1998-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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selecting a consultant and determining the cost of the Report of the project, we will be submitting a request for funding to Sewer Commission the May 1999 Annual Town Meeting. It would not be unreasonable to say that your decision on funding that next step will largely decide whether or not we will do To the Honorable Board of Selectmen and what needs to be done to restore and protect our bays. the Citizens of the Town of Mashpee: It is our sincere hope that your decision will be favor- able. As Mashpee residents have begun to recognize the impacts of four decades of rapid development on our Respectfully submitted, rivers and bays, there has been an increasing under- F. Thomas Fudala, Chairman standing of the need for construction of advanced den- Dennis Balzarini, Vice Chairman itrifying wastewater treatment facilities for existing John Cahalane, Clerk/Secretary developed areas, as well as for new development. k Existing loading of nitrogen to the watersheds of the Mashpee River, Shoestring Bay and other coastal Report of the waters has exceeded the capacity of those waters to deal with it, resulting in the loss of our once-extensive South Cape Beach Advisory eelgrass beds and the shellfish resources that depend- Committee ed on them, as well as in fish and shellfish kills due to low oxygen levels, "pea soup" water and increasingly foul odors. Considering that much of the nitrogen in our watersheds has not yet reached the bays, condi- To the Honorable Board of Selectmen and tions will only get worse. Mashpee must make a the Citizens of the Town of Mashpee: choice soon whether or not it will invest in the facili- ties that will be necessary to begin to improve those p y j conditions. Committee ("Committee") at its meetings during the year 1998 considered and made various recommenda- tions relative to the use and development of the South The Sewer Commission stands ready to move ahead with development of those facilities, given sup- Cape Beach State Park("Park") and its amenities. port and the necessary funding from Mashpee's resi- dents. Over the last few years we have helped devel- TEN ACRE SITE ON GREAT RIVER- op the Water & Wastewater Facilities element of the WAOUOIT BAY Comprehensive Plan, have been actively involved in Paragraph #17 of the Agreement dated June 1981 discussions with private developers regarding the use between the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of their existing and proposed wastewater treatment ("DEM") and the Town of Mashpee obligates the facilities as a starting point for municipal facilities and Commonwealth to transfer to the Town title of the ten have kept ourselves informed of the latest develop- ments in wastewater facilities and other methods of acre site for the construction of a boat launch/pier reducing nitrogen in our watersheds. The facility. Commission has also been actively involved in the In July of 1998 legislation was filed entitled "An Watershed Management Committee and in the statewide ad hoc Task Force for Decentralized Act Relative to the Conveyance of a Certain Parcel of Wastewater Management. Land located at South Cape Beach within the Town of Mashpee for Recreation/Conservation Purposes." It In 1998 Town Meeting funded the nitrogen sensi- was sponsored by Senator Henri Rauschenbach and tivity study of the Popponesset Bay estuary currently Representative Thomas Cahir, and was before the being done by Dr. Brian Howes and the Center for House Committee on Rules awaiting a committee Marine Science and Technology. The Commission assignment. It was referred to as House Docket 5856. has now taken the next step toward developing a solu- The legislative session ended before any action was taken on the Act, and new legislation will be filed in tion to the Town's wastewater and nitrogen loading problems. In December we advertised a Request for 1999. Proposals from consulting firms to prepare a It was most disturbing to note that provisions in the Watershed Nitrogen Management Plan / Effluent aforementioned legislation were inconsistent and a Pipeline Preliminary Design identifying the most cost-effective approach to reducing nitrogen in each contradiction of "Agreement". These provisions watershed to levels that do not harm the bays. After would obligate the Town (i)to use the ten acre site for a boat launch facility (ii) to be responsible for the cost s 169