting concerning their water plans.
There was extended discussion of strategy to be used at Town Meeting. Bayne asked for volunteers to talk out on particular items. Selectman McDonald will likely be the proponent of the proposal for the Board of Selectmen; he felt we need not have a presentation as a panel, and he suggested a one-page handout. Weiss said it was uncomfortable giving a talk in the large hall where TM is held. Wasby said Bayne should give a short presentation – particularly for the
WMC Minutes - April 14 2008 - p. 2
benefit of those who had not been at the last T.M.’s where the topic was debated. Weiss suggested it was better to have someone speak in favor from other boards, particularly the Board of Health like Stan Holt or Jim Taylor. Don Nuendel said it was important to admit we didn’t know answers, and noted that people were asking why we were not proposing wastewater plans now. Marcel Boelitz said the question posed was wrong and that rules about surface water mitigation will be imposed on us by the federal and state governments, but that this is not
related to the need for drinking water. Bill Nugent said that in the initial presentation, we should stress benefits. Boelitz then said we need “balance” and should give a break to people with private wells and talk about their advantages. Weiss said we should answer “Why now rather than later?” Wasby’s response was “inflation.” Bayne said it was the Board of Selectmen’s responsibility to deal with money, but Wasby said we must taken ownership of the money matter as well – that we were proposing a small project because we listened, a point Nuendel also said should be made. Both Boelitz and Nuendel it is important to explain that we can’t plan and know our options without knowing how much water we have available. Weiss mentioned stimulus money, and
McDonald said there would be more such money later, including some for water projects; if the proposal passed, there would be different pockets at which we could look.
Bayne had handed out editors and op-ed pieces from 2007 and called attention to them.
Then Bayne went through the list of questions (ten, expanded to twelve) that would be asked at TM; the list had been developed by Olthof and Weiss. Bayne wanted to see if they had already been discussed sufficiently and whether we were ready to answer them, or whether they were not issues. There was discussion of relying on numbers (increase in wells with certain nitrate levels), and Boelitz asked Wasby why we shouldn’t use numbers; the response is that one can’t make a case solely on them, and there are other stronger points to be made. Weiss also agreed one can’t rely on the numbers to make our case. Bayne said we need to be planning. McDonald pointed out that Eastham had grown from 500 population (2,000 in the summer) to 5,000 year-round population (and 30,000 in a longer
summer). Dan Schwebach raised the matter that, with town water instead of wells, people would seek to build on lots not now buildable.
Bayne went over fire insurance ratings, which had been obtained for houses of three different values, with the only difference being Eastham v. Orleans, and the Orleans amounts were roughly $250 per house. There was discussion of how to use this information at TM.
A set of long answers about the Municipal Water System prepared for the October 1 2007 TM was discussed. Weiss said is was too long, and said we should have a set of short answers to be available at the Library, Post Office, and Town Hall. Others agreed, and Bayne will start to edit the long statement into short answers.
There was discussion of the warrant item with the pump test/permit proposal and of problems caused by the language of the item as rewritten by bond counsel.
Other issues relating to protecting the environment will be discussed after Town Meeting.
WMC Minutes - April 14 2009 - p. 3
Weiss reported on what was covered in an interview conducted with him, Olthof, Martin McDonald, and Jane Crowley by a marine science Ph.D. from the MIT-Woods Hole program for NPR series on Cape Cod, to be aired (date and time not known) on WCAI.
Respectfully submitted,
Stephen L. Wasby, Clerk
| 
