e e e e e e e [Music] p [Music] May 20th 2024 please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly herea for scheduled and On Demand viewing on any smartphone or tablet device if anyone else is recording this meeting please notify the chairman pursuant to Governor Healey's March 29th 2023 signing of the acts of 2023 extend certain covid measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law this meeting of the chattam Board of Health is being conducted in person and via remote participation every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the order a reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone number 1508 945 4410 conference id10 18621 125 pound or join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda while this is a live broadcast in simoc cast on chadam TV channel 8 and 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide realtime access we will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible now I'll turn the meeting over to our chairperson Dr Noble Hansen thank you uh it shall be the policy of this board to conduct its meetings under the open meetings law so as to encourage public participation whenever time permits and as part of a agenda item discussions so we have three um items on the agenda for today but first let's establish a quorum and when I call your name please say you're present Carol Boyce present dick Edwards present Ron Broman here John Beckley pres and Noble Hansen I'm here um so before we start start uh the three variances uh Judy uh has an announcement to make of of a new employee in the health department hi um I just wanted to introduce the board to Karen Chim waza who's our new short-term rental uh inspector and administrator of the program she's been with us this is her fourth week I believe so um it's going great I Karen you want to give an update of what you've been up to yeah so since I well when I start started we had about 500 permit applications I've been going through those I've also reached out to the Realtors let them know about the program introduced myself and we've started going through the list of short-term rentals registered with the state and reconciling with people that have applied and reaching out to those that have not Karen also updated the town's website she made a nice page so um very good get a chance to look at that so people can go right there and it's got all the information and um anything they need to know and how to contact us Karen as you have been speaking with the rental agencies in town what has to feedback been from them are they were they all fully aware of this or was this new news to them I think the ones that I've spoken to were aware of the program okay I think they are several that have not responded and I think those may be unaware still of the ones You' spoken with are they handling the paperwork for their owners no none of the rentals agencies have been handling the paperwork so all owners have been applying all owners have been filing their own everyone has been filing their own yes okay even if they have representation through a rental company okay yes um have you been contacting the rental companies too besides the realators there's some like delmare or yes so I did a overview of anyone offering rentals in chadam and sent letters to each of them so both the Realtors delmare one of the bigger rental agencies um right uh can can you you have experience uh when you work work for East Ham I believe can you just tell us a little bit about that yeah so I was with East Ham for eight years as their Administrative Assistant during that time I ran the their rental program which has been in effect for about 15 years and then have they work to uh basically register all their renters and get the whole thing working so they register yearr round and short-term rentals um so it's bigger yes and they have about 1,500 on file and there's always a few that right don't is it running okay now yeah I think most definitely by the time I started working with the program most of the homeowners were used to having to register and do so yearly other questions so do do they have a limit to the occupancy of the homes as we do one per two per bedroom plus two yeah East Ham was just two per bedroom the did not give them the and is that obeyed in general is that you have had trouble with enforcing that you get complaints I think for the most part people did um obey that you're always going to have a few that do not and they were certainly became known in East Ham I think in chadam it would be a similar situation and what kind of approach did the board take to those violations when we became aware of the the violations the property owners were called before the board and potentially fined up to in East Ham it was up to $300 per day and did that seem to solve the problem I wouldn't say it was a huge problem um it was becoming more and more and I think the board was becoming more active in their enforcement and that was becoming known so I only got to see it about halfway through the process I think in the coming years you'll see if it is effective here in chadam in the past we've had issues like a a house with advertising on VRBO or Airbnb six-bedroom sleeps 20 uh uh and um if you became aware of something like that could you do something about that yeah so there are certainly some that have appeared in our registry that have those over occupancy ex advertisements I have contacted them and asked them to change it so we've had a pretty good response of people changing it back um now that they're becoming more aware of the limit they are willing to do so good uh great well thank you very much uh I think we put a lot of importance and a lot of work especially Judy into this short-term rental regulation that's new and it's ramping up so I'm thinking that maybe after this summer next fall we'd have you come back and you can give us a kind of a more full report on how it went what you learned what worked what didn't work and I think the way we view it it's a regulation so um it may well be um more likely than not that you'll it'll need some tweaks or changes to help you or problems that you see you'll make us aware of and we're willing to look at that and do that sort of thing so excellent uh that'll be the plan thank you very much thank you thank you thanks Karen okay so we'll move to the regular agenda now uh first we have a variance hearing for Martin and Nancy Bach 347 Bridge Street Grady Consulting LLC and do we have someone here to present that I think Kevin Grady was the name on the application uh yes my name is Gabriel Padilla from Grady consult hi good afternoon right and and can you identify yourself are you on on the yes my name is Gabriel Pilla I am with a Grady Consulting okay great um if I can share my screen here real quick okay here we go can everyone see the plan yep and we have a copy of it as well perfect so what we're proposing is to eliminate the existing CEST pool that is in the property and replace it with a conventional system um the lot itself is uh 7700 foot lot so it's it's not too big um therefore we need to uh we need to request some variances to accommodate the new system in there um the suful asset is is uh inside of uh conservation jurisdiction is within uh uh less than 100 feet away from the Wetland um so this will um this will go through conservation filing we already filed and we have a during on the 22nd um we have also provided um erosion control uh to be kept uh during construction and um that is pretty much it um if there are any other questions uh I'd be glad to answer them um yeah now the cess pool that's there did that Cesspool fail or is it something you've just voluntarily decided to upgrade the owners uh no we we decided to upgrade yes okay and then there's no new construction of the house it's the it's the original houses remaining as is everything remains as is yes that is correct so no change in h bed bedroom counts or anything okay other questions or comments from the board and I guess Judy I mean they've placed this in in the best place that they can apparently yeah yes yes the only other location would be the front of the house but um there's a big tree we want to maintain also um we would still need Mar variances to put it in front of the house um and since the cess pool is uh being removed uh that area is already being um Disturbed uh we just uh that is the best place to locate this system can you tell me where the existing Cesspool is on this plot plan I'm having trouble uh see my mouse I'm hovering it hovering over so the sess pool right now is located where the leashing field is going to be located okay I see approximate location of existing Cesspool okay I see that thank you yes so for the installation they'll go in and dig out the old Cesspool and all the contaminated soils and then replace it with clean sand okay it's pretty pretty straightforward and they were Al they're also proposing a for I don't know if if he mentioned if Gabriel mentioned they're going to put in a 40 ml polyliner along the um edge of the system so to keep it away from the foundation cuz they they're getting a foundation setback variance or requesting that when they haul out old Cesspool debris of this type what do they do with it um usually I think they just bring it to a a landfill yeah a landfill or um a sand pitard or and let it and let it air out and and decompose yeah okay okay other comments from the board uh any comments from the public online or in the room all right and then can uh probably get a a Voice vote uh for a motion I move to accept this proposal and then maybe Judy can read the conditions um so three basic conditions would be that the applicant should restrict the property to a maximum of three bedrooms and record the restriction on the deed at the barnville County registry of deeds the applicant shall submit a copy of the deed to the board the engineer shall submit an engineered as built plan incl including asilt elevations with a written certification that the system has been installed in accordance with the approved plan and no alteration to the FL plan of the dwelling will be allowed without further the review by the board of its agent okay thank you um so I think we can probably take a voice a vote on this um all in favor say I I I all opposed say no all right that variance is granted for um 3 347 Bridge Street thank you very much you are welcome okay so uh next we have an update on uh Town water wells and water quality with Robert failey director of water and the water and sewer department and he is here thank you very much thank you uh good good afternoon Rob failey Department of Public Works um so I didn't really have uh I do have the select board presentation I can go through that from last week I don't know how familiar you are with it but I can um I can answer questions I can go through um um whatever suits the board's needs I'd say if you could just give it a thumbnail sketch of of the wells that we have that are working that aren't working the ones that have posos and then there was a an article from The Chronicle that went through all the posos levels and the changes and where we are with the two Ls and all if you could kind of cover that I think that would be great for us sure assume we don't know too much about it so be free to give us lots of information I will I'm just trying I think Mark loaded this on here for me I'm just trying to find it I apologize the other thing that would be interested in hearing is what the plans are uh to have additional Wells and have adequate capacity for the extraordinarily rapid growth of the population uh that the summer pop the sure the 10 month uh summer population they're taking control of the computer so I'll just won't touch anything or I'll break it I apologize for this I was off most of the last week so okay I think we're here okay so just um you know briefly um I I'll get into all the stats for all the wells in a in just a minute but I'll just tell you where we are with you know Wells 5 and8 Wells 5 and8 did test positive for posos uh several years ago so well five has a temporary uh GAC filter filtration system granulated granular activated carbon uh well 8 has been offline for several years so we just signing a contract with Winston Builders to get our first posos Filtration plant um under construction we met with them at a pre-construction conference this morning so that construction will start in the next few weeks it's a two-year project $15.8 million construction project so treating posos is not inexpensive um but it's uh it's the state-of-the-art uh facility that will have um four green sand filters to remove iron and magines and then it'll go into the four GAC filters that will remove the posos also I'm Sor is that money already been uh granted by the town it's srf eligible so we're borrowing it from Mass DP as part of the grant program considering how posos is pretty prevalent in a lot of communities in Massachusetts we see a lot more competition that's going to be uh uh trying to get that kind of money um especially with the new EPA regulations that were handed down so we're kind of happy that we're out in front of it but it doesn't mean you know posos could show up at any time you know in any in any other well so it's just uh we want to stay proactive so the funding doesn't have to go through a a a town meeting a vote it's already been approved already been approved yep last year so the the capacity of this new system say we needed 10 Wells a couple if we needed 10 Wells a couple years from now and a and well six came positive again and some other Wells are positive would we be able to run all the volume from 10 Wells through this system no this system is designed just to handle the flow from Wells 5 and8 $15 million for two Wells two Ls and well six was positive in the past so if that was positive again couldn't couldn't treat it well we if we couldn't treat it with that goes through a different plant that goes through the Morton treatment plant which with Wells six seven and nine so they're all located geographically all over town so it's not like they're they are interconnected but uh they pump separately so any treatment facility it's you really need to have that treatment facility very close to the well location now you can still mix blend well water from different wells in a way that can dilute a trace amount found in one new well right that's true and that's how we treated well six well six we were pumping I I don't remember the flow of hand but quite a bit uh I think it was around 700 gallons per minute out of that well when it did test positive it was a very low threshold I think it was seven parts per trillion and we we dialed down the flow that water is Blended with Wells from uh seven to n and it B basically diluted it so it was down to non-detect levels wow now I know a little bit about the chemistry of water treatment so am I correct in assuming that if we build the system that we're about to build and it includes the iron and magines treat treatment and the is it a charcoal activated carbon charcoal MH that would also effectively remove as a side issue any kind of voc's as well true you know I'm I'm not an expert in that field but I'm I'm learning rapidly and I I don't want to misstate something that I'm not familiar with my understanding is activated carbon is highly effective at treating Trace levels of vehic follow multiple of contaminants not just P exactly right and so there also is a protective shield aspect of building this treatment if other unanticipated contaminant should appear like voc's you probably have that effectively controlled as well yes I would I would agree with that statement okay but again only for two Wells only for those two Wells right so which is the and the F the FD the the EPA continues to lower the target yeah so the target may become undetectable sounds like we should save some money for future water treatment right so so these filters they are huge filters um you know I think around a 12T diameter each tank um this building that we have to house them so there's four GAC filters so I think four large vessels that would fill this room basically in addition to four green sand filters which aren't quite as big but they're still substantial this is you know this is a substantial investment um but it again it will protect water from those Wells for for many many years to come and that that activated carbon uh as it gets it reaches its useful life you can still replace that and and still function that plant very well so now all this water goes into the water tanks correct and then it comes out of the water tanks into a big Main Line why don't we put the filters on the big main line so that wherever the p is coming from in town it would get treated there are many residences and businesses that are between a well and the tanks and they get fed off of those Mains those water mains before the water reaches the tanks Ron did you have a question yeah about a year or so ago we were going to start looking to where the PF was coming from where the PF is coming from uh and we kind of just dropped it but is it were you going to start tracking where it's coming from it's it's really difficult to track uh the location the source of posos contamination it's it can come from a multitude of sources and to to spend the money to try to find it which a lot of communities have and they were unsuccess successful it's just it could there's so many different sources out there it's really hard to pinpoint what's what type of do see where where comes from is a it comes from a lot of manufacturing comes from you know any kind of a a slippery surface from you know your rain jackets to dental floss to Teflon any kind of uh plastic treatment you know so um yeah firefighting foam and you know there's a multiple of manufacturing and once it's out there it's out there it's a forever chemical you don't even need to have an active Source now if it's out there right I would think do you have a a sense Bob of looking at the past volume of water pumped and distributed in chatam through the last several years you know looking at the seasonal surges Etc how close we are to needing to develop additional capacity or are we Comfort comfortably below that at least for the near future so we don't have to worry about that eventuality yeah that's a that's a great question um so I think chadam infrastructure is over overb built for full-time residences it's the summer influx that we have overbuilt our infrastructure to handle that increased capacity I think the conversation needs to happen more about conservation versus accommodating you know sprinkler systems and that's irrigation systems on lawns we see this effect on a daily occurrence especially on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays when people seem to to set their irrigation systems starting around 2:00 in the morning our pumps come on the water level in the in the water tanks starts to drop at around 5 a.m. 6:00 a.m. that time frame we hit the low water mark in the tanks and all of our pumps are pumping and they spend the rest of the day trying to replenish that water we see it start to we start to gain a little bit around 8 9 a.m. and then as the day progresses it takes us sometimes 14 to 16 hours of continuous pumping with all of our wells to replenish that water in the water tanks so what's your hunch on the percentage of water that we pump through our treatment system that goes to irrigate Lawns versus TAPS in the summer then well okay that's a good point because it would be that's the crucial window during the summer what percentage of our filtered treated and delivered water is going to water grass instead of you know a glass it it's that's really hard to say because our our summer population fluctuate so much and they both kind of cascade at the same time um but it would would be nice if we could find a a way to Great greatly reduce the amount of water treated water that is feeding a uh an irrigation system rather than just being used for portable water we have folks that have registered their irrigation uh meters um there's about 1,500 of them I believe out there but it doesn't mean everybody has a separate irrigation meter some of them some people just use their normal IR their normal water meter to irrigate their plants and we're trying to kind of get to the bottom of it it's been about a year-long process now um but we're really taking a hard look at it this Summer that would be a very interesting study to do maybe through University partnership or a graduate student study or something that would enable a properly designed you know assessment tool to really capture that and then that could drive what the town's regulations would then become to seal that we know how many cubic feet of water are going through those irrigation meters correct but you don't know what proportion of the total water use in August is going through irrigation meters I don't have that off the top of my head I andure the way the law is written if I put a sprinkler in the middle of my front lawn and hook it up to my spigot but I don't have an automatic irrigation system that's not illegal you only need an a meter if you have an an autom an automatic uh irrigation system so it could be that massive amounts of water are being used to drags a hose you just yeah you just just drag the thing around and we have no we have no prohibition M to that and um you know if people would put in Wells and and use those for irrigation it would go a long way uh you know and it seems to me that by telling people they can have an irrigation meter and then it's okay to pour thousands and thousands of gallons of treated water on their front line so what you're saying is if you have enough money to pay for it it's okay okay that's really a bad policy the policy should be you can't do that it was only irrigation systems that were grandfathered that were a preexisting before 2021 so you're not allowed to put a new irrigation no new irrigation systems no on Town water correct okay well that's good at least but how's the rule written if if you have an irrigation system that's on Town water is is the rule that you have to get a second meter in there and and what your's telling us that the compliance hasn't been good a lot it's hard to tell who does who has them and yeah so we need to C kind of catch them in the ACT we need to see what properties are how do you do that we need we need people on the ground overnight in the summertime when they can observe and take down addresses and see whether they have a private well do they have a separate irrigation meter or are they using the portable water meter source to irrigate their we need a bounty system put people out there at night with uh right and then the ultimate plan is that they would would price people out of using uh of irrigating their lawn with with Town Water by by the second meter but that's the next step they haven't really right because they because irrigated water we they pay a higher per gallon rate eventually now okay can you just step back and um go over the total number of Wells that the town has I mean we know five and eight and six seven and N you said are the Morton Wells how many other Wells are actually functioning or I think there are some that have been drilled that aren't used or just the the total scope of the whole system so we currently we have 11 Wells um again uh five is online seasonally eight has been shut down because of posos contamination that's what the treatment plant is to address Wells 5 and eight Wells one two and three are in South chadam uh well four is on its own um well six seven and nine are on the Morton Road treatment plant and 10 and 11 we are pumping from well 11 well 10 we are holding off we've been holding off we've been waiting for the office of energy and environmental Affairs to give us our blessing on a conservation restriction so I think we may jump the gun and go ahead and activate that is only a very small sliver of land on private property that's within the 400 foot radius uh protective radius for that well um we've worked with a property owner they're agreeable it's a kind of a wooded piece of their property they have no plans to develop that land so we are just waiting for the kind of the the policy paperwork to get finalized but considering we're on the cusp of Memorial Day we may go ahead and activate that well as well and and why is why is well8 offline posos contamination okay and then and then so the uh the new Filtration plant the uh the will be finished when do you think two years two years we'll keep well five on the temporary treatment plant through this summer yeah and then the contractor will take it offline and incorporate that into Wells 5 and eight and to your knowledge is is are there has there been any talk or any of of um not letting you blend water with posos is that it sounds bad but you know you get it down to it's I guess negligible levels but yeah so Mass D only is only concerned with what we're actually providing to Residents so if we no matter how we blend it as long as it's non-detect before it hits the the water main going to Residents we're okay so and we're testing non- detect on all of our wells right currently yeah yes there's a lot to this there is really is okay good a lot of moving Parts um I'm sure there's more that we don't know yeah I'm sorry sorry I'm sorry we're getting sidetracked but I no we did that this is basically just uh the wells I I do this every month for the select board it just shows the uh the level of effort for every well every single day of the month so this was just for uh for April last month you could see well 4 was offline most of the month we had rehabilitated well four had been over 10 years so we took it offline when it's lower flows like this and we were able ble to invest some money to rehabilitate that well so that's that'll be good for another 10 years hopefully or more so this has been a very wet spring nobody's irrigating H how's the the total water use for the month of April compared to say three four years ago um let me go back to this the question is there are a lot of people here in town despite the fact that it's cold and wet uh and and nobody's irrigating so that that might give us a clue what's going to happen going forward April may be a bit early for people to have their irrigation systems on we typically see them come on in in May um but you can see you know in the bottom right so so if we go we start in 2020 and move to the right 2024 the yellow column that's uh that's a total 21 million gallons we pumped in uh in April which if you look at the total going across the bottom it's really a a pretty average year our pumping hours are high 248 hours because we've had a couple of Wells offline for maintenance so we've had a little bit more the other Wells that were making up that uh that ground they were pumping longer hours to pump that same amount of water but um but we're really seeing pretty much average usage uh last month how's the ground level groundwater level now uh that's a good question I've got that here too so this is uh so the top chart is uh the chadam well uh observation well so you can see the the trough at the bottom which would be you know right here um is a little bit higher than the last three years okay which is good but you know as we get up towards the crest um we are starting to Plateau I don't know if we'll recover quite as well as we did last year or is it's just a blip and it'll continue to to go up which is good but chadam uh the observation well is a little bit more temperamental we like to use Brewster as kind of the Bell weather um and and in here it's even more encouraging because you can see the trough is a similar situation it's a little bit better than last year but the Crest is higher than the last previous three years so all things considered we are recovering um we are not back where we were in 2019 and 2020 yet um but the the groundwater is recovering from those two critical drought years uh and then do you do you put water restrictions on every summer or do you wait for a certain point and then Rush In And do it a lot of it depends on whether Massachusetts declares barnable County in a drought uh what level drought they were they so you have to wait for the state to declare something we typically will wait for the state to declare a drought okay and there's like four different levels yeah and then how often do you have to test these Wells for p F do you do it voluntarily or you mandated to do it by the state or somebody each well has a different criteria some are annually some are and how are they set uh Mass D sets that in approximately what twice a year or once a year or um some of them are quarterly some of them are just Ann once a year uh depending if we have a hit like well six we did have a hit um it was it was a small keos contamination they still said annually is fine because it was such a Lowel if we spiked over 10 10 parts per trillion is like the it's you know 20 parts per trillion was the mass D limit we'd have to shut the well down but 10 parts per trillion that triggers a different testing cycle with mass d right typically it would be monthly or quarterly if we hit that level and H how does chattam with the with the water supply stack if you know stack up with other Cape towns I mean harage and Orleans are they are all the towns pretty much in the same boat or have some way ahead with their water supply systems if you look at a town like hyanis um they've got posos in every one of their Wells and they've been treating them for for years now with a plant yes um other towns it's just it's Hit or Miss but how about volume wise with water like we're just on the edge in the summer of yeah for a small town we pump a lot of water in the summer there's no doubt yeah so you know Bob duncanson used to say we we don't have a drought problem we have an infrastructure problem we have a pumping problem and a storage problem so conceivably we we could have a major water problem if all the irrigation systems came in and a whole lot of people are in town even in a year where the water where the the rain has been good and and we have plenty of water under plenty of water in the aquer but we can't pump enough so that's a situation where we might need to declare kind a a a uh an emergency and restrict water even without a drought true so this would be the first year that we have wells 10 and 11 up and running so that's that was a huge asset um okay again five and eight are still down but we'll bring those online in two years with 11 Wells pumping with you know no catastrophic we're good to go things I think we'll be fine with the amount of water that chadam uses again I think we have more of a usage problem than an infrastructure problem okay but but again if you have if you shut a few Wells down it gets kind of tenuous you know um the situation could change and we'd have to go into maybe conservation measures how long have you been the director of Water and Sewer Department it's a little over a year you're still pretty new then yes well I'm impressed with how much you know already oh thanks a steep learning curve so you're saying um in order to find the people who are irrigating their lawns with town water and haven't put in a second meter you need employees to get out in on the field and and and track that down we do yes we need phally Ober them process in place to try and make that happen it's really hard to find um summer help you know um the last few years do you have the positions funded you just can't find help we have positions that we could hire out of like the Department of Public Works um but we haven't been successful the last few years even hiring summer helpers forget about you know overnight hours and things like that you put in different criteria okay y an IT person might be able to look at the bills and say you know here's a three-bedroom house that's using I don't know gazillion gallons of of water uh they're clearly they're irrigating with Town water and it sends somebody out to look at that property rather than driving up and down the street at 2:00 in the morning and we are doing that to give us the really obvious one but there always going to be outliers that we'd have to ground truth you know to confirm that okay all right what else don't we know about I don't know he could tell us when the SE is going to arrive on mebrook road but I don't think that's going to happen this is water right now 20 years Judy you have a question or something that he could add um no I I was just going to mention before when you were talking about metering is that we're finding as as people are connecting to the sour they are they are um separating their irrigation onto separate meters they're putting wells in because they're getting charged based on their water usage is that correct that's correct yeah so that's that's happening there's an incentive water meter gets checked if they hook up to sewer they don't they get charged their sewer rate based on their water consumption right so they'll pay higher if they're using money for you know water for irrigating their lawn they're paying on the sewer end as well so that's that drives them to you know expand right um I guess the other question is we had a a citizen um ask whether our town water has fluoride in it no no it does not has it ever come up or do you know any I know it's been tossed around a little bit but I think it was a pretty unpopular I didn't think it was and I should how did I guess if you won't even here a year you don't know but traditionally fluoridation in drinking water was all the rage and if you go on the CDC website when they they Champion the biggest 20th uh 20 20th excuse me 20 um most effective interventions of the 20th century fluoridation of Public Water Systems is there so how did we get to the point where in the year you know 2024 that chadam which is a very affluent and well educated Community doesn't have fluoridation now you could argue we don't have a lot of kids either so you could argue that you know we don't have a lot of young mouths that need it but this is probably before Mr ba I suspect so but I'm I'm just wondering out out loud because most most areas have long held long head floridated it costs like dollars a year per person it's almost free yeah I think it's still a controversial topic because of the Communists plot the mass medication PL well you know right like everything else there's people that feel that it's danger I know but those are non-scientific people they're not but they have a lot of uh ability to create trouble well it's okay that was just pretty good any other any other questions or comments or issues uh I mean from Mr failey because we have him here well this has been very helpful for me yeah anyone from the public would like to uh make a comment or ask a question uh either in the audience or online elain uh thank you very much yes I do have a couple comments and questions uh I am really concerned Wells 5 and8 P were first discovered in them in April of 2021 and at that time we appropriated $6 million and by the time that they are up and fully functional it's going to be 5 years and we then again appropriated another 19.8 million so we have appropriated 25.8 whether or not we use that all I think is still a question but the bigger concern is from the time we discover posos to the time we have the wells up and running is five years um I don't know if you would mention that the the wells uh 5 and N I think are all in one area I don't know if they'd be able to use one treatment facility if pasas are discovered um I think there are two things that we can do that I I I think are crucial uh we were told I thought it was earlier than 2021 I had um uh you know an irrigation system and I think as of 28 we were told that we either had to put in a meter or um if if we when we had to start registering or well I put in a well uh because it was going to be way too expensive to put in a meter and then run it all the way up to the house because of a setback um we've we've been telling people this I got a letter in the mail and I absolutely panicked and made sure I got in at the deadline all the correspondents we've sent out in the water and sewer bills to um the public have been these really nice G we'd like you to fill out a volunteer to fill out these forms and tell us what you have you know do you have an irrigation system with treated water or do you have a well um I I think that time has passed instead of saying you need to register within X number of days and you need to get this done or if we find out you did you're going to get signed um find $300 retroactively for every day you worn in compliance uh I I I find it unconscionable that there are people in town that a simple thing of registering with the town and telling us and then doing you know they have options uh I'm on well uh the other thing is tourism is a reality and to talk about full-time residents having to conserve where we can't do the basic things you know to take care of our our residents when I think we believe there's between two and 3,000 short-term rentals in chadam and uh you know they can use outdoor showers and that's not considered a violation because the water's coming from inside the house uh we know that there are 20 beds when there are only supposed to be you know six uh I think since we're collecting that data on the short-term rentals I think that's a really good place to start to find out who's in violation if you see that a three-bedroom is using X number of gallons and you have the right to inspect that property I think that's where you go to find out who's in violation because clearly they are using more water than they should be and it's probably an irrigation system that they haven't registered but more importantly uh we keep talking about it but people don't think it's necessary if we had more storage capacity uh we wouldn't be running into these problems as much I mean we've had a really crummy spring with a lot of rain and if we had the ability to store more and pump more uh so that as we go into the tourist season we have more would make perfect sense and then to look at um putting in more Wells I have real concerns we spent I don't know 20 million on Wells 10 11 but they don't have uh iron and maganese or paa filtration if paa show up there those walls are getting shut down and it sounds like they're going to be shut down for five years from beginning to end and we can't afford to let that happen uh affordable housing the mission of the affordable housing trust is to their hope is to have increase our full-time population by a thousand you know we have we've got to have water for this and you know if we don't have drinking water nothing else really matters so I would hope that instead of looking it's going to be long term anyway because everything takes so long so we have to do this yesterday in my view to decide that we need more storage tanks we need more pumping capacity we need more Wells because Posas are ubiquitous they can show up anywhere and if they do and they are over the fort because the feds have reduced it from 20 parts million to four parts per million if we go over that we can only blend so much uh until we are exceeding it and have to shut those Wells down so I guess I'm concerned that I don't see a sense of urgency on this because I think it's a single biggest thing that we're facing and because of the time lag from beginning to end to to get Wells up and running is so long and so expensive that it has to be put in our budgets we have to know what to expect and we have to prepare the public for that you know that this is going to be a very costly effort and um I would hope I I would have hoped that there were warrant articles on this last warrant to uh start doing design work for uh increased storage capacity and I wish we had located an area where we could put in some new wells and and get the ball rolling thank you very much thank you um so does does the uh do you proactively send out notices to Residents you know blanket notices about the the new uh about getting a second metering system yes we do and they and then it's just comply voluntarily yeah it's a it's a voluntary thing we get a low response rate right all right I would love to be more heavy-handed to get some answers but that's that would probably be a decision the select board we need to make as the water and sewer Commissioners correct uh other questions from um online for Mr failey okay other questions from the board John you have has there been any consideration of of starting to plan for another storage tank uh we have not at this time so they're 1.25 million and 1.35 million gallons um but they have alarms in them that go off periodically because we don't have enough water storage we have to keep it at 75 foot level um once we get below that level then it um firefighting measures come into question so if we had a third tank and it was full then that the level of the three tanks wouldn't go down nearly as quickly so it would help true I I think getting the all of our wells up and running and healthy is is probably a first order of business but exploring storage is definitely on the table okay great thank you very much it was very helpful thank you thank you sounds like a big job and the and the water and sewer Commissioners is the select board okay interesting this is information for us thank you okay um uh third on um our uh schedule is uh an update uh John McGrath 32 mhill Road and Judy has an update on that uh which uh will be very helpful for us to know about so in your packet you have a draft letter that has not been sent yet I wanted the board to see it before I sent it it's not unlike um the last letter we sent them several sent Mr McGrath several years ago it's a notice of violation um it's basically a nuisance letter um citing unsanitary conditions noted in yard rubbish metal tires other items that may provide rodent harbage mosquito breeding as well as items that are considered flammable and combustible and could be an environmental hazard so you know the the reason why I've done this is we had a staff meeting um with all the Departments and to discuss the ongoing situation at the property on M Hill Road um and Our Town Council was was there and he feels that we should all send out orders um respective of our department so a zoning order um a conservation order a health order um Police Department for you know whatever is going on down there for parking and all of that um and then so that when we take the next step which will be Court action um where everything will be fresh and not some order from 5 years ago that we never followed up on um or so he wants it to be coordinated and well timed so that all the town right offices that have an interest in this issue have kind of correct reissued um freshened their and that was that's the thinking right now so we're going to meet again the staff um with Town Council uh I I forget the date we're meeting but it it'll be coming up in the next week or two and um and then at that point everybody will sent out orders and we'll see you know whether he has responded at all or complied which we seriously doubt um and then the next step will be um I I guess the next step is Superior Court um Judy can can you are you able to speak about what issues have come up or what has changed that has stirred many of these Town departments to now get get together and take um well itive action I I think that um the level of frustration from the neighborhood is has been ramping up um and for good reason I totally understand that um we've also had concerns about um some unhoused folks living on the property on the lake which is issue which is causing um concern um not not only for sanitation issues but for conservation issues um there's burning going on um a facilities how how are they living on house in tents or makeshift they've got like a makeshift shelter down there we've got pictures of that on this property on the pond is he renting these or is he just a charity thing nobody I don't know I don't know for sure um and the police have tried to this has been going on for months now and the police have tried to find alternate housing for these people um and that's just hasn't happened so so that's got the the uh building department involved so involved fires involved um Health departments involved zoning is involved are these people here at the pleasure of Mr McGrath I believe so yes he is aware of who they are and yeah I think he's allowing them to live there I've I've heard that he they may be using his house as well but I'm not sure um and I know if you if you drive by The Dumping of scrap metal is is ongoing and it's more than it was before just over the um the guard rail I mean it's an act business coming and going right that would be another thing it would be running an illegal scrapyard several months ago we heard the EPA Mass EPA or really involved in this and they were going to start finding and they still are um I spoke to the the person at D he was sent um uh an order a notice of non-compliance and um Mr McGrath ignored that um but my person at the state has said that um they they've never had that happen that nobody that someone completely ignored one of their orders so she was a little concerned and didn't was not sure how that the next what the next step was because usually people respond in the 14 days and then there they have I thought there was supposed to be a recurring right a recurring notice of continued violation with a with a new and additional penalty the the letter said 14 days to contact to lay out a plan for correcting the violation and then 120 days to um correct from the state John from the state state and then 120 days for a total cleanup so she was going to talk to their counsel to say whether they were going to since he already passed the 14 days and whether they were going to wait for the 120 days no and then take him which is probably not that far from now I think I think what's happened to me the way I read it now is that the masty P has been slow but the town have reached the point where the town is going to move ahead and take its own action independently and and now def start doing something definitively and correct me if I'm wrong the master EP will continue what they do but we're but the town's going to move ahead that's the big change but the town was at this level four years ago no I don't think so before well yes we threatened that we were going to do this and we were going to do that we were going to do this and he ignored it and we didn't do anything he's going to ignore this for sure I think the difference then was it was the um Board of Health we were the ones that called them public nuisance and we were taking action and we were waiting for the Mast Deb and it's been slow no question about it um but I think now new things have happened with this housing business with all many the the the chattam town departments getting involved it's reached a whole new level I don't think my own opinion anybody can step back and say oh you know why are you picking on this PO this person or or or or you're being unfair or let the let this fellow alone because he's been here forever that's that's gone now with what's happening now it's a to me it's a whole Town Council we can move forward aggressively the town can and and feel you're doing the right thing does Town Council believe that if we push this through the superior court is that the Superior Court that's what he mentioned yes District Court it's a superior court I believe I okay that's what you mentioned in our meeting um then there would be hopefully a court order to clean up and if he Jud violates that I mean that's if it goes in that direction then the next thing would be he would be arrested I guess but the key is as I understand is that the Town Council Pat Calo was involved in these meetings and he there it's a coordinated thing these letters are going out again to make sure legally every all the eyes are dotted and the te's are crossed and then he's they're going to coordinate moving ahead costell is then going to take the take Point yeah and and and and coordinate this Collective that's that's what we agreed upon at our last meeting we were going to all send a fresh order have a have everything so we have a packet that's relevant and um timely instead of going back and looking at something from 2016 or 2018 um okay this is you know we're basically trying to throw the book at him with everything um and there's a lot so um and then we'll see okay you know it's I understand it's frustrating um even if we go in there and clean it all up again it's just going to keep happening so um I I think this is the next step yeah and but I think also um since we got involved um the road Edge was cleared up this the the material was actually spilling onto the asphalt and the guard rail was placed up so now the road to me is safe for the big trucks going down to Neon that's a big Improvement yes it is now we're talking about the property on the inside which was kind of the next step right uh question or comment Ron yeah Judy the people that are living on the beach there where is the septic going there is no septic well I think that's something we should yes take care of right away I mean I can cite that as well in this letter I mean recite it with him have you inspected it down there I have not been on the property now and I won't go you don't need commission to go on the property if you have a sus now Judy if you have probable cause to believe that there's something inappropriate happening there I would think you have the right of Entry whether he wants you to or not now maybe there's a protocol to notice him and have a police officer with you when you decide to do so but you don't have to I can I can ask you don't have to be Town counil whether I can go on the property down there with a camera and document everything yeah I mean I've been on the property and I've taken a lot of pictures but not recently um and we've taken pictures from the neighbors's property of the encampment there they may be just going a little hole in the ground they may you know running up to in the perfect world they're going they're using McGrath's um toilet toilet I also think what saying is that the town is being very careful that they're doing everything by the book you know with advice from the town attorney um is the attorney aware of this yes guy living on there that the people are living on the that's one of the yeah that's one of he's and he's in their meeting and coordinating it legally I believe maybe maybe there is your point is that you ask town counsil is there a way for you or someone from the town to go on the property and document what's going on and if so how do you I mean you can't be dependent on permission you just we've got to do that so how do we how do we get access to the property is it with it just we just notice him in writing and say on this date we're going to come there at least it's it's extra ammunition extra information that can be used I I'll follow up with that Ron what was the outcome of his house when the state came in they looked at his house I did they look at his house they looked outside and they didn't make any no determination they no they they they didn't we didn't go in his house they just walked around this property I don't believe they even walked on the property I think it was all observed from the street because he did the the initial D inspector did um yes he was he was invited on by Mr McGrath loone right the initial inspector and then that there was a new inspector took his position his place and then she just looked at the leave but they declared it in legal uh uh public nuisance landfill basically an illegal dumping right they made that decaration yes but they're what they're doing is separate from us um I don't have any control over that um and she did say to me when she sent that she still recommended that the town follow their own path as well so and I think if we move forward and we know that there's an outstanding D order when it gets to court that's going to add ammunition to for our our case as well I think the hope it now is that the town's action will be quicker than Mass D is acting so they're going to move ahead hopefully yep questions comments uh any comments or questions from the public yes yeah go up to the excuse me the one closest to you and then just identify yourself and yeah my name is uh Matt Lenell I live on M Hill Road what's your name again Matt Lenell Lenell oh yeah and you know I addressed Judy a while ago about the tent situation on the property and she's told me that it was perfectly legal so I'm I'm a little mythed about that I never said it was legal no well you you said there nothing you could do about it we were working with the zoning and the building inspector on that and the police I never said legal you you well whatever I don't have it anyway but the can has got kicked far enough down this road I mean I've been at this I've been at this for 20 years I've lived on that road for 30 years it's the same thing and I got a few problems with it now it's it's just it's got to end the last there start people are starting to dump on it again the pile's getting higher my wife confronted somebody that was dumping on it and then Mr McGrath with his infinite wisdom pulled her over to the side of the road and said was none of her of business and all this and that you know I had to go over there and and verbally have to deal with Mr McGrath this is out of control and this has to stop and we've been kicking this can down the road way too long if I lived on Shore Road this would have been taken care of a long time ago you know and I'm tired of it and I you know you can go another 120 days but why aren't we putting fines on them for $1,000 a day or something like that you know Money Talks you know you've set a precedent that you can get away with this forever you know and it it it's crazy to me seems like you know he has been fined by the police department he doesn't pay the fines so we can we can that all is ammunition this is another issue too is but the police don't do anything anymore and that's not your problem but his truck is halfway on the road and it just stays there the police I see them at parking lots I see them at Dunkin Donuts I see them everywhere whether they put a ticket on the card no I mean I have to physically call them to do anything and why is it my burden it's not my job yeah I would I I would ask you so have you uh made a formal complaint to the police department I mean anything I've made several of them okay good and then when did you first notice tents there would you say the tents were been there since February March February March okay this has been going on and on and on and on I've made the town aware of it but they don't seem to you know it is what it is you know it's mhill Road chairs who do you go to the town what member of the town do you go to what you come to the Board of Health on I'm I'm I talked to her about it and she and everything I think anything you put in writing in terms of what you see going on there helps but this isn't my job though you know no it's not it's not your job I'm going fishing in like two hours I'm not going to be home for 3 days but this is you know it just can't go on anymore right I think we agree with you and I and and I mean I was here three years ago we we you guys did the same thing with the letter and nothing happened right no that well they the road Edge was cleared up and the guard where it was placed which was a help for the traffic but the house it was a help I I'll give you that but the property we've been going on and we got the master EP involved and we've been bending over backwards you know you got to see my our oh absolutely and I think but I think the good news for you today is the the the the news that Judy have so now we have police fire the building department uh the health department yeah I I understand I'm just very I don't mean to yell and and and the town attorney they are coordinating an effort with where they are going to do something and I guess it's probably going to my opinion wind up in court and and it will it will move ahead but I think but I think the viice is to be is to be very carefully so that we have things legally we've done everything we should because that's what you got to do things are getting escalating on that road you know he goes out and starts yelling at people driving by you know and it's it's getting a little you know dicey yeah and and I you know I don't want to be the one chasing him around because he's he's verbally abusing people and you know and nobody else wants to do it because everybody's afraid of him on the road and nobody wants to do anything about it so right now do these people living there have cars themselves that they park on the road Edge that you know of there's nobody living in cars they just have no no the people living in the tents they have a car a black car and they had it down by the pond and then they brought it back up I don't know how they got it down there and then it's it's by the rocks or wherever wherever they can squeeze it in yeah I mean it's it's it's a disgrace I mean it it really is to have this go on this long is a disgrace and I don't this is probably the last time I'm going to really speak about it but I you know because I've been here before and you know three years ago I went to town meeting when we approved $150,000 to get the crap out of there but none of that happened I mean it's just what more you know what are we going to do are we just going to keep doing what we're doing and you know oh he won't answer the letter okay we'll give him another chance I mean he's a very threatening person so it's it's getting to a point where you know understood and I don't want to have to be defending myself in court because I mean no I don't get any reaction from the police or you know the boards so well it's very frustrating to this board too and and he was in here several years ago and his approach was I'm going to sue you all and he want you wanted everybody's name so he could hire a lawyer and Sue that's just the way he behaves but it's extraordinarily difficult to get to move here it's been going on for what 10 years 12 more than 10 years I mean I've been there for 30 years and I still see some of the crap that was there 30 years very frustrating to me that this doesn't go anywhere yeah that's that's what my frustration is this doesn't go anywhere I mean we've been going around and around and around I mean we approved 150,000 3 years ago to clean the rest of the yard up and it's you know it's enough is enough do it about about well let's let's just take the point that was just raised the fact that the town did agree to set aside in a special Health Department enforcement account some money and now we have not chosen to move on that uh but maybe we need to talk about that maybe we need to to consider getting some quotes on how far would that money carry us towards a cleanup and would it make any sense for us to spend that money on getting as much of that debris removed as we could with that 150 and then placing a lean on the property so that the town at the end of the day will cover whatever we lay out and if nothing else that will at least show yeah you show you doing something it would show at least evidence that the board and the town are serious in wanting to do whatever they can even getting it partially cleaned up now if two years later it's refilled again which it will be right well I mean exactly then then then okay then you get more appropriation and you do it again and now he he's got a $300,000 lean on his property H you wonder how much the property is worth I don't know what the problem work but I'm all I'm saying is maybe we ought to at least think about and land consider whether whether there's some basis for us to I have no idea how you would even quote that I understand um I certainly appreciate what you said and we feel the same way and and it has been slow We ad it'll probably be my last time I don't really feel like about all this but it's just I just at the end of the day it you know I'm still but I I think the good news is I I believe it's going to move ahead now but let me ask Judy so in the discussion with the town departments you know originally three years ago it was given to us because we had the authority to order a cleanup and there was the fund created that we could on our own go in and clean it up now it's become a bigger problem and all the town departments are involved is that fund going to be used are they going to use our Authority in part I mean don't once it's a public new the fund is still there um I'm not sure if they use part of it for cleaning up the road I don't think so um I kind of think they did but I don't know yeah I'm not sure I could find out but um I mean I'm a little uncomfortable with going in and cleaning up the property but if the town is willing to do it and we can get a contractor is willing to do it and the Town Council feels that it's something that we can do I'm not sure if we need a court order to do it or not but this is something that I I will bring up when we meet again but I mean we are definitely moving forward with this you know court order um what are they hoping to achieve with the court order maybe get his attention get him to start moving the stuff out I mean it's scrap metal I don't know I mean yeah I I agree I mean that will not frustrating that will not affect change but I I believe it won't affect change I believe that there's a legal um remedy called the self-help remedy that allows municipalities to take action on their own to address longstanding non-compliant situations yeah I believe that there is in a way that can then affect that correction and then place a lean against a responsible party the property owner for that exact amount that the town puts up and that lean will not be resolved until lean for the cost of cleaning up you yes yeah until and unless that property owner either passes away or sells the property and at that point the town is first in line to get reimbursed for what it put on what it put out and what about Vines why isn't he being vined we you have to you can't find him until you go to court so you know and then any any other fines that the ticketing that they've done he hasn't paid anyway so well I guess no but if the fines are large enough and you had it every day it's going to accumulate and then attach it to the property I don't yeah I don't know how that works I don't know how that works whether you can attach the fines to his property that would be a question for you to pose to U Town Council Costello what happens if yeah what would be the think that's right and then I can remember Pat costell himself came to us and because this of this problem and instead of having it uh taken care of by the select board who issue um licenses for junkyards and this would be an illegal junk junkyard he said it would be better for for us to do it Board of Health because it was our power we could go in and clean up the yard on our own power and we could avoid Court I remember him saying that so a question for your committee would be how does that power and that advice back then sort of fit in with what's do what's what's uh they're proposing now would would it help facilitate what the town wants to do with the backing of all these other departments in addition it's a good question because now he's saying let's go to court but before his argument was have us it because then we wouldn't have to go to court as I remember it do you remember is that yeah no I mean I I think I think the town staff and everyone has just felt that it was a little unpalatable to go in and clean it up but um well I think there's an El that but then you have neighbors I mean think of them y so well whatever you guys decide anyway I got to go I okay thank you very much thank you thank you other input from the audience or from online on the McGrath property okay other comments and questions so I I think it's it's this so This committee thing is when when's your next meeting uh I'd have to look weeks or months no weeks within the next week or two um what I will do is bring all this up at the meeting I will also send out this order I will also add unsanitary conditions for possible human waste Etc will Pat costell be there at the next meeting yes yes okay so ask him that question though yes oh no defin because it seems like it's it's it's sort of different little bit different advice so we everybody will have sent out their orders and then we we put it on we can put it on the agenda for our next meeting just a quick followup um which is June we can't do the third because that's the focus group we have nothing on meeting 17th or something put it on the agenda get a followup 17 17 y okay this this has been for years Judy yes will you find out what you can do about those people living on the beach oh she wrot down to I mean what I can do I mean are you yeah I mean it's it's first of all it's a zoning issue no one's allowed to live on in tents in jadam or you know illegal structures um people aware of that who would have to rein enforce that I think guess what's their septic system one there is none I mean I don't know what they're doing and I don't know how I'm going to find out um I'm sure he's not going to answer me if I ask so exactly right um You got to send the police down there and then and handcuff them and bring them up and then prosecute them if the police are notified that people are leaving living on that property illegally the police should go immediately to that property and inspect the property to determine the degree of criminal violations that are occurring and potentially arrest Mr M that's what we have for I don't know the law but it is private property and but if there's a law against it's a zoning violation it's not violation illegally used it's like having an extra bed I don't think you can just go arrest somebody for a zoning violation unless you've gone courtroom so has anybody else in the town gone down there or seen it or done anything about it I mean the police have seen it and done it and the zoning and conservation weally Burns fire I'm not saying about General thing I'm talking about the people living on the beach down there that is unbelievable somebody could should be able to get rid of them put them somewhere again that's what we're trying to do I feel bad for them if they have so if if they went and pitched a tent on Lighthouse Beach and we're living there that's Town property oh who owns the beach down there we do town does Lighthouse Beach yeah one they no no it's McGrath's property they're in private property it's McGrath's property and he's allowing them to do this it goes down to the lake yeah okay it's his property no yeah okay so um Judy has another meeting with the with the town group she'll bring up the the pat Costello questions our questions and then we'll put it on the agenda for the second meeting in June as followup and he back from Judy and um kind of go from there but I have my own opinion sense that Uh something's going to happen now so one way or the other right and turn and there's a good question of do we have the authority just to order a clean up I think I've what I've heard is still it's um difficult to do that even but anyway we'll get that town has to put it out to bid we have to get contractors that agree to do it there were contractors who wouldn't do that before he uh Dr duncanson found a specific contractor out of town I think who said he would do it get involved with it but anyway so Judy will have her meetings um she'll ask those questions if if anyone else has a question they want Judy to address in the meetings just send you email her and let her know and um we'll put it on the agenda for the second meeting in June okay so now we have um minutes from May 6 that anyone have an addition [Music] or correction and if not can we get a I'll make a motion we approve minutes from in a second I'll second it and we can Voice vote that all in favor say I I all opposed say no okay those minutes are approved and then can I get a motion to uh adjourn the meeting I'll make a motion we adjourn the meeting second okay and we can uh all all in favor Voice vote say I I I opposed okay the meeting is adjourned [Music] pap [Music]