HomeMy WebLinkAboutHSAB Minutes - January 18, 2011_201402051348587135Nantucket Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board
Minutes of Meeting held January 18, 2011
Approved: February 15, 2011
Conference Room, Town Annex, 37 Washington St.
Call to Order at 4:37PM: Members present: Dr. Boyce (in the chair), Mr. Blount, Mr.
Glowacki, Mr. Holdgate, Mr. Rank, Ms. McCrae
Members Absent: Mr. Rank, Mr. Smith
From Marine Dept: Ms. Riley,
From the BOS: Mr. Willauer Others: Ms. Hall, Mr. Herr
Approval of Agenda: Mr. Holdgate pointed out that the agenda has the wrong year.
Approval of Minutes:
Ms. McCrea moved ( Mr. Glowacki second) approval of the minutes of the January 4, 2011. The
motion carried unanimously.
Chairman’s Report:
Blue Pages: The HPIC is creating a plan to produce a “Blue Pages” booklet which advises the
public on ways to avoid polluting the water in the harbors and ponds. The booklet is based on
one done for Marthas Vineyard and Orleans. Mashpee is working on one. Dr. Boyce will suggest
to the HPIC that we make scallopsand shellfish the theme of the Nantucket booklet.
Sewering Monomoy: Dr. Boyce reported that he had sent a letter to the BOS urging support
for installing sewers. The question now is whether to make it mandatory to hook up to the
sewer once it is installed.
Marine Department Report: (4:45pm)
Commercial scalloping: The bushel count is up to 5,887 bushels as of yesterday.
Harbor Models: Ms. Riley reported that computer models of the Harbor will be run in the next
two weeks showing the effects of sewering Monomoy, of sewering the Monomoy-Shimmo Bend,
and of raising the jetties. The purpose is to see the effects of sewering the rest of Monomoy. A
by product will be that we will also see the final destination of scallop larvae which are spawned
in those areas.
Miss China: Ms. Riley reported that the Miss China is to be cleaned. The Town is working on
acquiring title to the boat, after which it will be towed to Barnstable.
Estuaries Project: There will be a presentation on the Madaket Harbor results on January 27
at 6:00pm at the high school.(Note: The announced location is the Cyrus Peirce Middle School
Cafeteria.)
Comment on Marine Department Report:
Accuracy of Harbor Model: Mr. Glowacki noted that the model runs will not be correct, since
the nitrates from lawn fertilizers are overstated in the model by a factor of ten. Mr. Glowacki
maintained that there is not one study in the peer reviewed literature which backs up the
assumptions used by Dr. Howse in developing the estuaries model. Dr. Boyce clarified that, if
this is so, the improvement to be gained by sewering Monomoy will actually be more than the
model shows. Dr. Willauer presented the case for making the hookup to the new sewers
mandatory.
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Mandatory Sewer Hookup: Mr. Holdgate noted that it is not fair to ask someone who has
just spent $70,000 to install a new, Title V compliant septic system to then be required to pay
to hook up to the sewers and abandon his new system. Mr. Glowacki said this would be the
case for a very small number of people. There should be some flexibility to the system, either
requiring hookup when systems fail or giving some length of time before requiring hookup. Ms.
McCrae noted that there is a problem any time you use the word “mandatory” when talking
about a person’s property. Dr. Boyce asked if the Board wants to make a statement about
requiring hookups. The feeling of the Board was that the letter as written stated our
recommendation, and that we did not need to make another statement.
Old Business: (5:15pm)
Progress on Shellfish Management Plan: The next meeting of the SMP Committee, which
is open to the public, will be on February 1 at 2:30pm in this room (37 Washington St.). Mr.
Herr asked about whether two meetings on one day was too much. Ms.McRae moved (Mr.
Holdgate second) that we omit the Feb 1 meeting for SHAB. The Board approved unanimously.
Mr. Herr said that Mr. Kritzer’s memo had helped to set a direction for proceeding. Dr. Boyce
said he would circulate that document to SHAB. Mr. Herr then described the process of eliciting
historical information from the older, experienced scallopers. He hopes to get the common
themes from the interviews presented at the next SMP meeting. The SMP Committee is
discussing the pros and cons of conducting a survey of recreational scallopers. Mr. Herr noted
that the process is not as far advanced as we had thought it would be by now. One of the items
on the agenda is how to get publicity for the SMP development.
SMP Comments: The chairman asked if the Board wanted to add anything to the discussion
we had last time or any discussion about other species. There are 2 Nantucket conch
fishermen. Dr. Willauer noted the Mr. Smith had raised the question of the effect of water
quality on aquaculture. Dr. Boyce noted that shellfish are considered to be a mechanism for
cleaning up water. Dr. Boyce asked if he should transmit the center section of the minutes to
the Shellfish Management Plan Committee as an official communication from SHAB. The Board
recommended that we send the entire minutes, which is the public record, rather than chopping
out pieces of the minutes. Dr. Boyce agreed to do this.
Recap and Items for Next Meeting:
Presentation of Harbor Flow Patterns by Dr. Boyce.
Results of Model runs
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 5:40pm
Next Meetings: February 1 and 15, 2011
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Boyce, Chair