Approved Minutes
Herring River Restoration Committee
November 18, 2009
Members Present: Hunt Durey, Eric Derleth, Steve Spear, Charleen Greenhalgh, Hillary Greenberg, Tim Smith
Members Absent: Steve Block, Gary Joseph, Mark Adams
Others Present: Margo Fenn and Maggie Geist, APCC
Administration / Coordination
Communications/ Coordination with Friends of Herring River
Don Palladino was unable to attend the meeting. There was good participation at the Wellfleet Harbor Conference. Tim Smith and John Portnoy each gave a presentation at the conference. Tim Smith put together a presentation on the ongoing National Park Service (NPS) monitoring efforts including: surface water hydrology and quality, wetland sedimentation, sediment on shellfish beds, vegetation, wetland pore water salinity, nekton, fecal coliform, fresh-salt water interface wells, mosquitoes, and birds.
Approval of Draft Meeting Minutes: 9/24/09-unanimously approved
10/28/09-approved with one abstaining
Schedule next meetings: November 19, 2009-Canoe trip for the Technical Working Group (TWG) starting at the Great Island trail parking lot at 10:00 am
December 16, 2009-10:00 am Low Lying Properties
12:15 pm HRRC meeting
January 13, 2010 - 12:15 pm HRRC meeting
January 27, 2010 – 10:00 am TWG
The Committee also approved the following tentative meeting dates for the TWG:
April 14, 2010 - TWG
July 14, 2010 - TWG
October 14, 2010 – TWG
Discussion Items
Louis Berger Group (LBG) Work Plan: 10/29/09 Meeting and Follow Up
Discussions have been ongoing with LBG. HRRC members thought the written response from LBG was good but want to wait and see additional deliverables prior to moving ahead with any additional contracts. HRRC members discussed the inadequacies of various products received to date. Margo Fenn and Tim Smith also spoke with officials in the Environmental Quality Division (EQD) of the National Park Service. EQD staff is willing to help out HRRC by reviewing documents or interacting with LBG. EQD staff indicated that they have worked with LBG on other projects and received quality products from LBG in the past. Data Sources Review and Alternatives development documents are still due to the Committee under the current contract.
LBG proposed Alternatives Concepts
The latest Alternatives prepared by LBG were reviewed by the Committee. Diagrams supplied by LBG were incorporated into this discussion. Various Alternatives were elaborated on and changes made to what LBG supplied (Version 12 November 2009) to the Committee. Tim Smith and Margo Fenn will put together a restructured list of Alternatives and circulate them to the Committee for review.
LBG Preliminary EIS/EIR Road Map
Committee members noted that the draft “road map” supplied by LBG looks similar to what EQD provided the Committee months back. The document contains process components only and nothing specific to Herring River. EQD will be shown the document prepared by LBG for their comments.
Data Sources Review – Revised Draft
The latest draft of the Data Sources Review prepared by LBG had a number of mistakes, incorrect statements, and omissions. HRRC may need to provide more oversight to LBG to get a product that is satisfactory. Margo Fenn asked the Committee to review the document and make comments. The document will also be sent to EQD for their review. Committee members will review the report to see if it will assist us in the future of the project and also to identify where the data gaps are. Tim Smith will formulate questions and also will give specific examples of what the Committee is looking for. Question for EQD: Is this the type of data sources review that you usually see? What is the legitimacy of LBG providing more detailed information without possessing the actual data? Are HRRC’s expectations out of line? Is there a copy of another data sources review that our Committee could take a look at?
Open Session
Hunt Durey commented on NPS DO-12 process and the importance of cooperative agreements with other federal agencies. Also of importance is how the Cape Cod Commission and MEPA regulations mesh with the DO-12 guidance. The Committee must be sure that the DO 12 process meets the requirements of all other agencies involved in permitting the project. The Committee agreed on a two-pronged approach to address this question:
1. Provide the TWG with a briefing on the DO 12 process and seek their input and approval for this approach.
2. Ask the National Park Service send a letter to the other federal agencies requesting that they become cooperating agencies.~ The letter to NRCS could be a model for this. Tim Smith agreed to determine the process for sending such a letter. .
Hunt Durey also noted that LBG should supply the Committee with the Administrative Record so we know what form it is in and how to proceed with it in the future. The Administrative Record includes all items that go into making decisions. By contract the Committee has the right to ask for this information from LBG. Tim Smith also has a box of information that needs to be entered into a database for part of the Administrative Record. The Committee still needs to decide who will maintain the Administrative Record, going forward, and whether to use the NPS Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) system for that purpose.
Technical Working Group: Review Draft List of Regulatory Issues
Some changes were made to the document that Hunt Durey drafted so that it could be circulated to the TWG as soon as possible. Hunt Durey and Tim Smith agreed to revise the list and circulate it to the HRRC members by email. Once the list is reviewed and approved, it will be provided to the TWG.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm.
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