10/14/2015 ENVIRONMENTAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE Minutes

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4 Environmental Oversight Committee Minutes October 14, 2015 COMMUNICATIONS Montaomerv. MD Passes Healthy Lawn's Bill: EOC member Michael Talbot distributed an email to the committee relative to a favorable vote passed by the Montgomery County Council is support of the Healthy Lawns Bill. Montgomery County, Maryland is the first county in the U.S. that has passed measures to restrict the use of pesticides in lawn care as a method to protect the health of Montgomery County residents. It is similar to regulations in Canada that have been imposed in some provinces to ban the use of pesticides for aesthetic purposes. It was explained that state-wide changes to the regulations would be required for the enactment of this bill in the State of Massachusetts. It was noted that 78% of pesticide use on the Cape is applied on turf, and an additional 9% directed on golf course turf. This may be a favorable direction to reduce the impacts of the extensive use of pesticides on Cape Cod. It was noted that Eversource uses less than 1% of pesticides on its right-of-ways. A brief discussion followed with regards to clear cutting on power lines and other invasive areas with the use of goats. This is becoming a common practice, and an adaptive management approach to the use of pesticides. ACTION ITEMS WDATE Pond _& Estuary Water Quality Monitoring: Update: No report. Mashpee Com re ensive Wastewater & Nitro n Management Plan (CWW); Update on Final Approval and Implementation: In accordance with the Clean Water Act, negotiations have begun with the Towns of Barnstable and Sandwich with regards to coordination in achieving TMDL compliance with respect to the joint management of the shared watersheds in a five-year review. In the fair share agreement, a watershed permit is issued to a single community or to an assemblage of communities. With the assembling of three communities, all three TMDL's and their 248 apportionments are considered. The TMDL is thus multiplied by the pounds of nitrogen, and allocated to communities on a percentage base in the five-year exam to determine if the communities have achieved compliance with respect to their daily load requirements. This method would grant a period of tune for a community to implement measures, and allow for towns to receive credit by achieving a TMDL implementation. This initiative also creates an administrative permitting mechanism to be formally credited toward compliance. It was noted this process is conducted solely under state authority. Mr. York indicated that he is using attenuated load figures in his current projections.