12/9/2010 ENVIRONMENTAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE Minutes

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6 a � 5 Mashpee Environmental Oversight Committee Minutes of Meeting December 9, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. Mashpee Town Hall, Selectmen's Meeting Room Present: Chairman John Cahalane, Ed Baker, Rick York, George Petersen Absent: Ted Theis CALL TO ORDER The meeting was opened by Chairman Cahalane at 7:04 p,m. APPROVAL OF MEETING NUNUTES October 14, 2010 Mr. Baker made a motion to approve the minutes of October 14th, 2010. Mr. York seconded the motion. Mr. Petersen abstained and Mr. York, Mr. Baker and Chairman Cahalane voted yes. COMMUNICATIONS No public comment at this time MASHPEE BLUE BOOK The Chair stated that Beverly Kane expected a draft of the Blue Book to be ready for the next meeting in January and requested ample time to discuss the draft at that meeting. NEW BUSINESS Nitrogen Mitigation in Waquoit Bay Area Mr. Baker made a motion to add nitrogen mitigation in Waquoit Bay area to the agenda. Chairman Cahalane seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Mr. York-yes; Chairman Cahalane-yes; Mr. Baker-yes: Mr. Petersen-yes Mr. York referenced the Massachusetts Estuary Project's report identifying the TMDL (total maximum daily load for nitrogen)for Popponessett Bay, adding that the TMDL is also available for Hamblin Pond, Jehu Pond, Great River and Little River off of Waquoit Bay. The area is designated "South Coast 16 Shellfishing Area(SC-16)." Mr. York reported that the TMDL is not yet available for Waquoit Bay but that the TMDL is available for SC-16 which is about the same as the Mashpee River and requires removal of 5 tons of nitrogen to completely clean the area. In the Mashpee River it was proposed to grow 1 million oysters, taking out 500 kg of nitrogen(10% of the cleanup). In 2008, 520,00 oysters were harvested totaling 5% of the cleanup. Mr. York reported that there have been no fish kills since growing the oysters. In order to clean up the SC-16 area, 10 million oysters would be needed to completely clean it up. Mr. York determined that the higher salinity in the area would prevent the success of oysters and concluded that quahogs would provide similar benefits and are more reliable and would be seeded as a larger size. Mr. York hopes to purchase 10 million quahog seed and expects half to grow to harvest size. Mr. York will be researching the nitrogen content of the quahogs to determine the number of quahogs needed to clean the area and he suggested the possibility that it may be approximately 30 million quahogs to remove the nitrogen. Mr. York also reported that Falmouth has delayed their treatment plans for Waquoit Bay for 30 years and is hopeful that the quahogs will work toward cleaning the area while at the same time providing a commercial opportunity. Mr. York added that the project will be quantified because commercial quahoggers sell their product to wholesalers, the sale will then be electronically recorded and the state will be able to access the information to