e e e e e e e e e e [Music] PA [Music] welcome to the April 1st 2024 Board of Health meeting please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly Hereafter 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 her's March 29 2023 signing of the acts of 2023 extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during a state emergency state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law General Law chapter 3A subsection 20 until March 31st 2025 this meeting of the chadam 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 Prov proceedings as provided for the order a a reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting in progress may do so by calling the phone number 1508 945 4410 conference ID 760 87975 4 pound or join the meeting V online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda while this while this is a live broadcast and simal cast on chadam TV channel 8 and 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide the realtime access we will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible okay thank you um 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 agenda item discussions so we have just uh one uh item on the agenda today but let's uh establish a quorum first uh and when I call your name just say presid Carol Boyce pres Ron browman here uh Richard Edwards presid Noble Hansen I am present so that's a quorum of four um okay so uh the item on the agenda is a variance Hearing in approval of IIA technology for 34 scattery residential trust 34 scattery Road uh east Southeast LLC and I think that Eldridge is here to present the case here I am that Aldridge e Southeast and I'll be taking over the screen in a moment so this was a newly divided lot the neighbor needed a little extra land and she purchased the property divided it and then we um she sold this to the levies who are now developing a house we have a Coastal Bank but otherwise we do have buildable Upland of greater than 50,000 Square ft so well has the buildable Uplands ,900 sare ft technically the Up's a little bit higher that little spot of flood plane that's below the Coastal Bank counts towards the Upland but since we had 50,000 Square ft of buildable Upland we carried forward so the proposal is for a six-bedroom house six-bedroom septic system and Innovative alternative system in order to treat and uh help out with our nitrogen loading if there are questions I'm happy to answer them okay thank you so it's a over 50,000 foot uh of Upland and it's uh the demoing the current house on the property and then adding a building a new home with six bedrooms one extra bedroom above the that allotted by 50,000 ft with the addition of IA technology so uh questions from the board uh we have plans and so I was trying to figure out what kind of uh system this was but it on the map it says sing it's a singular yes we're looking at a singular singular 9 960 how how do you decide which of these systems so the microfast is really the only one that's offered in H20 so if we have to put it under the driveway we want to have something that can go there um we've been using the microfast and singular pretty much exclusively it's just what we have in our templates the singular I like those more because they have that recirculating pump so if you have the oxygenated effluent going back to the beginning there's hope that there's more denitrification that occurs microfast had us putting in the recirculating pump at one point and then they stopped and can you say that again about the microfast microfast had us put the recirculating pump on one or two systems but then they stopped I don't know if they got the results that they were looking for or if they were satisfied with our results with just the standard system I I don't think this is really important for this variant but maybe you can explain something to us we had a um a presentation here about a month ago from the barnable County I think it was Michelle Olstead from the bar barnable County okay and they had survey uh all of the uh IA systems in chadam m 120 or something like that and they actually measured the nitrogen affluent from from the from the uh system and it the the standard is supposed to be 17 H 19 19 milligrams per yeah parts per million or milligrams per liter and the median of the 120 installed in chadam is like 39 substantially above the standard with the micras being significantly higher than the singular or or the others and and so that's of concern you know that these systems don't appear to be doing what they're touted to be I'm just wondering why you know well the first this would be happening the first assumption that we make is a 35 milligram per liter or part per million concentration of nitrogen coming out of the house all those lowf flow toilets and lowf flow fixtures that go in will increase that so it's the same amount of nitrogen it's just more concentrated because there's less water so you're coming out of the house are you at 70 parts per million or 60 parts per million something much greater these systems are supposed to be able to get from 35 to 19 without a problem but getting from 70 to 19 is a problem so the solution to pollution is dilution and if these folks would just take longer showers their systems would be working fine so is this a problem uh in in terms of the uh uh the town of chadam the amount of nitrogen that's that's going into the to the ground water I mean should we not be approving these systems would you rather have a teacup of $100 bills or a big bucket full of $50 bills the big bucket is less concentration but it's going to be more than the little teacup that has less uh when we look at at older folks you know that Widow that's living very frugally not necessarily taking showers every day not using a lot of water but still having that amount of waste going out the concentration you can expect coming out of that house would be greater so the total amount of nitrogen going into the groundwater yes is still substantially less even if it's not meeting that standard so long showers there's your solution so you have any idea why the the the the micro fast is not near as I like it when the microfast had the recirculating pump in it because the denitrification is going to occur where you have an anoxic zone so in the beginning of your septic tank the first part of the microfast is there's no Oxygen in there and if you can pull effluent back in um were you here when we did the chatam tides it was say that again we did we did a system the chatam tide system it was a 29 bedroom system basically on an acre I mean it was really we fit everything in um everything goes to a pair of tanks at the bottom of the hill gets pumped to the top where it goes through a microfast and then the um the system operator has the control to say oh I want 3/4 of the effluent to go back to the beginning where additional denitrification can occur and uh then they can play with that a bit and try and make things work better but with your standard home I mean it goes into the tank it comes out goes through a distribution box which has no real storage in it and then goes right out into your your field so you're saying the the measuring the concentration alone at the end doesn't tell the whole story I guess but right I think she ALS she also said there were there were like eight or nine systems that are sort of approved in the state yes um and I guess my question or our question would be is is one system known to work better than another system is there a cost Factor as to why this microfast system is the one that's generally put in or generally the microfast is one of the least expensive I think the ho is less expensive but I haven't I've only put in one out of our firm is it known that some systems work better than others of the ones that are approved she indicated that they were the state was going to probably cut the number down well I think that they will be with the new title 5 they're looking at 10 parts per million instead of the 19 and you can really only get that with the Nitro and the nitrex but both of those are in piloting still um now the microfast you're adding 8 to 10,000 on top of your septic system plus upwards to 2,000 a year for operation maintenance testing and electricity the singular it's a little more up drunk cost in the long run the singular air is less because you have water pumps instead of that air pump that's going all the time and then the Nitro nitrex the components start at about 21,000 installation goes on top of that and then you can expect about 3,000 a year in operation maintenance save up for the replacement of all the wood chips and and everything else that goes into it okay great thank you let kind of an aside so on the pl say from from our client's end it's we get an approved list and they look at it and say okay the microfast is I'll say the least expensive even the the hoood is less expensive um a lot of people will just put in the microfast because they don't care what's coming out the other end if the Board of Health says Hey the microfast we don't want to put any more of these in please put in only singular or idrum or any other than yeah write it out and we'll comply right well I think one of the things we the message we got was that there are different systems and they may work differently and um it was an aspect that we didn't really know about uh but I and the plans I I don't you know the bunk room is the sixth bedroom I take it I believe so yes and then um I see lots of six foot arches so um I don't uh um I don't I don't see any problems something yeah it looks like the architect who was very careful to make sure that the library and the game room and everything wouldn't be called bo uh uh bedrooms by the Board of Health I made Paul meet with Judy on this one to make sure that everything was up seems to meet our standards um does somebody want to make a motion I'll move that we approve it in a second second okay and then um maybe we any input from the um public or in the room and then um Lucas who's here for Judy today can read the conditions please for the record yes the applicant has proposed the use of a singular system at the property to increase the number of bedrooms to six with approximately 50,9 ft of upin whereas a proposed system will provide greater nitrogen reduction and Environmental Protection than the conventional five bedroom septic system and meets the requirements of the nitrogen loading regulation I recommend that the app can be approved for six bedrooms with the secondary treatment unit as proposed with the following conditions the applicants should restrict the this property to a maximum of six bedrooms and record this restriction with a deed at the marsville County registry of deeds the applicant shall submit a copy of the executed deed restriction the applicant shall sign a covenant with the Board of Health agreeing with the board agreeing to comply at such time as the town of chadam through its Board of Health and or Board of Water and Sewer Commissioners directs the connection of this property Municipal sewer when it becomes available the Covenant and six pedum deed restriction shall be recorded at the Barnsville County registry of deeds and copy of the executed Covenant shall be submitted to the Board of Health throughout its life the system shall be under an operation of Maintenance or o andm agreement omm agreement shall be for at least one Year and may be with any Massachusetts certified operator of the appropriate grade that has received training by by the company on the operation of the system affluent from the system shall be monitored at least twice per year for the first two years preferably in May and October the affluent shall be field tested in accordance with Massachusetts D standards conditions for secondary treatment unit certified for General use revised March 20th 2015 in addition to a Laboratory test of affluent for total nitrogen to meet the performance of the standard 19 Mig per liter I shall milligrams per liter shall be collected and analyzed by a certified lab water readings are to be provided with the semiannual report if any of the field tests or laboratory tests fail follow-up test shall be conducted by a certified lab and evaluation made by the operator within 30 days after the required two years of testing application can be made to the board of health or their agent for the review and possible modification of the monitoring requirements the applicant agrees to apply a minimum of 6 in of compacted top soil to all distributed areas the engineer shall submit an engineered asilt plan including asil elevations with the written certification that the system has been installed in accordance with the approved plan no alter no alteration to the floor plan of the dwelling or the engineer site plan will be allowed without the further view by the Board of Health Awards agent this variance is granted pursuant to the State Environmental code Title 5 and the town of chadam subsurface sewage regulations is valid for one year from the date of the Board of Health approval a permit must be issued and work commend com commenced during the one-year period of the variant shall expire okay thank you um I guess if there's no other comment or input uh we can probably take a Voice vote on this all in favor of granting the variance for 34 scattery residential trust SC 34 scattery Road say yes yes yes and opposed okay so that passes the the variance is granted thank you much okay so that was just the one item on the agenda and uh we have minutes from uh March 25th our last meeting um does anybody have any U Corrections no will I wanted to add one more thing I know that um you have the minutes but um I added into on page four um under let's see one two three four fifth paragraph up from the bottom um bill schilz um responded in after Donna devort um stated felt it as an issue especially with the public waiting outside the restaurant I also added her concern of need to post the signs to discourage lawyering the public in those areas where there may be potential and unnecessary exposure to lead from pistol engine aircraft emissions which she stated her concern with the signs so I wanted to add that too wasn't in there the signage and um the warm-up areas yep and that was listed so okay okay and then you you sent out to the board but that's a different issue okay U any any additions or corrections to the minutes okay can uh get a motion to approve I move to approve of the minutes I'll second all righty and I think uh we can take a Voice vote on this all in favor say I I opposed none okay so those minutes are approved and then um uh I just is there are is there any um new business some wants to bring up or um old business uh we I just asked Lucas is there any update on the new hire for the short-term uh regulation um not that I have received no okay um and uh I think uh in terms of the uh airport uh uh Diane sent out another uh letter from some more additional information that all of us had I didn't encourage everyone to read all that because it's it's an ongoing issue and there's and there's a lot to learn there I think she wanted to thank everybody plus also attach that additional information all right um okay any anything else all right this a nice short meeting so I guess uh we can um adjourn the meeting I move to adjourn I'll second and we partake a Voice vote all in favor say um I I I opposed okay the meeting is [Music] adjourned [Music] PA e