Town of Old Lyme~Water Pollution Control Authority
Old Lyme Town Hall Main Floor Meeting Room
Minutes of the~REGULAR MEETING, Tuesday August 14th, 2018
In attendance: Chairman Prendergast, Vice-Chair Donna Bednar, Frank Chan, Dimitri Tolchinski, Rob McCarthy, Treasurer Doug Wilkinson, Andrea Lombard, Sal Cancelliere, Joe Carpentino, Steve Cinami (alternate). Also in attendance were 10 townspeople and Selectwoman Nosal.
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m.
Approval of the Minutes of the July 10th, 2018 meeting.~Motion by D. Bednar to approve the minutes. Second by D. Wilkinson. Discussion: S. Cancelliere mentioned that he hasn’t seen them. Chairman Prendergast pointed out they are posted on the website. Motion carries with 1 abstention.
Chairman’s Report
DEEP posting of EIE status and Additional Ground Water study scope approval. Waiting for state to resolve public comments. Comments ended August 3rd. They will issue a record of decision, likely in mid-September. We need that to go forward for a referendum. The EIE went out a month late, which pushed everything back.
Hawk’s Nest ground water testing. The wells have been drilled and the first samples collected. There is a need to have a survey done of the wells. We have a quote of $1600 for 6 wells, slightly higher than last time. Woodard & Curran have not yet given Chairman Prendergast an amended scope for data loggers, which is how we get state funding.
Pump House. Still being negotiated between private beach associations and town.
IMA – inter municipal agreements. Chariman Prendergast asked for a volunteer to review the IMAs. S. Cinami volunteered. Try to summarize how much it would cost per year. Equate what it would cost for the Town to join. Increased volume would increase cost. The State has directed all 3 towns to cooperate. Chairman Prendergast has a meeting scheduled for August 20th with the New London WPCA chair together with the first selectwoman.
Postcards for Informational Session. Postcards were sent to advertise meeting on Thursday. Final bill was $950 for postage and $450+ for printing. Thanks to the Selectman’s office for their assistance with the mailing.
EDU discussion. Don’t think we’re going to discuss tonight. Feedback that has been received is that our method might not be the best. Might have to take another look at that.
Budget Update and Expenses
Upcoming bills include lab testing for $4036.55, and a bill from the attorney for recent work.
Correspondence
Sent via email prior to the meeting. Comments were received in response to EIE.
Old Business
EIE updates: Chairman’s report covered it. Discussion? No further. State is taking the lead on responding.
Ground Water study for area known as Hawk’s Nest update: Lab results are in from the first sample. Chairman Prendergast spoke with Mike Barris at ECL. Results, he said, all old wells seem to be OK. All new wells had things that didn’t make sense. This is all leading to the suggestion that we should flush the new wells. Woodard & Curran told Chairman Prendergast that they had been flushed after they were drilled. However, he has not had the opportunity to check back with them after receiving the lab results that indicate flushing is necessary. Flushing will not remove pollution. If there is pollution it will come back. But if there is construction debris and other junk, get it out of there. If we were billed for it, we want to make sure it was done.
Motion by R. McCarthy: That we request Woodard & Curran to re-flush the wells because results indicate it may not have been done properly, and that the work be done at no cost. If they refuse, hire someone else to flush them. Cap at $2,500 and complete at least before August sampling. Second by D. Wilkinson. Discussion: Chairman Prendergast will tell the lab to wait to collect the next samples until flushing is complete. Need to find out if they flushed wells before we accuse them of not flushing them. Ask to flush again because that is what the lab is saying. Need to make sure we specify new wells. When flushing, need to flush until they get low turbidity readings. Motion carries unanimously.
J. Carpentino wants to clarify he wasn’t convinced that turbidity is not linked to out-of-sync results. There are large ranges of findings. Even though, it’s a good idea to re-flush. As it stands, data does not indicate that notion that the out of scope results are directly correlated to turbidity.
Motion by S. Cancelliere that for the purposes of DEEP, we properly survey the wells in Hawk’s Nest Beach, and map them, including elevation and geo coordinates. Second by J. Carpentino. Discussion: none. Motion carries unanimously.
Other Business: Regarding the wells at Hawk’s Nest Beach, S. Cancelliere reported that they were put at ground level, which alleviated concerns of public safety and snow plow damage. As far as human DNA testing, which J. Carpentino clarified is “DNA specific to bacteria found in humans,” S. Cancelliere is not sure we need to do that on every test well on a routine basis. Will be very expensive and the state doesn’t give funding for it. Discussion followed, including difficulty in finding a lab that will perform the testing, ongoing dispute over existence of pollution and possible causes, cost of testing, depth of wells and possible salt water intrusion.
S. Cancelliere expressed concern about distance between the new wells and existing septic systems, and the location of the wells, particularly on West End Drive. Chairman Prendergast reiterated that we were required by state to put wells there. If there is no place because septic systems are so close together, that’s part of the problem.
S. Cancelliere asked why aren’t we testing/sampling the wells in the winter? Discussion followed, including the contract and scope of the budget, what months are being sampled, independence of the sampling/monitoring company, the effort of the committee to be transparent, the goal of finding pollution or no pollution, and the need to manage costs.
EDU and assessment discussions. Don’t expect to go into this tonight. Very complicated. Will probably revise. S. Cinami suggested that we take the other beach communities up on their offer and form a task force to develop definition of EDUs. Chairman Prendergast pointed out the Sound View has a different configuration that includes business properties, and D. Bednar replied that we have asked them over and over to share and they haven’t.
Public outreach planning. F. Chan did a fantastic job helping to prepare the PowerPoint presentation, and A. Lombard gave feedback. Chairman Prendergast will present. All others are welcome to attend.
Back to groundwater study – the lab report is a printout and results are individual. Talked with ECL about putting the results in Excel format. Company is looking into it. If that doesn’t work out, the WPCA Clerk will enter the results in an Excel spreadsheet and someone will double check it.
Carmody septic software progress update. Still waiting for contract to be approved by Town lawyers. Need to push it along. Scott Carmody is very willing and eager to begin work with us as soon as possible.
New business
No new business.
Public Comment – Limited time per speaker~
Sandy Butcher, 29 Hartford Avenue: Stated that she only just tonight got handed a copy of the postcard advertising the Informational Meeting on Thursday. It appears they were mailed by bulk. What day were they mailed? She lives in Enfield, and had not received one yet. If she receives tomorrow, only 24 hours in advance, which she feels is insufficient time to notify residents. As to the definition of EDUs, when you consider size of property, will you take into account how many months we can use the property because water is turned off? Some can use year-round, some can’t.
Dennis Meluzzo, 7 Portland Avenue: Spent better part of today with Selectwoman Nosal discussing CT Water vs. Town of Old Lyme. Been waiting 20 years to finish water in Sound View. And if hearing only from CT Water, that’s what they want you to know.
Chairman Prendergast responded to public comment: As for the postcards, don’t know exactly when they were mailed. Intention was to let people know and it was also posted on the town website. As for EDUs based on capacity of property whether it is used or not. Needed to make a decision to move forward. Ultimate goal is to fairly assign the costs to everyone involved, and that is tough to do.
As for CT Water, the goal is to try and get CT Water to upgrade old pipes in Sound View. Have met many times with CT Water Company, and he thinks we do have leverage, looking into what they are required to do, it is confusing. Hope to get it done at their cost for all the years of charging. D. Tolchinski says Mr. Meluzzo is right that they were paid years ago and they never finished the work. Chairman Prendergast replied that the sewer project and water project are separate.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn by D. Wilkinson. Second by D. Bednar. Motion carries unanimously. Meeting was adjourned at 8:59 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Datum, WPCA Clerk
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