The Marion Conservation Commission, on June 12, decided to respond to one property owner’s request to investigate a drainage pipe that extends from 692 Mill Street under Giffords Road onto an adjacent property owned by Eleanor Mello.
Chairman Jeff Doubrava said he took a look at the pipe that he described as a black plastic perforated pipe with white PVC pipe running through the center, which appears to have been placed there relatively recently.
The commission will attend a more thorough site visit before the next meeting and will send the property owner a letter requesting access to the property.
According to Administrative Assistant Elizabeth Magauren, the house is currently rented to a tenant.
“If it appears that this discharge is altering a resource area, then we have jurisdiction,” commission member Shaun Walsh stated. “If it’s just a pipe that is discharging water and a reasonable amount of water … not causing erosion or something like that then I wouldn’t do anything. We don’t solve people’s trespass issues. … Adding water to someone else’s property – that’s a different issue.”
Walsh said perhaps the pipe is simply a sump pump drainage pipe, which, in that case, the property owner would be asked to take necessary steps to curb the water flowing onto Mello’s property.
The commissioners agreed that, in general, the site is usually consistently wet with the presence of wetlands vegetation such as lily pads.
Also during the meeting, the commission decided to send a letter to the Sippican Lands Trust fulfilling the SLT’s request to substitute black locust wood with pressure treated lumber for a boardwalk conditioned to be built at the Osprey March property on Point Road. The letter will order the SLT not to allow the lumber to be sawed at the site to avoid potentially toxic sawdust from polluting the wetlands.
The commission will also send a letter to the owners of 99-100 Moorings Road advising them that siltation fence is still noncompliant with the commission’s order to replace it and must be rectified immediately, possibly with straw wattles as an alternative to plastic siltation fencing.
In other matters, the commission issued an order of conditions for a Notice of Intent filed by JCV Investments, LLC, to remove existing septic and cesspool and replace them with a sewer pump and force main near wetlands at 534D Point Road.
The commission issued a certificate of compliance requested by Francis Perry, Jr. at 25 East Avenue for an order of conditions from 1980 for a masonry retaining wall.
The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for June 26 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Music Hall.
Marion Conservation Commission
By Jean Perry