Approved
Comprehensive Wastewater Management Committee
28 August 2012
2:30 pm
DPW Facility: addressStreet220 West Main Street, Wellfleet MA
Members Present: Curt Felix, Ned Hitchcock, Alex Hay, Hillary Greenberg
Public Meeting Review
Ned Hitchock passed out comments on the public meeting. The report was good and well balanced however it needs an executive summary and some good editing. The presentation was well received and a brief introduction was needed. The meeting seemed too long and too heavily weighted towards the oyster solution. The importance of the TMDL’s should be stressed as the basis for the committee’s work along with the assignment of developing a comprehensive town wide plan. Avoiding exaggeration is something to be careful of as well. Public presentations should closely follow the content and format of the report to avoid public confusion. The oyster project needs a clear hypothesis; several scientists have alluded to this. There must also be a demonstration of the hypothesis
and a confirmation of the results.There was discussion on the oyster project and what exactly the purpose of the project is and how it related to the pending TMDL’s. Currently we are collecting a lot of useful data that will be analyzed at a later date. The scientific approach must be defined as we move ahead. Agent Greenberg-Lemos will speak with Paul Gabriel about this. Public discussion should be based on natural solutions and not specific to oysters as salt marsh restoration is equally important. The science is still being worked on but the data collection is moving ahead. Agent Greenberg-Lemos will invite John Riehl and John Portnoy to an upcoming meeting to discuss the scientific approach to the oyster. It is important that we can tie this work into the TMDL’s and the viable alternatives for the Town to contemplate when thinking about comprehensive wastewater management. Agent Greenberg-Lemos will send the
justification document from Paul Gabriel to the Committee.
Curt Felix commented that the committee’s responsibility is compliance with TMDL requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act as established and enforced by Massachusetts DEP.The committee has also committed to a least cost compliance strategy that embraces natural restoration options which are being piloted in the Harbor. The pilot nature of these activities is to demonstrate how feasible or not they may be and what order of magnitude remediation could be expected from salt marsh restoration and certain levels of new oyster populations and at what cost. The pilot projects are application of a large body of scientific work that supports such an approach, but are more practical applications, not original research. The Town is also working with DEP to determine how results could be confirmed and
accepted for regulatory compliance.
Alex Hay was disappointed in some members of the public who made comments without first reading the literature. Brian Dudley was present at the meeting and addressed the comments really well. It was apparent that both DEP and the Cape Cod Commission supported our work to date and were excited to see where it progressed from this point. Both Dudley and Camberari spoke very highly of the steps this committee has taken to date on natural system remediation.
*Acronym handout needed for the general public.
Charge for Adhoc Committee
Amy Voll said that the Committee should come up with the charge and she would solicit members from the other committees to be involved. Alex Hay stated that at the BOS meeting the Selectmen decided that they would set the goals and timeline for the new ad hoc committee. Paul Pilcher told Ned Hitchcock that the ad hoc committee would start in September and finish by the first of February.
Charge:
The new committee should review the work on the bathhouse done to date by the wastewater committee and then operationalize the conceptual plan and consider a performance based specification. Scale, budget, and future needs should be addressed in any plan put forward to town meeting.
Agent Greenberg-Lemos will forward the charge to Amy Voll. All members present voted in favor of the charge. Moved by Curt Felix, seconded by Ned Hitchcock. Ned Hitchcock will be the wastewater representative to the ad hoc committee.
Minutes
July 24, 2012 and August 14, 2012 minutes approved unanimously. Moved by Ned Hitchcock, seconded by Curt Felix.
Mayo Creek restoration will be put on the next agenda.
Meeting adjourned at 4:15pm
Respectfully submitted,
Christine Bates, Committee Secretary
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