Lakes and Waterways Commission

RECEIVED By City Clerk at 8:34 am, 3/10/22 City of Amesbury Lakes and Waterways Commission Meeting Minutes for January 20, 2021 7:00 PM Location: Virtual Zoom Meeting Attendees: Tom Murphy-Acting Chair, Meghan O’Neill, Kate Mallory, Tom Volper, Art O’Dea, Cindy Roberts, Bernadette Peters, Jim Babbin- Conservation Committee, Peter Manor- Engineer, DPW, Jon Higgins- Higgins Environmental Associates, Veronica Wolfe- Lake Attitash Association, Roger Roberts- Lake Attitash Association, Ann Marie Casey – Mayor’s Chief of Staff. Ron Klodenski- past Lake Attitash Association member. Tracey Chalifour- Amesbury resident. Completing Minutes: Meghan O’Neill, Secretary I. Administrative Business A. Call to Order - This meeting is being conducted under the Act Extending Certain COVID-19 Measures Adopted During the State of Emergency, signed into law on June 16, 2021, by Governor Baker. Public access to participate has been made available. Dereck Salisbury- Lake Attitash. - Tom called meeting to order at 7:05 PM. B. Review of Past Minutes (November) - No edits or updates to minutes. Cindy motioned to accept, Art seconded, all in favor. C. Additional individuals participating - Ann Marie Casey, Mayor’s Gove’s chief of staff joined to introduce herself and listen to understand committee better. - Members from the Lake Attitash Association joined to listen to Jon Higgin’s presentation. - Community member Tracey Chalifour joined to ask a dock approval question. II. Engineer’s update A. Engineer’s Report - All waterbodies increased due to 2” rainfall past weekend. No concerns at this time with water levels. - Lake Gardner beach project is still with Con Comm at this point and no updates. - Questions about beaver dam impact on water flow; unable to mitigate this challenge. Kate had a DEP call about beaver containment and management as humane option to relocate them. Have used this in the past and has not been successful. Dam causing water to fill in wetlands which is there to absorb additional water. - Group would like to add beaver dams as a future discussion topic to increase education about movement criteria and water impact. B. Jon Higgins Presentation: Experimental Cyanobacteria Removal Process - Jon Higgins presented on an experimental technology he created to identify and remove cyanobacteria. He has received a national science grant to work in Massachusetts waterbodies. 1 January 20, 2022  - Looking for field locations to complete research. Jon reached out to mayor about waterbodies in Amesbury and would like committee to support his work in community. - He spoke about his A-pod technology; would like to focus on Amesbury with so many different waterbodies. Spoke about technology floating in the water while he supervises. Assessment occurs same day. Cindy spoke about concerns about technology being hit by boat or swimmers and the liability issues. Cindy asked that DPW be included in this process moving forward. - Discussion about profiling and assessment of waterways. Target and remove cyanobacteria by removing carbon which allows it to break down. - Discussion about best locations to launch this technology and focusing on areas where blooms have been present previously. It does not disturb sediment. - Lake Gardner might be better as there is less boat traffic, you can kayak, canoe or swim into it and there is no harm to the technology. Peter shared that this might be a challenging location because water turnover is significant and there have not been many issues in past with bacteria. An additional option would be a longer-term field station versus day study/assessment for Lake Gardner as well. - Peter recommends Clarks, Park and Patten Ponds since the water is stagnant. - Mayor has asked us to respond to Jon with a letter of support. - Art motions to support this, Meghan seconded. All in favor from L&WW. - Tom and Cindy will draft a letter and try and get this to the mayor by end of next week. IV. Harbormaster Update - No updates on harbormaster plan. - Tracey Chalifour, Amesbury resident, joined to inquire about dock approvals on the Merrimack River and used chat function. V. Conservation Commission Activity - Jim provided an update on current Con Comm business: 445 Main Street- Enforcement or- der, lengthy discussion and will be a site visit for applicant. concerns around work being done on properties on the Merrimack River, Amesbury Housing Authority to replace side- walks and drainage repair within river front area. - How’s my waterway, webinar about waterways from EPA. Program they have developed that identifies all waterbodies, testing, watershed information. Jim added a link in the chat for those to view EPA - https://mywaterway.epa.gov this could be a really valuable re- source for the committee. Jim will post the recording and send it out once available. - Entrance to new school construction, question about ensuring waddles to protect wetlands for sidewalk project now displaced. Concerns about sediment transport. Pete is aware of this and will have these removed and cleaned up. VI. Current Business A. Membership - Offer of chair position to group. No one interested at this time. - Ann Marie sent 2 membership requests to review. Also need to get feedback on promoting current associate member. Tom M. to reach out to Ann Marie. B. Waterbody Assessment Matrix - Need to check in with Matt about completing the Powow as this is the outstanding item waterbody on the matrix. 2 January 20, 2022  - Tom reminded the group to keep working on the waterbody assessment matrix so we can generate a recommendation. Should have statements for each of the waterbodies so we can generate a statement across all. C. Fertilizer Update - Cindy provided an update on her efforts to mitigate fertilizer usage near Lake Attitash and other Amesbury waterbodies. - There is no current repository of all fertilizer companies operating in state. It is the responsibility of the companies to be aware of these restrictions. - Drafting letter to companies reminding them of laws, specifically about soil testing to prevent unnecessary spread of phosphorus. Would like to bring this before Con Comm to get approval to send out in Amesbury & Merrimac. - Additionally, people within 100 feet of waterbodies need to be informed. Cindy is getting a list from city clerk and working on content for doorhandle fliers and social media as well to get message out for residents. VII. New Business B. EPA Training (with Open Space Committee) on Wetlands Act - Settled on a date and 3-4 members from L&WW will be attending. Also, a PowerPoint will be sent out as well. Jim would like Tom to send this information so he can look at attending. VII. Additional Items - Bernadette asked about how may catch basins drain into Lake Gardner. Pete to look this up and send information. VIII. Meeting Adjourned - Cindy moved to adjourn, and Meghan seconded – 8:55. Next meeting: February 24th, 2022- Remote 3 January 20, 2022