Sunapee Area Watershed Coalition Meeting Minutes – May 10, 2007
In attendance:
Edythe Anderson, Town of Newbury; Aimée Ayers, Lake Sunapee Protective Association; Andy Chapman, DES; June Fichter, Lake Sunapee Protective Association; Carol Foss, Little Lake Sunapee Protective Association; Cynthia Hayes, Town of Springfield; Suzanne Levine, Newbury Conservation Commission.
June Fichter opened this meeting at 6 p.m., and the Coalition members addressed eight areas of business during the meeting.
1. Minutes March 8, 2007—Cynthia Hayes moved to accept. June Fichter seconded. There was no further discussion, and the motion was unanimously approved.
2. Watershed Advisory Committee—June Fichter reported that this Committee continues to meet, and is in process of conducting its Watershed Threat Assessment. To that end, the Committee conducted the first half of the tour of the watershed on April 21, and will be scheduling the second in the near future. Members will be notified of time and date. On April 21, the Committee made observations at:
o Sunapee Harbor.
o Georges Mills, particularly the pump station area relevant to the recent sewer spills.
o Sunapee Cove. At this site, Engineer Peter Blakeman was available to elaborate on the rationale for each of the three stages for the storm-water management that is in place there: the holding area, tank, and outflow/cleansing field.
o New London stump dump.
o The DOT Facility on the “Old Dump Road” in New London. Here Regional District Engineer Allen Hanscomb discussed with the Committee the planned changes for storage of salt, and he reported that the requested reduction in salt on Little Sunapee Road seems to have worked out so far (sort of).
With the tour group, he discussed a proposal to alternate road salt with brine for part of the winter. SAWC members observed that though this substitution would reduce the amount of road salt used in the watershed, there are two problems: (a) it requires that water be mixed with salt to make the brine, and so far, the Springfield/New London Water Precinct has not indicated a willingness to sell water for this purpose, and (b) brine, because it is composed with water, can not be used in the extreme cold months-January and February. Still, as June Fichter pointed out, if it could cut down on use of road salt to any degree, that would be a positive. Edythe Anderson asked if mixing that would require a larger area. No, probably not.
Question was raised about the possibility that DOT plans to put a fuel depot there for use by all State vehicles. June Fichter said that Allen Hanscomb did not say anything about that to the tour group, so that remains unknown.
The second half of the tour will look at forestry issues among other things, as suggested by WAC member Anita Blakeman, and it will include a visit to Great Pines.
3. Land Use Regulation Matrix
Cynthia Hayes reported that this subcommittee has not met since the March meeting when Terry Dancy gave his report. Members understand that Peter Dzewaltowski and UVLSRPC will be working on some language models that could be utilized when SAWC is ready to make presentations to the Town. Andy Chapman also suggested using the model being developed by the Chalk Pond group and DES. June Fichter pointed out that even if the subcommittee’s work can focus on just one protective ordinance to bring to the Towns, that would be good.
Cynthia Hayes noted that current regulations and ordinances are all directed toward big things, subdivisions. The problem is that there is nothing to guide the individual landowner who goes ahead and clears his or her land before applying for a building permit (and before the Town knows about it). Members agreed that this is a problem in all towns, and June Fichter suggested another way to address that might be to narrow the focus, to just the run-off issue for example.
Andy Chapman again referred to the work being done on a management plan for the Chalk Pond development. This is a Title 19 project taken on by the Sunapee Hills Association, Town of Newbury, the Chalk Pond development, with DES, and they hope that it will be something that can be applied town-wide. The objective is to address problems caused by the half-acre lots that have been approved, some of which are already developed. Everyone agrees that there needs to be a better review process, and there is a possibility of making some additional requirements on those lot owners. One of the things they are considering is looking at what parts of a lot can and cannot be disturbed. Edythe Anderson said they will also need slope information. Carol Foss pointed out that that data is already available on
the local maps.
Suzanne Levine said the problem is often enforcement. Andy Chapman said that once the regulations are in place, owners will have to go through the office before doing any clearing. Edythe Anderson asked if penalties will be imposed on owners who do not. Andy Chapman said they are working on that aspect of the plan. Edythe Anderson suggested that if the owners are aware that maps exist that allow the Town to monitor changes, that may be an inducement to people to abide by regulations.
June Fichter suggested that SAWC members can go to these meetings. Andy Chapman agreed, but added that Charlie Hirschberg plans to make a presentation to SAWC and will be asking for feedback. That would be a good time to bring up questions regarding the enforcement process or penalties. He cautioned though, that if clauses referring to enforcement and penalties are included, that might make it more difficult to get the other parts of the plan approved. June Fichter said usually the objection to enforcement is cost, and she suggested that a case can be made for those costs being offset by potential savings in road repairs, etc., that would ensure if more protective regulations are not put into place. Andy Chapman said the Planning Board is in concurrence with the management plan, and
they’d like to get the Public Works Department and Road Agent on board as well.
5. Legislative Update
June Fichter reported that the bills that would expand protections under the Shoreland Protection Act (ref. SAWC minutes, Jan. 11, 2007, p.4) are facing some opposition from a number of sources including developers and marina owners. The four bills have been reduced to three, and those will probably be tabled. She urged Coalition members to attend the Committee hearing on these. The schedule can be found on the NH Legislature web site.
Edythe Anderson asked how Woody’s work on stream protection fits in with the Shoreland Protection Act. June Fichter said that Woody’s advice was sought for these bills. One of the changes being proposed was to expand protection from fourth order streams to third order streams. Woody’s point is that first and second order streams are very important also. Andy Chapman explained that right now, only local ordinances protect first and second order streams.
6. Geosyntec’s Report: Monte Carlo Water Quality Model for the Lake Sunapee Watershed—June Fichter distributed copies of this, along with Woody’s one page summary, and at this meeting Coalition members discussed the best way to get this data out to the public.
She pointed out that the model does not take into account NOAA data indicating that storm events have increased over the years. Andy Chapman said the model attempts to sort out those kinds of variables by using a larger data set. June Fichter pointed out that this study is conservative, but it does show that at full build-out of the watershed, phosphorus in the lake will have increased by 270%. That means that before that time, that is, at 80% of full build out, the lake will change from being oligotrophic to mesotrophic.
She noted that it does not show where we are now relative to build out. Andy Chapman said the model uses population-based data. Everything historical was done with different zoning ordinances. Cynthia Hayes asked if conservation land was taken into consideration. Andy Chapman confirmed that it was.
He pointed out that this data refers to the in-lake or deepest part of the lake. It is really the shorelines that will see hints of the changes first. Cynthia Hayes noted also that Sunapee is a deep lake; smaller lakes will be impacted even earlier, thus this data should be provided to everyone.
Andy Chapman pointed out that one problem is that landowners in the watershed –but not right on the lake, will question the impact on taxes that increased protections in the watershed will have. He suggested that some data showing what a reduction in home values along the lake (that will occur with a degradation of lake water quality) will mean for the tax base throughout the watershed. How will that translate to all the taxpayers? June Fichter suggested that NH Lakes Association may have some numbers to show the overall economic impact that lakes have. They have calculated that in New Hampshire, lakes have a $1.8 billion value, taking into account all factors as taxes, tourism, recreation, etc.
June Fichter said that despite the fact that Geosyntec results seem somewhat conservative, this is still powerful information, and she asked how best to take this to the Towns. Aimée Ayers noted that the most significant paragraph in Woody’s summary is the second to last, and that may be all the data that needs to be presented. Otherwise, members agreed, the presentation can consist of recommendations of things people can do to reduce phosphorus loading into the lake.
After some discussion, Coalition members agreed that this can be presented in a newspaper article, and a brochure to distribute to Town Meetings, marinas, to the non-resident taxpayer Town meetings, and other places. Andy Chapman recommended that drafting of the article and brochure wait until the final version of the study is provided. He observed that he, and probably other SAWC members, still have a lot of questions.
7. Flow Chart—Aimee Ayers reported that the flow chart has been updated to include the tour.
8. Local Conservation and Other Projects
o Suzanne Levine updated members of the progress of the Pillsbury-Sunapee Ridge Forest Project. It appears that project partners will reach their objective to protect nearly 1100 acres on the eastern slope of Mount Sunapee adjacent to Mount Sunapee State Park and Pillsbury State Park.
o Members commented on the special exception recently granted by the Springfield Zoning Board of Adjustment in a vote of three t one, allowing access roads and driveways for a proposed residential subdivisionsto cross wetlands and buffers.
o Cynthia Hayes briefly updated everyone on a (very early stage) proposal for a large boat valet service being proposed for a location at Georges Mills.
The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sarah A. Denz Recording Secretary
|
