HomeMy WebLinkAboutHSAB July 12 2011Nantucket Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board
Minutes of Meeting held on July 12, 2011
Approved:
Conference Room, 2 Fairgrounds Road
Call to Order at 4:33 p.m.
Members Present: Chairman Dr. Peter Boyce, Peter Brace, Doug Smith, Mike Glowacki,
Bill Blount
Members Absent: Wendy McRae and Bob Rank
Marine Dept: Dave Fronzuto and Tara Riley
BOS: Whitey Willauer
Others: Steve Heck, Tara’s other intern, May Taylor
Approval of Agenda: Approved unanimously.
Approval of Minutes: Approved unanimously.
Chairman’s Report: Dr. Boyce mentioned he had some fliers for the July 14 water
quality forum held at the Coffin School.
Marine Department Report: 4:36 - Dave Fronzuto
Mr. Fronzuto recapped the previous two weeks on the harbor: Although there were no
incidents during the Iron Teams Race on June 26, because the surfboard paddle,
swimming and beach run were shifted to the north shore due to nesting shorebirds on
Coatue and despite no incidents with perfect weather, Mr. Fronzuto told the organizers he
reserves the right to cancel the swimming and paddling legs due to inclement weather. He
noted that because of high winds during the 2010 race, he canceled those portions of the
race. For the Independence Day week, Mr. Fronzuto reported no incidents with about 140
boats that motored out to watch the fireworks at Jetties Beach. Mr. Fronzuto said his
department successfully responded to a man having heart attack off of Tuckernuck
around midnight and he noted that Assistant Harbormaster Sheila Lucy’s exact placement
of navigational buoys made getting to and from the man’s boat quick and easy. The
patient was flown off Tuckernuck by helicopter. Mr. Fronzuto mentioned he had
navigational chartlets for all of the marked channels in Nantucket waters and that Ms.
Lucy taught boater safety courses to two groups of teenagers.
On the subject of gray/black water pumpouts, Mr. Fronzuto noted that during the first 12
days of July, his department pumped more than 5,600 gallons from boats in the harbor.
This is because there a lot of bigger boats with bigger holding tanks this season. In 2010,
they pumped 24,000 gallons total, a little less than 2009. This doesn’t count anything the
Nantucket Boat Basin has pumped this season. Mr. Fronzuto noted that in 2010 for the
same week, he around 80 boats in the anchorage not counting the rental moorings and
this year there were only 12. He added that in 2007, the town’s sewage pumping dropped
significantly, but the last three years, they’ve pumped around 24,000-25,000 gallons.
Dr. Boyce complimented Ms. Lucy for the placement of navigational buoys.
Propagation report: Tara Riley
Ms. Riley introduced a new summer intern, May Taylor, who is living fulltime on
Nantucket and mentioned another volunteer, Georgia Orenstein, who is here through
mid-August. As of July 12, Ms. Riley reported that they have done two bay scallop larval
releases; 10 million in Fifth Bend and 20 million at Crosby’s. She added that they wanted
to try to do one more spawn and release, but they were having some difficulty finding
scallops that will spawn in captivity. While they struggled with the scallops, Ms. Riley
said they spawned 10 million quahogs and put them in the upwellers in the boathouse.
Ms. Riley also reported that Nantucket Land Council-sponsored tours of the boathouse
are continuing in August and September, and that anyone who wants to tour the
boathouse should call her. And, Ms. Riley said that a film crew would be visiting the
boathouse on July 14 to shoot some footage for a short film with the Land Council’s help.
She added that some donations to the town’s propagation efforts are coming in and that
they are really helping her efforts. Also, over the weekend, Tobey Leske toured the lab
while researching a story he was working on for the July 14 issue of the Inquirer &
Mirror.
Ms. Riley said the town started its oyster grant with Andy Roberts and the Southeastern
Massachusetts Aquaculture Center, and that she did receive the oysters two weeks ago.
They are monitoring bottom cages at Pocomo Meadows in comparison to Mr. Ryder’s
floating cages at the Head of the Harbor. The town’s own oysters in the floating upweller
system are doing OK. She added they want to get the floating upweller system going
ASAP as soon as they can get shellfish that can float on the screen.
Dr. Boyce noted that the boathouse lab is buzzing with activity and really plugging along
on many shellfish propagation fronts.
Mr. Fronzuto added to his report by distributing copies of a grant application letter for his
department from Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management for coastal management
principles for erosion control for the beach management part of his department. It is a
CZM pilot program to help coastal communities deal with storm mitigation, erosion
control and sea level rise. No money, but two years of assistance from Regional CZM
Director Steve McKenna. Awarded to Boston, Duxbury, Plymouth and Oak Bluffs last
year. This year, they’re doing it by region.
Mr. Fronzuto also distributed copies of the 2010 estuaries and salt ponds water quality
report for the board.
Water Quality: Tara Riley
Ms. Riley reported that Mr. Heck and Ms. Taylor have been doing all the water sampling
of the harbors and pond, and sending it to the state certified lab on the Vineyard. She
added that the reports for June are available upon request and that having a lab on the
Vineyard makes it possible to see water quality results on a month-to-month basis. They
have been doing the harbors twice a month and the ponds once a month.
Dr. Boyce commended Ms. Riley, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Heck for their work and the
efficiency of the water quality-testing program. Mr. Brace asked Mr. Fronzuto about the
possibility of Nantucket having it’s own state certified water quality testing lab, but Mr.
Fronzuto stated that it would cost the town too much because of the wide variety of
testing needs on island.
Mr. Willauer asked Mr. Fronzuto if Nantucket has documented a rise in sea level over
time. Mr. Fronzuto stated he didn’t know, but that he knew of CZM compiling data for
all the coastal regions. However, Mr. Fronzuto said sea level rise was a major topic in the
aforementioned CZM grant application he filed recently. Mr. Fronzuto added that he uses
sensors at the Steamship Wharf and Station Brant Point to predict storm surge but didn’t
know about historical data.
Mr. Brace said he noticed the decking of the finger piers on Old North Wharf were under
water at high tide without a full moon and that harbor water seemed to be reaching
further and further up onto Coatue at high tide. Mr. Blount doubted the predictions of 24
inches, but Dr. Boyce said that would be over 100 years. Mr. Brace stated that the
predictions are a moving target.
Old Business:
There was no Old Business to discuss.
New Business:
2010 Water Quality Report
Dr. Boyce said the report was a poor one and that he would go through it for the board.
Dr. Boyce said the Summary of Results was very distressing to him because SMAST
(The School of Marine and Science Technology at UMass Dartmouth) and its director,
Dr. Brian Howes, among many other shortcomings, didn’t meet the deadline for the final
report and the original, individual data. He added that because the report came so late in
the year that it is of no use to the town in improving the program.
Dr. Boyce pointed out that the nitrogen level numbers on the data chart were just
averages and not month by month, which he said didn’t reflect spikes in nitrogen flow
into island waterways during the summer months. Ms. Riley said she did speak with
Roland Simimy, Dr. Howes’ right-hand man, about him supplying the town with monthly
averages for the public water quality forum on July 14. Dr. Boyce noted that are some
interesting trends when one looks at the individual week-by-week numbers, but that these
numbers are not in this report.
Dr. Boyce said the data on the streams of nutrients flowing into the harbor in various
places couldn’t be compared with numbers recorded monthly to an annual average as was
done in this report, but that comparisons can be made between historical stream
measurements year to year. Dr. Boyce said he would prefer more frequent stream
samplings to know when fertilizer is being applied to the cranberry bogs and that at the
very least, months need to be compared with each other and that it’s bad science to
compare months to the annual average.
Dr. Boyce stated that SMAST came up with trophic state numbers, but didn’t document
their formula for arriving at their results, so there is no way of checking their numbers or
how to calculate the trophic state. Mr. Fronzuto asked Ms. Riley if she was sampling the
streams every month this year. Ms. Riley replied yes, but that in some months, the
streams are dry. Mr. Fronzuto said if SMAST had provided the originally requested
monthly data that the town would have been able to adjust its testing protocol if it needed
to such as testing water quality in the streams once a month.
Dr. Boyce, in a draft letter he proposes to send to the Board of Selectmen on the report’s
shortcomings, said the chlorophyll varies by a factor of four or five. The brown tide
bloom in Nantucket Harbor last summer made those numbers go way up and Dr. Boyce
said that data, which the report does not reflect with its annual averages, is vital to the
board and the Marine Department understanding why 40% of the scallops in cages were
lost in 2009.
Given the delicate political situation of still needing harbor modeling data from SMAST,
Dr. Boyce asked the board how it wanted to proceed. Mr. Brace stated that sending letter
wouldn’t change the results, but Mr. Glowacki said it would set the record straight on
what the board needs in the future. Dr. Boyce stated he wanted to get the letter to the
selectmen before the forum to make them aware of the omissions.
Mr. Fronzuto said that the BOS are already aware of the holes in the report because of the
number of citizens calling in to complain about it. He added that a conference call with
himself, Mr. Howes and BOS Chairman Rick Atherton was scheduled for July 13 to get
Mr. Howes to include the information missing from the report in July 14th’s presentation.
Mr. Fronzuto said SMAST needs to put the report in layman’s terms for the public and do
the same for the TMDL (total maximum daily load) number for Madaket when SMAST
presents this report in August, but he agreed with Dr. Boyce’s assessment of the report
and said that the board is within its right to question the specifics of the report. Mr.
Fronzuto advised that the board’s letter to BOS be written plainly and simply. Mr. Brace
and Mr. Glowacki agreed.
Mr. Willauer expressed anxiety over SMAST’s ability to produce nitrogen numbers in
relation to sewering Monomoy through the models they’re going to run for the town. Mr.
Fronzuto said Dr. Howes claimed he could do it based on lot size, but Mr. Glowacki
added that Dr. Howes has been unable to validate his assumptions for the last 15 years.
Mr. Smith motioned that HSAB send Dr. Boyce’s letter to the BOS as is. Mr. Fronzuto
agreed with this motion and the timing of sending the letter to the BOS. He added that
since private donors funded the $46,800 report, they too deserved the agreed upon
information, as the Marine Dept. is having to answer to the donors. Mr. Brace said the
board is doing itself a disservice by not responding to the report and that Dr. Boyce’s was
direct and well written.
In answer to Mr. Willauer’s inquiry on what the presentation would be on July 14, Mr.
Fronzuto said to expect a shined up version made to look more complete than it really is
and that the island’s water quality is not too bad when this is not entirely true. Mr. Smith
said Mr. Fronzuto should ask for real-time data from SMAST that Ms. Riley has been
asking for since January. Mr. Fronzuto said that because of SMAST’s lackluster job on
this report, he is not hiring them again for Nantucket’s water quality analysis. He added
that his department had always done this analysis itself over the last 14 years.
Mr. Brace stated that for a water quality forum in August 2010, he understood that its
sponsor, ReMain Nantucket, had told its speakers not to report anything negative about
harbor pollution. Mr. Glowacki clarified for the board that ReMain wanted only the
speakers facts, not their opinions.
Mr. Boyce called for a vote on sending his letter to the BOS and the vote was
unanimously in favor of Mr. Smith’s motion.
Mr. Willauer lamented that the town would still have to rely on Dr. Howes for political
force in convincing voters of the necessity of water quality improvement projects such as
sewering Monomoy, raising the jetties or dredging. Mr. Fronzuto said it’s balancing act
and that the BOS should deal with the politics in the future.
Mr. Smith asked about the Land Council’s $10,000-challenge grant and Mr. Fronzuto
said Ms. Riley has had tremendous response from the public. Mr. Willauer asked if this
grant was for structural repairs to the boathouse. Ms. Riley replied that she and Mr.
Fronzuto were writing a grant proposal to the Community Preservation Committee to
fund that work.
Recap and Items for Next Meeting:
Dr. Boyce stated that he would send the final draft of his letter on the 2010 water quality
report to Mr. Atherton tonight.
Adjournment: 5:40 p.m. - Unanimous
Next Meetings: Aug. 9 and Sept. 6 and 20
Respectfully submitted,
Peter B. Brace, Secretary