In a river-monitoring data review that Tata & Howard engineer Jon Gregory provided the Mattapoisett River Valley Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee on Tuesday, a slide presentation illustrated that the 2022 drought, combined with high pumping time, had lasting effects on area water supply for six to eight weeks.

            It wasn’t until September when local rainfall finally picked up.

            Gregory displayed graphs showing that one of the two wells south of the Mattapoisett Water Treatment Plant stayed at the 25% level through the drought while the other well did not. In comparison to groundwater levels in the fall of 2020, there was a similar drought with similar reaction. In October 2021, unusually high rainfall affected the groundwater level. Gregory said the FY23 Annual Report is almost ready to get out to the committee members.

            MRV member David Pierce noted that Marion has a summer restriction on water usage, while member John Furtado said that member town Fairhaven held a voluntary ban. “We did okay, considering we didn’t get a lot of rain,” said member John Furtado.

            Vinnie Furtado, John’s brother and chairman of the MRV commission and committee, said that Fairhaven typically starts with a voluntary ban.

            The MRV is almost at the end of a flushing program that has been adding 250 to 350 hundred gallons to district usage. John Furtado estimates that the flushing will end in mid-August.

            Member Nick Nicholson asked Gregory about Well Number 1; the answer is that it came back to proper levels.

            Pierce asked if the recovery can be traced to seasonal visitors leaving the area and usage going down as a result. Gregory answered in the affirmative, noting that in mid-to-late September usage trails off. That and the increase of rainfall, he said, contributed to less pumping at the Water Treatment Plant.

            Customarily meeting 30 minutes before the MRV Water District Commission, the heavily overlapped Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee also heard from Gregory that he plans to go out with David Watling next week and download data and inspect level loggers.

            There are still a couple of original level loggers, maybe three or four, according to Gregory, who is close to swapping them all out for new ones. He said they are supposed to have a 10-year life.

            In his Treasurer’s Report to the committee, Mark Furtado reported $62.48 in interest from Rockland Trust, along with two months’ worth of paid invoices including for May: Watling $251.72, Blair Bailey $50, and Tata & Howard $2,684.78 for an ending balance of $149,399.30. For June, Watling $251.72, Bailey $50, and Tata & Howard $3,493.02. An encumbered $150,000 was taken out and left out for an ending balance of $145,667.05.

            Jeff Furtado told the committee he does not yet have a year-ending balance. When he receives notice of Rockland Trust interest for May and June, then the committee can close out FY23.

            In Renauld’s absence, the committee voted to authorize Vinnie and Jeff Furtado to sign invoices for this month so the committee can make its payments.

            Vinnie Furtado gained approval to pay the following invoices: Bailey $50, Tata & Howard $5,261.50, Watling $251.72, and for Meagan McCarthy’s graph work over two months (17 hours) $578.

            The Annual Calendar and assessment letters to member-town water officials will be addressed at the committee’s next meeting.

            The insurance overview that Vinnie Furtado was to give the commission will be on next month’s meeting agenda.

            During the District Water Commission meeting that immediately followed, Vinnie Furtado told the commissioners he had in his possession signed invoices including individual amounts of $6,300, $4,285 and $5,000. The commission voted to approve paying the invoices as signed by Water Treatment Plant Manager Henri Renauld, who could not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

            Marion representative Meghan Davis reported that she has received information that as a result of PFAS litigation, the MRV can participate in a nationwide Pollution Remedial Expenses case by registering for the cost-recovery program without any cost to participate.

            The ensuing discussion yielded no defects in Marion or Rochester. Davis said that Marion conducted sampling last year. The next round of sampling comes up later this month. No details on a timeline for recoveries were available; Davis will keep the commission up to date.

            Vinnie Furtado reported having met with Brian Murphy of HUB regarding Water Treatment Plant insurance and went over the imminent facility upgrade. He said HUB may wish to increase the premium. An invoice has been received on the new fiscal year.

            The commission approved a $21,000 amendment to the Engineering Agreement for the Water Treatment Plant Upgrade per out-of-scope work that Gregory reported, primarily in working with the emergency SRF funding, getting submittals to MassDEP, preparing the application, satisfying water requirements and related procurement matters.

            In his Water Treatment Plant Project Update, Gregory reported that procurement docs are currently out to bid. Tata & Howard is presently working through an addendum for exceptions and questions. Originally scheduled for July 12, the bid is opening scheduled for Wednesday, July 19, at 1:00 pm. Gregory said Tata & Howard is also working on the permitting piece.

            In his Tata & Howard Report, Gregory said the FY24 Water Treatment Plant chemical bid process yielded responses regarding citric acid and sodium hydroxide, but no bids were received for liquid oxygen or propane. Renauld will proceed with the awards.

            Pierce asked what happens if there are no bids. Gregory said it would become a negotiation with the vendor.

            The next meetings of the MRV Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee/District Commission are scheduled for Tuesday, August 8, at 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm, respectively.

MRV Water District Commission/Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee

By Mick Colageo

            Susan Miller brought an idea to the Marion Affordable Housing Trust on Tuesday night, and Terri Santos may have identified the missing link to make it work.

            During the public meeting held at the Police Station, the two AHT members expressed interest in a collaboration that would put free rain barrels in the hands of financially stressed Marion homeowners. They could use the water in their gardens and yards.

            Miller told the AHT that she contacted the Town of Mattapoisett, which had participated in Great American Rain Barrel project. Marion was late to that party, but Miller recommended meeting with the Marion Conservation Commission in February offering the program to the town. She said Mattapoisett distributed between 30 and 60 rain-catching barrels.

            In the meeting packet distributed on Tuesday were display advertisements from two big-box stores in neighboring Wareham. They featured different barrel designs and options with a price range from below $50 (collapse-able) to over $130.

            Imagining a process in which the AHT would contact residents and give them choices followed by their selections, Miller would go to one of the stores and place an order.

            Miller considered Community Preservation Act funding via the town’s Community Preservation Committee, but Santos said that cannot happen this year. She did, however, note that the AHT has approximately $8,000 in a cash account that could become a funding source for the barrels. She said such a program would necessarily be opened to everyone in town, and the AHT would not be allowed to confine availability to low-income housing.

            Miller said representatives of the Great American Rain Barrel program are willing to participate in a Zoom call.

            “If we’re using our own money, it doesn’t have to be deed restricted,” said Santos, noting that the CPC money would require research.

            AHT member Toby Ast suspects that projects qualifying for CPA funding are permanently fixed to the ground. He said he will look to confirm the rules with CPC Chairman Jeff Doubrava.

            “The real problem is getting the water into the rain barrel,” said AHT member Norm Hills, who has a rain barrel and said they are a challenge to operate.

            An update on this topic will be included on the AHT’s next meeting agenda.

            The other agenda item drawing substantial discussion is the AHT’s desire to revise the town’s bylaw on Accessory Apartments.

            As someone who has spent much of the last several years examining Marion’s bylaws, Hills recommended sifting out items that are addressed in other bylaws under different definitions.

            “They all need to be put together. They’ve all been added over years and they don’t work together,” said Hills, the chair of Marion’s Bylaw Codification Committee. He noted that any bylaw change must go through Town Counsel. “There’s always a legal aspect that may not be anything we talked about.”

            Hills described the problem with bylaw amendments as “boobytraps that have been there for years. … We need to make sure that the bylaws are enforceable by the Building commissioner (Bob Grillo.)”

            Hills said he will dig into the Accessory Apartment Bylaw and will propose an edit based on feedback from the AHT members.

            Santos would like to set a time to meet with Grillo and hopes to bring the bylaw to Fall Town Meeting.

            In other action, the members voted to recommend that the Select Board appoint Eileen Marum to the AHT.

            Hills will also field comments from members and propose an update to Santos’ first draft of a letter to former Select Board member and Water/Sewer commissioner John Waterman, who wrote the Planning Board to recommend that Marion scrap its Affordable/Inclusionary Housing Bylaw.

            The next meeting of the Marion Affordable Housing Trust is scheduled for Tuesday, August 15, at 6:00 pm.

Marion Affordable Housing Trust

By Mick Colageo

            After engineer David Davignon of Schneider, Davignon & Leone, Inc., went through a list of changes previously requested by the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission for a Notice of Intent filing for proposed work at 89 Mattapoisett Neck Road, it was determined during Monday night’s public meeting that the case would be continued.

            It was noted that the town’s contract agent, Brandon Faneuf, had not had an opportunity to make a site visit, a necessary site review to ensure plans met requirements for the construction of a wharf over wetlands.

            The property is owned by A. Mueller Trust Declaration. The proposed pier would give the residents access to water from which a small boat with shallow draft could be launched. Details include 74 feet of fixed structure with an additional 28 feet for the gangway and float. Plans indicate the use of pressure-treated pilings, and that presented a problem for the commission’s newest member, David Nicolosi.

            When first presented to the commission during the June 26 meeting, Nicolosi broached the subject, saying he wasn’t in favor of pressure-treated lumber being used because the chemicals would eventually leach into the water. On this night, he revisited that concern.

            “It’s a pristine area,” said Nicolosi, referring to the shoreline and marine area. He said if the area were a marina or other seaside location already closed to shell fishing, his opinion might be different. He said there are environmentally safe materials that in his opinion, should be used. Commissioner Barry Lima agreed.

            Chairman Mike King turned to Davignon, who said he would discuss the matter with his client before returning for further review. The filing was continued to the commission’s July 24 meeting.

            Also continued until that date was a NOI filed by the Crescent Beach Improvement Association. Also represented the client on this application, Davignon said the organization was seeking permission to widen several beach-access streets composed primarily of bordering beach grass and sand, as well as perform some beach nourishment and seaweed removal.

            Davignon said the goal was to maintain the beach for area residents and provide improved emergency access to what amounted to pathways to the beach.

            Lima said, if approved, the activity should be conditioned so that maintenance equipment not be stored on the beach and that refueling not take place on the beach. The filing was continued to July 24 to allow for commissioners to make a site visit and review proposed staking of vegetated areas. Further comments from the Department of Environmental Protection are pending.

            A NOI filed by Caroline’s Way Trust, 1 Goodspeed Island Road, was conditioned for the repair of storm-damaged slope and organic seawall. There were no comments from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Davignon reported, as he represented this applicant as well. The project was approved with additional conditions of washed cobble stones, sand analysis to be performed, no machinery storage on the beach and no refueling on the beach.

            Also conditioned was a NOI filed by Andris Rieksts and Lisa Francis, 0 Park Place, for the construction of a single-family home.

            A Certificate of Compliance intended for Daniel Lee III and Tracey Lee, 42 Church Street, was considered invalid as work never commenced. This clears the way for the selling of the home.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission is scheduled for Monday, July 24, at 6:30 pm.

Mattapoisett Conservation Commission

By Marilou Newell