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Wellfleet Board of Health
Meeting of July 10, 2002
Senior Center, Long Pond Room
Present: David Breen, Chair; Zel Levin, Lezli Rowell, Betty Kimball, Geoffrey Karlson; Emily Beebe, Health Agent
The meeting was called to order by Chair David Breen at 7:00 p.m.
· Variance Request/Appeal: Barone-Chapman, 3187 State Highway, Assessor These wells had tested positive for contamination (nitrate concentration of greater than 5 mg/l); therefore, the Health Agent had issued orders for upgrade. Since the house had been closed for two years, Ms. Terrano-Flores hired David Bennett of Bennett & Ofrom some source other than the Barone-Chapman septic system and that denitrafication of this system would not have an effect on the nitrates in the well. He reminded the Board that the house had not been used for two years until two days before the test. Bennett added that he wished to resolve this issue with the Board and perhaps develop the Barone-Chapman well to find a suitable horizon with better water quality.
q Asked by Chair Breen for her opinion, Health Agent Beebe noted overlapping issues: this property had come up at the same time as the Hall property and perhaps the locus property represented a coliform bacteria reported was due to stagnancy and iron content in the water. Ms. Beebe recommended that the BOH approve this appeal.
q Betty Kimball questioned the statement of the house needing a deed restriction (to 2 bedrooms)q Zel Levin asked if Bennett proposed asking the BOH to approve the Barone-Chapman septic system as it now stood with the understanding that he and his client planned to explore means to improve it. Bennett concurred, adding that he did not think the water quality (high iron content, nitrates, manganese) was satisfactory and that the best idea was to run a test well and test different horizons.
q Lezli Rowell commented that it was essential to go to a deeper production horizon and that it was interesting that the septic had been unused for two years. She stated that she would approve the proposal, holding them to improvement of the well and insisting on a deed restriction to two bedrooms.
q Geoffrey Karlson asked Ms. Beebe what the BOH leverage of jurisdiction would be on a follow-up on water quality; Beebe answered that once the property was signed off on inspection, none. Atty. Terrano-Flores assured the Board that the owner is fully planning to undertake the improvement of water quality. Upon Karlsonseptic system, unless the water were treated and the well improved, the water quality would not improve. Karlson asked if the water quality consistently went over 10 mg/l, whether the property could be transferred; Beebe answered no. Karlson then suggested that the Board approve this proposal but mandate a condition that continued water quality testing over a period of time, perhaps twice a year over the next three years in September and April. David Bennett suggested four consecutive tests two weeks apart to determine average numbers based on statistical analysis. Karlson reiterated that the Board q David Breen asked about the form the monitoring would take, the implications if the system did not pass, the flow rate for a two-bedroom house (220 gallons), if the burden of collecting samples would be on the homeowner, and the number of samples to be taken from the monitoring well. Bennett answered that samples would be taken twice; Breen commented that two spot samples do not give an adequate picture of the real nitrogen content. To Breennearby marsh if a well were dropped too deep they would lose the nitrate contamination and get salinity; Bennett informed him that a conductivity meter would be used in different levels of testing.
q Karlson proposed as a condition of the property transfer that money be placed in escrow to engage a third party to take three September water samples, results to be provided to the BOH. Lezli Rowell felt that the Board could follow up with a letter suggesting three-year testing but did not wish his suggestion to be a condition. Karlson moved approval of the Barone-Chapman inspection report with the condition that a water sampler be done in 2002, 2003, and 2004 in the month of September and that there be a deed restriction to two bedrooms. Betty Kimball seconded; the motion was defeated, 2-3.
q Lezli Rowell moved that the Board of Health approve the inspection report based on the finding that SAS is not contaminating the Barone-Chapman well with the following conditions:
1. that drilling a well to a deeper production horizon be explored
2. that upon this exploration, four consecutive water testing samples for nitrates be taken one week apart with averages provided to the Board of Health by 10/31/02
3. that there be a deed restriction to two bedrooms.
David Breen seconded the motion, which passed unanimously, 5-0.
· Preliminary Subdivision Plan for Henry Goss Cortes and John Goodman, Jr., 51 & 71 Goss Lane, Assessorlots with the Conservation Trust.
· Minutes of June 26, 2002. Discussion ensued concerning David Breenalso touched upon the fact that minutes should cover only what has occurred in a meeting, not a member· Old Business. Lezli Rowell announced that the Board· Board Organization. Betty Kimball spoke briefly on the history of earlier organizational issues of the Board of Health, noting that the last reorganization occurred on July 27, 2001. Speaking of her interest in hearing a new voice leading the Board, she moved to nominate Geoffrey Karlson as Chair and Lezli Rowell as Vice-Chair. Karlson seconded for discussion purposes. Karlson spoke highly of Rowellq Discussion continued: Rowell stated that she had no thought of being Chair and felt that Chair Breen should be asked if he wished to continue; Zel Levin praised Breen and expressed his satisfaction with Breenstate that q Zel Levin then moved to nominate David Breen as Chair and Leslie Rowell as Vice-Chair; David Breen seconded. Lezli Rowell again expressed her reluctance to run for office. Karlson reiterated his reluctance to support Breen, citing the position of the Chair as spokesman for, participant in, and supporter of the Boardargument of the water quality problem as a health or a regulatory problem and mention of the Boardq Lezli Rowell moved that the Board continue with David Breen as Chair and Geoffrey Karlson as Vice-Chair. Zel Levin seconded. The motion passed, 3-2. The same slate of officers continues for the coming year.
Chair Breen announced that he would be absent from the next meeting of July 24, 2002. Zel Levin moved to adjourn the meeting; Betty Kimball seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
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Frances J. Castillo, Assistant to the Committee Secretary
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