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'I own We are honored to serve as Town Counsel for dredge" (over 4,000 feet of )• P p i e A booster barge is the Town of Mashpee, and we remain committed to required for the "long haul" projects and this propels providing the Town with high quality, cost-effective, the sediment down the pipe for longer distances. and timely legal advice and representation. We look forward to working with the Town Manager, the The Waquoit project is performed as a "short Selectmen,and other officers,boards and agencies of haul"project and the approximately 2,500 cubic yards the Town to secure and advance the interests of the of sediment gets deposited on the adjacent beach Town of Mashpee in 2013. (Will's Work Road). Respectfully submitted, In Popponesset Bay a sand delta formed over the Patrick J.Costello,Esq. years and started its drift toward Cotuit Meadows. The Louison, Costello, Condon &Pfaff,LLP result was the channel known as the 1916 Channel Town Counsel (originally dredged in 1916) became very shallow and required a maintenance dredge. The most recent main- tenance dredge was performed in 1936 so we had to Report of the find documentation of that project in the State Waterways Commission Archives. We found a copy of the dredge contract, issued by the State, which enabled us to get a mainte- nance dredge permit from the COE (Corps of To the Honorable Board of Selectmen and the Engineers) for this much needed dredge project. That Citizens of the Town of Mashpee: project was completed with a long haul dredge in Fiscal 2010. The sediment was pumped to the Spit. A follow The Waterways Commission presently meets on up maintenance dredge was performed in December of a monthly basis to deliberate on Waterways related 2012. The timing of this effort was such that the topics. Our goal is to maintain and improve the water- Barnstable County Dredge was in place and set to ways and strive to improve water quality of the bays dredge but storm"Sandy" and the follow on nor'easter and ponds in Mashpee. To this end we work with the delayed our start until the weather cleared. The Spit Harbormaster and the Shellfish Constable(both now a ended up after these storms in poor shape but after we part of the Mashpee Police Department) to oversee deposited our sediment on the Spit and Save The Bay maintenance dredging and plan and manage improve- maintenance dredged washover sediment from the ment dredging. We also have assumed the manage- Creek and placed their sediment on the Spit it appears ment roll of the Water Quality measurement and test- to be stabilized for the time being. Save the Bay will ing program in concert with the Town, the Tribe and perform additional Channel maintenance dredging SMAST with Dr. Brian Howes. This is an all volun- which will place additional sediment on the Spit. teer testing program and we are always looking for peoples to volunteer their time to assist this effort. IMPROVEMENT DREDGING This testing program is an ongoing project and should We are resuming work on the engineering por- continue well into the future. tion of an improvement dredge of the Mashpee River MAINTENANCE DREDGING Entrance and River. This effort has been underway for a number of years and the disposal process of the sed- Our efforts were totally consumed in fiscal 2012 iment has been the major hurdle. Our efforts to get with dredging of the Approach Channel of Popponesset this done should improve the flushing effects of tidal Bay, the Little River/Great River Channel of Waquoit changes on the River. Finding a location for sediment Bay. A typical maintenance dredge of the Approach disposal is proving to be very difficult. It should be Channel to Popponesset produces 5,000 cubic yards of noted that with the dredging of the 1916 Channel in sediment that also gets deposited on the Popponesset the Bay the flushing of Popponesset Bay has Spit. The Spit is owned and managed in a close rela- improved. The Water Quality test data from the sum- tionship with the Town by an organization named Save mer of 2011 showed a slight improvement in the Popponesset Bay. Some of these dredge projects are southern part of the Bay. No algae blooms or fish kills done by what is called a"short haul dredge"(less than were noticed in the River this past summer. It appears 4,000 feet of pipe) and some are done as "long haul the clarity of water in the Bay has improved and hope- fully the test results will support that visible opinion. 168