BIS-DOI-7174385
Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission Meeting
07-01-2024
1.00 PM - 4.00 PM (ET))
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12:55 PM (ET)

>>:  Recording in progress.
>>:  I would ask for a motion to go for the minutes--
[ Overlapping speakers ]
David, Susan?; and all those in favor, signified by saying aye.
>>:  Aye.
>>:  Having no other business immediately before us, — you know before we start, let me go around with one more round of introductions.  I know a lot of us know each other, but sometimes people have joined us from the public, and it would be good to do the interactions and which town you live in.  So I am doing, and I am representing the secretary of the Department of Interior, and I am the chair of this organization.  Mark,
>>:  Mark Robinson, representing Governor Deeley of the Commonwealth and I also serve as the Executive Director of the preservation trust, and I have a handout if anybody would like it.
>>:  Alternate salesman.
>>:  Susan Areson, the chair.
>>:  Lili-Ann Green, representing Wellfleet and I'm also the assembly delegate and there are a couple of handouts here if anybody wants them.
>>:  Sheila Lyons.  Representing the Bonds dual County commissioners.
>>:  Go and — Joanna Stevens, I'm the alternate.  Dave is here.
>>:  Mary-Jo Avellar, guide and the town moderator.
>>:  And we will get to the superintendent in just a minute.  I think for just a minute, yes?  Leslie, would you like to introduce yourself?
>>:  Is it time?
>>:  Thank you.  This is Thomas Dougherty.  I represent Chatham.
>>:  Okay.  Leslie?
>>:  Hi!  Leslie Jonas representing Governor Healey.  Also from the tribal liaison.  I represent the Rapids institution.
>>:  Thank you, Tom, thank you, Leslie.  Thank you all.
>>:  And my alternate, Charlie, Charels Carlson is here.
>>:  Let's give the alternate a chance as well.
>>:  (?) alternate to the chair.
>>:  David Crary.
>>:  Okay, good.  The introductions are done.  We are glad you're here.  Let's start with the superintendent report.
>>:  I have the matters of business before we start.  For those folks that are remote, if your remote and a member of the public, you have been muted in your camera turned off until we get to the public comment period.  But if you do want to make a public comment, please raise your hand in the Chatham our moderators will see you and in the order later that your hand is raised, we will call on human we get to the public comment period.  Okay.  You cannot talk until the end.
And then I — is my great pleasure to serve as a superintendent for the Cape Cod National Seashore.  And I am in this capacity for this meeting, I am this Designated Federal Officer for the Cape Cod National Seashore's commission.  The Commission talks to the secretary.  I am the secretary, the designee for the purposes of this meeting, and I want to remind you all of my role versus Richard's role as we launch again since it is only our second meeting.  I approved and called all commission subcommittee meetings.
So that is sitting out the Federal Register notice.  Making sure we get the Public Notice for those meetings, and I worked with Richard to prepare the agendas, and I participate in all meetings.  I join any meeting when adjournment is in the public interest.  So for the public comment period or any of our conversations, if they get heated or unprofessional, my job is to stay strong and in the last job is that Rich and Heather, if they are not able, I can share in Richard's absence.
As we are working out this dance together, it is my goal to review what my role is versus Richard's role and obviously, as a secretary is to receive advice from you all about matters related to the development of the Seashore.
So today, Cheryl, can you pull or Adam, can you pull up my slide please?  And Tom, if you can give us a visual thumbs up if you can see them to make sure the folks remote can see my slide.  Or Leslie, I see both, both of your faces.  Are we good, Adam?
>>:  Not yet.
>>:  Can everyone see the slides online?
>>:  No.  Unfortunately not.  We see part of it and from a distance.  The camera shows it from a distance.
>>:  This screen might help.
>>:  There we go.  Perfect.
>>:  Great.  And you can advance, Adam, to the second slide please.
So since we are meeting once a month for these next few months, I am not going to go over the level of detail I did at the first meeting about everything that is going on in the park, the budget, staffing, what I want to do this week is take the view of the topics out that I heard emerge from the public comment period or things that have come up since our first meeting, but I thought they would be of interest to the members, and then honestly today our big topic of conversation is going to be freshwater here on the Outer Banks and I will not talk about that until the superintendent update.  But I did want to talk about the topics in this is where we are with operations.  Go ahead, Adam?  Things are growing and going well.  
All — all six of our public beaches are open.  We have the public bathrooms and showers that are open.  So far, things have been, we have had some beautiful weather last weekend and of course it was a little, not perfect, but it has been so far, so good.  Things are going well.  We have the three trams running from Will Creek, so we are up and running.  Of the 113 seasonal positions we had funded, we had 102 filled.  And so we had pretty good luck getting our seasonal positions on.  102 seasonal employees are getting to be in our little less than 60 permanent staff.  
We have the met race point, and the booths were replaced early, late spring, and they now have air conditioning.  We do have a heat safety SOP with the step, and if the heat index gets too high, we pull our people out of the field and out of the fee booths.
Now we do have three beaches with air-conditioned booths, and we still will continue to cycle out the old ones and replace them with new booths.  
And the Marconi Stairs were replaced this spring.  They are lovely and open for Memorial Day and so full access is restored.  We have a huge park sign installation process project, and I did talk about that in our first meeting, and we are about halfway through now and what I would ask you to help us with is again over 1000 signs, and the project began in 2009.  There are things that have changed since the project started.  And so as you hear from constituents, as you hear from visitors or presidents that have concerns about some of the sign, get that back to Leslie Reynolds and I.  
We are compiling it and was the contract is finished in the ball, we cannot stop mid-contract.  We have a legal contract that has been issued.  But we will go through all the comments and see some of the signs need to be adjusted.  So I think the highway signs look great.  That was done with Matthew and their contractor, and they are highly reflective and look great at night.  I think largely it is a huge improvement.  But there are a couple of outliers they need to address.
The programming is ongoing.  Tuesday evenings at Salt Ponds, the friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore, they physically sponsor and help us host evening programs here at Salt Ponds and on Wednesday at Herring Cove.  And again, once again Cape Cod National Seashore and our groups have evening concerts at Herring Cove.  Every Tuesday and every Wednesday they are free events.  We encourage you to help us spread the word about that.
And then the last park update, park operations update is for the Highland Links Golf Course.  That is one of our two concessions, and that proposal period ends July 5th.  Anyone who wanted to bid on that business opportunity has until July 5th to do so.  And once it closes, the team from our Regional Office will evaluate all of the proposals and a new concession contract will be awarded, hopefully sometime this fall, early winter.  People can still go.  The current contract is in place until the end of this calendar year.  I think we talked about that, right?  At the end of the calendar year.  The golf course is open.  Yes, ma'am.  Please go play golf.
>>:  Thank you.  So thank you for recognizing me.  I have a question as far as the positions built.  How are we doing on lifeguards?
>>:  Of the 113, not the 11 vacancies, summer lifeguards, I will say what is full.  All of our interpretive staff is full and all of the maintenance of positions at work were full and in the other programs there is this gathering of vacancies.  All of our short-term positions were filled.  Knife — lifeguards are there,
>>:  Thank you.
>>:  Other topics epic for today because I chose them because they came up and public comment period, and they were brought up.  And I just want to not assume information.  I wanted to give all of the members sort of the same baseline of a few of these topics.  The first topic I wanted to provide some updates on was the dune shacks, these are in the town.  There are 19 dune shacks, 18, which is the US governments, one, which is all of us, the publics, one is privately held.
And so I thought it would be good again just for all the members to understand where they are situated and then if you could go to the next slide, please, Adam?
This is an update of this.  What the statuses of each of those shacks in terms of its occupancy, what legal instrument is currently in place for that shack to be occupied and when those expire.
In terms of table settings, the historic district was first not determined to be eligible to be on the National Register in 1989.  It was not nominated until 2011.  But it was formally listed as of March of 2012.  And if you haven't worked with historic properties, what it means to me as a mentor is that I have a legal obligation to protect these structures.  And so the national historic district requires that we, as the entity who owns these, who was responsible for them, have to actively work to preserve these. 
The Cape Cod Advisory Commission in 2010 made recommendations to the park superintendent in a report from the Dune Shacks subcommittee entitled the 'Preservation and Use Plan, Environmental Assessment for the Dune Shacks of the Peaked Hill Historic District.' Now this report was used as the foundation for the 2011 Dune Shacks environmental assessment.  That is what the government laid out in a public process the alternatives for managing these Dune Shacks.  And that was codified by a finding of no significant impact being released in May 2012.
So that EA and the funding or the pools that we use in administering this special area so you will see on this table that there is a mix of nonprofit folks who manage the Dune Shacks, and private individuals.  There was seven opportunities that were released last year, and I will get to that in just a second on the next slide.
And those are all of those private individuals now have the leases that go through 2033.  So those are brand-new leases.  You will also notice in the column to the far right that many of those terms are about to expire.  So our leasing office is actively working to establish leases with the nonprofit organizations, and unlike the private individuals, we do not have to competitively bid a lease with a nonprofit organization.  The nonprofits that we have been working with for very long time in this space have been approached directly by us to begin this lease negotiation process.  
There are a few more that are still being held, occupied by private individuals, and those will also move to a lease when we can.  As you saw with the last series of leases, it takes some time and so our priority right now is to work on the nonprofits and then those remaining private individual leases.
Go ahead, Adam, and everyone will have copies of the slide.
One of the topics that has been brought up that I thought would be good to share with the whole commission is the leasing criteria that was established in the EA, the environmental assessment from 2011 said that the National Park Service would consider these six elements when issuing a lease.  Experience or history or involvement with the historic district.  Association with the values and traditions that contribute to the shack’s history and the cultural significance of the historic district, a commitment to participate in public access opportunities.  A desire and commitment to protect and promote the values and significance of the historic district and the continuation of the tradition and cultural identity.  A capacity to perform maintenance.  And availability and intent to use the shack.
That pools from the 202011 EA, which again was codified by the FONSI being signed in 2012.  Go ahead, Adam.
These criteria are what was actually published in the leasing opportunity.  The request for proposals that was solicited to the public.  Experience, improvement, and maintenance, how folks were going to use the property, what environmental enhancements they plan to make, and the last two are required by federal law, which is their financial capacity of the offer to make the investments they say they are going to make.
And then how much rent they are offering for the use of this government building.  One more time, Adam.  So I spent some time — Adam, I don't know if you can move the box to the top corner or something?  Thanks.
So I spent some time just cross walking them.  And so the experience that was identified in the EA was identified in the RFP, the capacity to perform the work is also reflected there.  The intended use of the property is reflected there.  The commitment to  protect the values and promote the  significance — I think it is there — and the only thing not captured by the RP was the commitment to participate in public access opportunities, and that will be reflected in the leases that go to our nonprofit partners because that is part of their mission.
I also just want to offer, as I've been doing some reading and thinking about this, we have a lot on our park website.  On the very person page if you go to NPS.gov, Cape Cod National Seashore, there is a box, an article you can click that is just about the Dune Shacks.
And then there's also another section under our park planning tab that has all of these documents, all of the parent documents that I referred to are there.
If you are interested in you want to learn more and you want to reread some of these commitments that we have made, those are all available to you on our park website.  The links that I am showing you today won't work when I post the PowerPoint.  But Cheryl is going to extract them all and email them to The Commission after this meeting.  You will get an email that is a whole series of links, but it is the ones we are pulling out of here because they will be dead links once we make it a PDF.
Right.  Thank you.  The second topic I wanted to provide some information on today was a request that we have gotten from the state, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to stock the quail within the Seashore.  Folks are probably aware that the state sometimes has stocking pheasant, predating the park, has stopped the pheasant within the Seashore specifically and locally and that stocking came to an end last year.  And  2007, there was litigation around the process, and the environmental impact study that was done to evaluate it required that the practice be phased out in last year was the last year.
The state approached me and asked if they could do it again.
And while seashore enabling legislation permits hunting, which we 100% support and will continue to enable legally within the Seashore, it does not allow me to allow stocking.  Can you go to the next slide, Adam?  When I look at a request, I look at what does the federal law say on the topic, what are the regulations, what are the policies?  And then I figure out if I have discretion or not.
On this matter, have two factors that tell me if I had discretion or the authority to allow this activity.  First, there is a Park Service regulation that forbids third parties from introducing wildlife.  The second is the National Park Service management policies are that we don't engage in stocking the plants or animals only to increase harvest.  We don't permit stocking only to allow it to be taken.
While this is not within my discretion to unilaterally approve, there is a path, which would be we would need to engage the National Environmental Policy Act in a formal, public way, and evaluate whether or not this is something we want the secretary to consider waiving these policies for.  I have communicated that to the state of Massachusetts and waiting for the state to get back to us on whether or not they want to follow this path.  I heard from a good number of citizens, and I thought the Commission should be aware that this is percolating in the background pic right now the status is we are waiting to hear back from the state and see if they want to launch it to this more complicated public process.
We don't have it in the budget, and it is not in our work plan right now and really, we need the state to lead if this is something that they want to pursue.
We are in a holding posture for this right now, but I thought the Commission should be aware that it is occurring.
Do you want to do questions?
>>:  Yes.  Commissioner Lewis do that.  Mark?
>>:  Some faulty memory, but the wild turkeys that were reintroduced to the Cape came from New York State.  I think some were released on the Massachusetts military reservation, but I think there were some introduced out this way.  If somebody remembers that?
>>:  Dave does.
>>:  I remember the Park Service saying that you would have to do the EA or the EIS and the state released a boatload of turkeys next to the Seashore boundary, within the Seashore boundary.  And the rest is history.
[ Laughter ]
>>:  Thank you, Dave.
>>:  The beans have been spilled.  Thank you, Dave.
>>:  Okay, then the last topic for the update today really is not my topic.  It is the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, but I thought this group should have visibility on it.
So the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is a sister to the National Park Service and part of the Department of Interior.  The Secretary of Interior has made alternative energy a priority as has President Biden.  And so it is actively pursuing wind energy, offshore wind energy throughout the eastern seaboard are.  The National Park Service has been engaged and commented on other wind energy projects starting down in Maryland.  They were at the top of New York, but now they made it to the Gulf of Maine.  First and foremost, I want to emphasize this is a BOEM project, not a National Park Service project.
Where I understand we are in the project is that BOEM first identified areas to be leased, reflected on this map in the green areas are the proposed lease areas.  They work with agencies to define, refine those areas.  That is how the National Park Service has engaged in refining those areas.  They will then hold auctions for those business opportunities.  And the bidders would be required to submit site plan and construction operational plans, and the Gulf of Maine currently is in the planning and analysis phase.  So Adam, can you advance to the next slide please?
BOEM shared this slide with the National Park Service the points out where they are in the process.  So it is a very complicated process with many concurrent things happening.  So where we are now is the proposed sale noticed in the proposed sale notice is commenting, and that ends today.  And they also have two other open comment periods right now that end on July 22nd.  This is where we are.  There are still lots of steps left and lots of opportunities for public comment and engagement.  But that is where we are.
One second, Lilly, I just have two more slides I think on this topic.  Can you remind me what I have next, Adam?  Okay, the Park Service has engaged as part of their NEPA process.  We did submit a letter last Friday for the proposed sales notice, and I will talk and just a second about the general comments that we had.
And then we are also actively working to respond to this current open EA, which again closes on July 22nd.
The areas of concern that we have identified are primarily about area 0567.  Adam, sorry to ask you, can you bounce back two more?
0567 is the dot closest to our Cape.  And we are concerned about the impacts from that location.  It is 27 miles off the coast and those of us that it stood on the bay side on a clear day looking across the bay at Plymouth or maybe down to the mid-Cape, 26 miles is not that far for visibility.
We also have raised concerns around our fundamental resources, things like the estuary and salt marshes, the nearshore marine resources, the night sky, the sound scapes.
We have historic resources that we are also concerned about.  We have the Highlands Historic District.  I already mentioned the Dune Shacks on the Peaked Hill Bars district as well as the archaeological sites and the Heritage Hills sites.  We are concerned about the view shed impacts and back to our public beaches and finally, we have raised concerns about the Cape Cod Ocean Sanctuary. 
The Cape Cod Ocean Sanctuary is a Massachusetts ocean sanctuary established by the Massachusetts ocean sanctuary at.  And it when — was one of five sanctuaries established in the state waters.
That At specifically prohibits any activity, use, facility associated with the generation, transmission, distribution of electric power and all of those things shall be prohibited in the Cape Cod Ocean Sanctuary.  Those of the concerns we have raised.  I know that there's been some email traffic about this Advisory Commission topic.
What I would suggest is that we stay focused on the freshwater topic we have prepared for that has been in the federal register.  But that this is a good opportunity to again raise awareness and engagement on this topic through the organizations that you represent, and I do have a handout from BOEM that I printed off their website that talks about the process, and that is why I have this with where we are.  I brought a copy for each of you also to take away with you to share with your own board or whoever else you represent.
And I think, Adam, that is the end of my presentation.  Can you just see please?  There is a bunch, again these are links that will come in the email.  BOEM has a ton of information and a whole section on their website just about how offshore wind, how the process works, and there is another section just about this project.  We will send you all of these links.
And then the federal register notice that is out right now has two public meetings coming up, virtual meetings on July 8th and July 10th they are open to anybody to join.  And those comments again are due on July 22nd.
>>:  Thank you.  That is a comprehensive refresher on the leasing process, and the Dune Shacks.  I always have been wondering about this for long time and I think it really has resolved itself nicely.  Thank you for all the input that you heard from us and others.  And I know this last topic with BOEM is important.  I was happy to hear the list of concerns that you, the National Park Service, commented on.  
If we had gone around the room, I think all of those would've been raised by one of our members or another.  The view of the shed, it is ours as well.  And I know — will have a chance to see those comments in detail at some point?
>>:  I heard you and to the finer point, I filed a letter.  Because it corresponds with BOEM in the Park Service, it is publicly available.  But I cannot hand it out.  But if you file a FOIA, the Regional Office will process it through the foyer process.  It came from the Region, not our letter.
>>:  Okay.  You have contributed to the larger Park Service comments?
>>:  Yes, sir.
>>:  Are those going to be public documents?
>>:  It is not a secret document, but it will not be published.
>>:  So…
>>:  That is what I understand with the intent.
>>:  If we went to the BOEM website, should we be able to see all the comments, that we received from everybody?  Typically?
>>:  Typically that is the process.
>>:  So maybe if I can come back and ask you to give us a little bit more detail on some of the words.  I know you just said you cannot give us the language, but we might need a little bit more.  So I will go over now to some folks who have submitted some glitches.
>>:  I do.  Thank you very much Mr. Chairperson for recognizing me and thank you steak for recognizing this.  I did have a question.  I wanted to clarify for the Advisory Commission, the members, the public, so are you talking about comments about the Seashore and the National Park Service have submitted for this comment period?
>>:  Yes.  The National Park Service sent a letter on June 30th to meet the deadline from the Regional Office.  So our Regional Office commented on behalf of the National Park Service because this project is so broad.  It is more than one unit.  So Boston Harbor Islands, Arcadia, many park units are within the project area.  And so we have contributed feedback to the Region.  In the Region solidified one answer to BOEM.
>>:  And it would be helpful for us to see that letter and, especially on this date when it is July 1st and this is the last date for comment.  And I understand your situation, and I appreciate you sharing that with us.
You know could you put back up, Adam, the process, the timeline?  I am curious because the timeline clearly shows that this has been going on for quite a while.  And as I have shared with the chair, and I don't know if I clearly communicated with others, but it sounds like this has been going on since 2019, and we as elected officials, I mean, I was the assembly delegate.  And the assembly of delegates never has even been informed that we are task force members, been involved or informed about the meetings or about the ability to advise and consult with BOEM or a comment or form the public or engage in public communication and participation.
I mean this is very troubling.  And here we are down here at the proposed sale notice and all of this planning and analysis has been going on since 2019.  Has the Park Service been involved and informed and commented since 2019?  I don't know the answer to that.
>>:  Well, I wasn't here in 2019.
[ Laughter ]
>>:  I understand.
>>:  And we weren't either.
>>:  I know we did meet once.
>>:  So there was a void.
>>:  Yes.
>>:  Yes.  And Lili-Ann, I really cannot speak to BOEM's process.  That is why I was  intentional.  I'm not a conduit for BOEM.  The weight to be heard by BOEM is to comment to BOEM.
>>:  The reason why I am — I mean, with people in my community came to me and started talking about it, I tried to do as much research as I possibly could.  I mean I am not a researcher.  I'm not a scientist.  I'm doing my best.  And just as a citizen to go to this day-long task force meeting in Plymouth, not even in the right county, and it was May 31st.  And I listen to these day-long lectures.  And what I learned is it is not just this one lease area closest to the Seashore, and they said it was 23-24 miles, depending on who said it, you know that is what they said, but they also said that these turbines would be almost 1200 feet high, 1171 feet.
It took me a while to comprehend that.  But you know that is higher than the Hancock building in Boston.  I mean, that is 23 or 24 stories or higher.  So you know I asked the landscape architect who would done the visual photo simulation, I asked him about, not only these first three closest, but I asked him about this one, and this one.  Would the turbines be visible from Cape Cod National Seashore ocean beaches, and he said yes.  He measured.  It is not just the closest, but the turbines and the next two out that will be visible and did that not in if the red flashing lights, which BOEM said in a virtual meeting that they would have to be turned on for at least five years, and then they would evaluate it.
Typically, the red flashing lights that flash one hour before sunset, all night long, and one hour after sunrise.  And they said it was 1000 wind turbines.  And it sounded like it would be visible from Provincetown to Chatham day and overnight.  And so I was shocked by this.  And I am concerned that the Park Service is only concerned about that one area.  But I think the Organic Act, 1916 Organic Act, and also the foundation documents of this seashore talk about the view day and night.
>>:  Night sky is in there.
>>:  I think we really hear your point about the BOEM process is well taken.  They did not provide much information to anybody.  I would be surprised if any of the other towns knew about this.  I am not as involved as elected official, but I was not aware of this until very recently.  So number 1, the whole process was poor and limited.  I know, and the superintendent pointed out that there would be other comment periods when you go through the five steps.
But this would've been a critical one at the offset.  — onset.  And I appreciate that the Cape Cod National Seashore and the National Park Service made some of the comments.  And I understand and appreciate that it is hard for you to be open and detailed because of part of the inclusionary process.  But could you give us a flavor for the visual impact, the comments?  I know you cannot quote the language.  But how strong are they?  Do you know about the final?  I mean Lili-Ann has given us pretty potential impacts and hopefully, they were strong comments that came up from the Park Service as involved.
>>:  And truly, not to be argumentative, but folks should ask BOEM.  Again, this is not the first process we have been through as an agency, as a Park Service.  And I spoke to my superintendent colleague, and they were not allowed to proactively share their stuff either.  I encourage you to ask for it.  One second.  And to answer your question we have specifically requested that 0567 be removed from the sale and that the other areas be shifted so as not to be visible.
And the other thing that we talked a little bit about, again, I want to make sure we get to this.  But the other thing I would suggest that we as a community should be think about is where is it going to come ashore?  Somehow the energy has to get from DC ashore.  We also voiced concerns about where it on-shores is specifically around the Cape Cod oceans actuary.
>>:  Thank you.
>>:  Thank you for sharing that.  Thank you for the strong comments.  I think that satisfies a lot of concerns that we had.
>>:  So what I hear from the superintendent is that the FOIA request is needed to get the letter.  Anybody representing a town, unless they are a select board or town manager to have the town Council draft up a FOIA request.  It is not that hard.  Citizens can do it.  But certainly on behalf of the town, that could be a work task assigned to the town Council.
>>:  Thank you, Mark.  Cheryl?
>>:  If it would be helpful I can send you the link on how to request a FOIA.
>>:  Thank you.
>>:  Thank you.
>>:  I am just getting this detailed because of the superintendent directly reminded us as we do a lot of planning for the meeting, I think these are very appropriate comments the coming in the Cape Cod National Seashore.  Susan?
>>:  Thank you.  I just wanted to add one thing.  And I know that the association has requested an extension for the deadline, and the public comment meetings on Cape Cod.  I know our town manager and select board did the same thing last week.  They were seeking a 90 day extension.  I don't know if you will hear about it because it went out last Friday, but a number of other entities or ask-able, not only an extension, but a series of hearings on the Cape.
>>:  Good.  We have to move on.  Is there something new on this?
>>:  Yes.  I mean, so as the Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission and advising the Secretary of the interior through the superintendent as the agent, if we have concerns about this, it seems that we should be voicing that we have concerns, at least about the Dune Shacks for the ocean beaches and have this be something that we ask you to bring to the Secretary of the Interior.
>>:  And what I would have just offered is that the most effective way for you to be heard is to comment on BOEM's process.  You all can write a letter that I consent to the secretary, but it won't be part of the record.  The way, for, let's say, you support this.  Either way.  I'm not advocating.
What I am advocating for is if you have action or comments you want to be heard, submitted them to BOEM is how to be assured you are heard.  I do not have a formal role in this.  And you advising me on a course of action is not likely to have effect.  How you can have the greatest effect is to comment to BOEM.
>>:  Can I ask you just a follow-up question please?  So as the Advisory Commission members, I mean, given that circumstance, knowing that we are supposed to be advising the Secretary of the Interior, is it appropriate for us as Advisory Commission members to directly contact —
>>:  I don't think so.  You are supposed to advise me on the development of this seashore.  This is not the development of the Seashore.  It is developing the impact to the Seashore but not the Seashore.  Again, I appreciate this absolutely is of concern.  I don't think for this topic this is the right forum.
>>:  Thank you.
>>:  I agree with that.  The previous iteration of this commission that I served on frequently wrote letters, you signed them, rich, as chair from the Advisory Commission stating a position on things like you know Pilgrim cleanup and things like that.  They are not directly affecting the Seashore but affecting the Region.  And so it says, to me, that this falls in the same category.  This is what affects the Seashore.
>>:  I did not say it doesn't affect the Seashore, Mark.  I said this is not the current charge from the secretary.  And the secretary and Rich is going to kick me under the table, it sounds bureaucratic, but it is not the same charge.  This was narrowed when the committee was re-chartered.  And so again, I am truly not intending to be argumentative.  I want you to spend your time on things you care about passionately in the best way possible.  And on this matter, I think the most effective way is to comment directly to BOEM.
>>:  Okay, thank you.
>>:  Thank you very much.
>>:  When Lili went to the seminar, there was a lot of information before.  I need to know more facts and more information before I can be on any position to make a comment on it.  So we need to have somebody put it on an agenda.  You been very helpful to tell us and somebody who understands what is happening with heights and transmission lines and things like that.
>>:  Thank you.
>>:  Joanna?
>>:  We are supposed to be trying to get away from the use of fossil fuels.  And it seems to be the Department of Interior would be leading the charge in that.  We have a conflict between you know trying to save the environment by not using fossil fuels, and that we have this, which could be endangering the oceans, the species that live in the ocean.  We have a conflict here.  And I saw a sea of wind turbines when I was in another area several years ago, and they had no other way of using electricity for their island except through the wind turbines.  I personally did not find them inoffensive.  For me if it is a question of saving the environment or having a view shed, I am for saving the environment.
>>:  Yes.  Good.  Okay, well, if we had been in business for the previous year, and this came up, we would've had a chance to explore it and we would have offered, and I would've actually stretched the parameters a little bit so we could have some advice and comments.  And it sounds to me you have included a lot of what you heard on the comments on the view shed.  I think that is one of the penalties we have occurred.
>>:  First of all, I do want to get onto the topic at hand.  If you look at what people said, they did a lot of meetings in the Maine and New Hampshire area and areas directly affected by a landfall probably and if any of them had expressed what concerns would be here.  I think those concerns have been stated.  I am with Mary-Jo.  There is a balancing act and no good way out of this climate change.  Something will get hurt unfortunately, and we are already hurting it terribly.  I think where we are is where we are.  And I am happy to move onto the next topic of the agenda if we can.  I am not sure what time it is, but it is already 2:00.
>>:  Thank you.  I appreciate that.  So the next item --
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  And I did ask if each town would come prepared with two or three minutes on any updates that you have two share on water resource, supply, management, wastewater management.  We can set the stage from the two presentations.  And I view this as a unique opportunity.  We have all three levels of government at the table talking about the same issue with water resources.  I want to make sure we have the same voice in the county.  If you could have a brief two or three minutes.  Let me start on this side.  Any further comments?
>>:  They sent me a bunch of stuff.  We get our water from Truro engine one is very diligent to make sure we obey all the rules and regulations.  One thing Provincetown has done in the summer is the weather.  The more what are you in the summer, the more you will pay for.  The water superintendent said they were working to complete the service line.  It is due October 24.  Is required for the revised APA-led in copper rule.  And it is the lead connections with the water system.  They are commencing construction on the shank piña Water Road Maine.
And this includes the replacement of approximately 4000 water feet from 12 inches to the water main.  In the service connections and who knew that.  And the tank maintenance is scheduled for both the pipes that will include cleaning and painting and this will be done by 2024 or the spring of 2025 commencement and continuing staff level in discussions with Truro to develop the plan a strategy for future water demand including identified additional water supplies to serve the expansion efforts.  As far as the sewer is concerned, the vacuum, sewer modernization, the downtown sewer modernization replacer project, that is completed before the 2023 peak summer period added alarms are newer equipment to current structures.  
There were two sewer projects planned for the upcoming off-season period, inflow and infiltration management and redirecting the town with the pumps, everybody knew that was a nightmare, and the central service station upgrade.
And then coastal resiliency if a structure projects has been upgraded for the station and given high priority from the storm surge, and the sea level rise and climate storm surge and flooding.  The environmental department conducted a review in 2023 following the August 22 storm surge recommended this plan project should be a high priority implementation.
And then this basic work should complete the sewer systems to serve all the properties in the immediate areas.  The additional plant upgrade and treatment plant is scheduled to be done over the next two are starting this fall and the AE COM will approve the request for this before the work either the July 22nd or August 26 select board meeting permanent connection notices have been sent up and are committed to connect.  It is estimated 325 of 510 properties in the existing areas have some at 30% have indicated they would like to connect.
>>:  Just a couple of highlights, Mary-Jo.
>>:  There is a whole bunch more.
>>:  That is why we just wanted a couple.  I can see the piece of paper.
>>:  One thing the town did do is require that everybody get done so should they all decide to go to the sewer, you don't have to keep digging up the street.  Our street is a mess.  It is on-site you know so when you hook up, they just can go in — --
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  Okay.; it is the connection.
>>:  Okay.  Michael, what are some of the few things that stuck out is the increased water supply?  Like that could be an issue.  A fight.  Yes.  Joanna, David, do you want to talk about your highlights?
>>:  Sure.  I just have a summary.  We have town water.  And I don't know the statistics at all.  However, much of the seashore area with the residents within the Seashore is not covered within the town water system, and there is no plan for that.  But we are working on it.
>>:  Yes.
>>:  So there is the town water situation.
And then there is the sewer and the wastewater management, and we are in the first phase of planning, which involves this area here.  There are six zones I believe.  But there is plenty.  There is no facility development yet.  And again just for this committee, I would suggest there is enough town water in certain areas of the Seashore for the structure there.  This is my speculation.  
We probably won't have the sewer in the Seashore area either.  But the last, and this is where I had a bunch of comments from the street.  It is with all the, and I don't know the name of the organism, but the pond water quality and the closing of beaches, primarily freshwater beaches is a concern because it loses, this is not necessarily directly, but if it is all one aquifer, it is.  But the different ponds, those for swimming, and that recreational youth, that is a major impact for the town.  So in summary, the town water, the sewer, and then the open water pond recreation protection.
>>:  Great.  Anything else?  Great.
>>:  Well, if anybody has been driving through Orleans recently you know there is something going on because we cannot get anywhere.  Basically, we're trying to upgrade the sewage disposal!   There are three phases.  The first one is completed in the center of town and the sewage treatment plant is up and running.
Now if you try to drive down Main Street at different times it is bottlenecked and closed all.  They are very good about the way they do it.  They've been shutting it down at night so you can try to get by, and they try to not do it on the weekend.  Two, is basically the meeting about the pond area, and that is about 60% done.  Phase 3 is the Lakes and the ponds that is the off Monument Road area by Crystal Lake.  And the hope is they can start that around 2027.  They are moving ahead.
And I think they are making pretty good progress.  They have not totally paralyzed the town and the businesses.  They try to keep things open.  The last one eventually is going to be the estuary.  There will be a water permit process that they have to go through Orleans and the other town that will take a while with more studies before they get to it.  And when that is completed, when it is completed and worked out, hopefully one of the goals is that if the quality phasing takes place, what have to have subject grades, and they won't be required.  That is certainly what the town is trying to do to get the project done.  And the real thing is to try to clean up the ponds and everything else because there is a problem.
>>:  Great.  (?) National Park Service, and the shared resources.  Great.  Thanks.
>>:  I am not reporting on that--
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  Okay, I will be backed up by Heather.  We recognize that we have a freshwater problem.  So we gave $3 million to the Cape commission to do a pond study and how can we best rectify this.  That is in process and Heather will bring you up-to-date on where they are out there.  As far as the county liabilities, we have a pond, I cannot remove her the name of it, it is escaping me, but the pond where the fire Academy was on every years of fire training happened there with real-life foam.  It degraded the pond and really the well system for really the most working-class section of the course.  And we did that in conjunction with the airport.  
Unbeknownst to us obviously, but now we are looking at 60 main dollars cleanup and we've already put about $10 million toward that.  And we have a fund of remediation, a remediation fund started.  We hope to complete that in our obligation.  And we hope the state and federal government can also you know maybe; you know some obligation of their own.  If this is something — and the companies, I know it is ongoing litigation.  But how much litigation with the producers of these chemicals.  So whatever we will get out of debt settlement, that little, it will help, but it will not take care of everything.  So if there is something I am missing?  
Okay, as far as wastewater, we have our wastewater management, our septic system, our septic test treatment center where they are always working on alternative septic systems.  We are now focusing on AIs, and that will complement and probably be utilized in the national seashore area because they are really too far to be Seward.  It is not cost-effective.  This is another good alternative.  And Scott is here, and he can chime in if we have him do that.
And then we had him restructured the wastewater program.  It is now called the ACME fund, which is now been transformed into another acronym to make it seem a little bit more of what it is.  But what it is is we are now, you can apply for a 0% loan, 2% loan, 4% loan depending on your income, and we can help you replace your septic systems, which are now getting very high, if we are going to do it with AI, and that is another thing we are looking at.  
How can we either pump up the people who know how to do the systems, so it is sort of right now a specialized group of people.  But the more we can democratize that, we can bring more people into the profession and hopefully, a lower cost to what is more of a realistic kit for people today.  And we also give the same type of loan to people who have to hook up.  
That could also be 7-$10,000 for a home to hook up to sewering.  You put a sewer down the road, but what good is it if you cannot hook up?  We are giving loans for that as well.  We are well aware that this is something we have to take care of.  Might ears hurt too when I heard about the transfer of water.  
We have to be very cognizant that we are on a single source article four, and we share different watersheds within that Aquaphor we have to be really conscious this is a finite resource that we have to protect and not be putting people in harm's way in some sense.  We don't want to run out of water for residents or visitors.
So that would be great in the summer if everyone comes to their cottage, and there is no water or they could not go out and swim in it.  It is a big problem we have here and I think there are a lot of groups looking at it.  But when Heather comes, I think she can give you a review of the Commission.
>>:  Good.  Thank you.  Very comprehensive.  Wonderful to see the commissioners doing so much.  And I will say there were only a couple of voices concerned about water quality in Cape Cod in 1979, '80, '81, '82, when most of us were asleep at the switch.  And Scott was working on it.  And he really is a hero.
>>:  The other thing, I want to give Scott credit, but I want to give credit to the county before me.  We did as the Commission to look at this issue and really look at that awareness.  It has taken a long time.  When it costs money people want to say it is beautiful or nothing is wrong with it.  But you cannot hide that fact anymore.
>>:  Do you want to add anything?
>>:  I will give my comments later.  After the presentation.
>>:  Good.  Okay.  Let's go to Wellfleet.
>>:  Thank you.  We approved the funds for the pond study and others, and it is always pleasurable when we can work hand-in-hand with the commissioners on these issues.  
And I have been following it from the Seashore, the Cape Cod commission that reports to the assembly and the delegates and also Wellfleet, as far as they are concerned, everything I can tell, we are working very nicely, collaboratively, and I think all parties prefer to do that apartment as far as Wellfleet is concerned, and I was asking specifically about how the Seashore, if there are any issues of the Seashore or any other kind of issues we can collaborate and how effectively we can do so, I mean we do have mostly stuff done, and we mostly have (?) Wellfleet.  
From the administration and the select board standpoint, they do not see issues with the Seashore about these particular areas at this point in time.  And of course Wellfleet is starting down a long road, and we may be as we move forward.  But I would like to thank, as I said I want to thank them for the water resources, and I would like to thank the superintendent for meeting with Holly to find a solution for their ongoing situation.  And also the Cape Cod ocean communities has provided samples of the shark safety handout.  
There was a lot of research.  There was the Atlantic white shark absorbency.  One side is prevention, and one side is what to do if you see a shark.  They want to provide these to the Seashore for free in hopes of helping visitors who might be uninformed.  And you know someone at the Park Service to reach back out to James and have a conversation about this.
>>:  Good.  Can you state the water quality please?
>>:  Yes.  Okay.  So the mosquitoes might be an issue in the freshwater in Wellfleet and the Herring River restoration project.  And Wellfleet appreciates the permitting with the Cape Cod mosquito control, but this has still been an issue this evening doing the over wash with the harbor obligated by the Herring River project.  
There was a blockage and water flowed around the edges and made it not possible for mosquito control to treat.  If there could be some correlation with the town with the Cape Cod mosquito control prior to next season, it would be helpful and if there is some action the Seashore could take to pay for that, that of course would be ideal.  In my town administration would like me to ask if there could be a 1-5 year federal government construction guaranteed and a 20 year overall hold on accountability on work of the Herring River project.
If you could discuss that further with the town of administration, my town would certainly appreciate that.
>>:  Thank you.
>>:  Let me give a backup on the town side.  They are in the process, DPW is raising the road because there is now going to be flooding with the river.  So they are addressing the impacts of that that they will have.  So they are doing the resiliency and remediation of what that is going to have.  And pretty much we are all the way through our Lawrence Road.  We will have affordable housing that is done.  And we have done our own water treatment.  It is a cluster system.  That is taken care of with that new development, and they are very conscious of what is going to be happening.  We will have to have the next sewering program done downtown.  Should have been done a long time ago.  We missed that opportunity but there will be a lot of AI systems going in.
>>:  I would like to continue.  I have one more point with Wellfleet
>>:  On water.
>>:  On water.
>>:  Water management?
>>:  Water management with the park.  And that is I just want to call attention to the fact that the bone cutoff date is July 1.  Midnight tonight.  So everyone, no matter what your opinion or research.
>>:  Can I ask you to stay on topic please.  We are talking and wasting our time right now.  We have covered this--
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  Okay.  That is it.
>>:  That is what I've done.  That is it.
>>:  Let's go to Truro — you have me flustered.
>>:  Okay.  Truro has recently had a deadline for upgrading any cesspool.  So we share resources with all of the water that comes from them and some of it comes back to total.  And we have been stationed with these areas.  And so first, I want to talk about stormwater.  We would really like seashore collaboration in helping us to get the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to the table on direct stormwater runoff into Pilgrim Lake, East Harbor, and also certain areas of the river.  So the Deputy Director has been told three or four times to the state DOT and has gotten no response.  He has provided that.  And so on and so on.
And this would affect the East Harbor, the Seashore, the rivers, other areas in the borough.  That is one area we would really like the Seashore's help with.  And we want to, we are looking at Mass DOT, repaving in 2026.  And so it would make sense to deal with this before then.
In terms of water resources, I would say the 30,000-foot view is we need new sites, and we need a storage shed.  Really important.  So we have a great partnership with Provincetown, and we are working on different kinds of copper his of water management plans, and we are helping the conservation agency here.  They were aiming to finish that by the end of the year, but we also have two reports from our environmental partners that estimate the demand for the water will double by 2040.  And so factoring in the Provincetown and Truro, Truro and has two housing products to increase water demand.  One of them they are hoping to break ground in the fall.  That would affect the wastewater system and serve Provincetown, from the Provincetown municipal system.  
But we also have a 70-acre parcel.  We have a vision to do a two phased project that would be up to 160 units, and that would be served, we hope, by the municipal water from Provincetown and the system for wastewater treatment.  And so the water and wastewater, portions of that, they are probably the first things to get in place, and it borders the Seashore property.  I'm sure you are aware of that.
And there is a lot of concern about meeting summer peak demands.  In one of the issues is that the Air Force bots are limited to emergency use only.  We would like to see that revisited.  It is really important.  You know that we don't draw from the other wells and bring in saltwater.  
So the Air Force Base wells would be welcomed for use for that.  And I pointed out the Seashore brings in a lot of visitors, and we are grateful for that, but maybe the Seashore could step up to the table and help us new weld size.  And so let's see, we are looking to get the Wellfleet's eyes explored and I think that is almost exclusively in the Seashore.  And so that is an important portion.  
Restrictions around zone two sites.  So two well sites.  Some of that — so there were restrictions to protect the water supply.  Our board is really active in making sure that people are putting in the IA systems.  But the zone two sites are on town property as seashore property.  There is room for some collaboration and discussion there with both boards.  And the Intra-billable water agreement between Provincetown and Truro, it is 10 years out, needs to be renegotiated, but probably we are looking for a lot more detail and I think the Seashore should have some participation in the.
Lastly, the new water towers.  And so we will talk about fire suppression or fire danger at our meeting in September, but you know we cannot talk about water supply without talk about fire suppression.  So the new water towers are really essential for us to provide pressure and also to fight fires.  And they have an aboveground storage tank.  There have been two cites export, one is on a Provincetown parcel, but it ends at the Seashore.  The other site to look at is the police station.  But those sites, again very preliminary, and it takes years and years to develop a water tower as we know.  Those are really critical pieces for Truro, a new wellsite, a water tower, and just taking a look at the future development and putting the new sites out the Seashore.
In terms of the ponds, we are very well covered.  I know that those have been studied.
>>:  Great.  Thank you for giving us very specific challenges that the town and the park can work with.  That is what we have a session for.  Great.  Mark, anything else to add.
>>:  No.
>>:  Okay.  Please, Thomas?
>>:  Thank you, I just have a few notes for folks that might not be fully aware of what we do.  Chatham participated in the Cape Cod coastal conference week before last, which was water focused.  I don't have any details about that conference, but folks I am sure around the table are familiar with it.  
Chatham is working on is water supplies, which is only on the periphery of the national seashore.  We also have a watershed permit for pleasant day along with three other towns.  We have submitted a notice of intent and will be applying for the watershed permit for the balance of Chatham, which doesn't touch the Seashore.  And at some expense, Chatham, as folks may know, has undertaken a very comprehensive effort in sewering to reach our total maximum daily load for nitrogen.  And as you all know better than I, this addresses the source of nitrogen, which is kind of addressing it as a primary area of impact.
We have at least 12 wells that are generally recharged now with the rains we got over the winter and the spring.  Testing for the PFAS is ongoing and Chatham's Department of Natural Resources and the DPW provides periodic updates to the public and select board, and we are pushing, if residents have a pool or irrigation, there is a strong pull to make sure that it is on the well only at this point.  And that is all I've got.
>>:  Great.  Thank you for the Chatham report.  Have we covered all of the towns?  Any County reports?  We have a County report from Mark and Leslie?  Anything to report from your positions at the state?  Leslie, do you want to go first?
>>:  Are you talking to me, Leslie Jonas?
>>:  Yes.
>>:  Okay.  I was going to cover a couple.
>>:  Okay.
>>:  So 11% of Falmouth is connected to the town's wastewater system, and we have two wastewater treatment facilities, one in West Falmouth and one in South Falmouth.  There is a current wastewater management plan, the watershed sewer project to expand and include a lot more areas into public sewering.  Just to Tom's note, just a quick aside, there was just produced a weeklong coastal resiliency event promoting the importance of the health and wellness of our coast from many, many different perspectives.  And I wanted to talk a little bit about ponds and the quality of the ponds.  There are 123 freshwater ponds in Falmouth.  
And we tested 28 of those ponds recently.  And the quality came back as moderate.  And you know for most ponds on the Cape, the nitrate levels are kind of lower in the summer, believe it or not and higher in the winter because there are more plants eating in the summer, and they take up more of the nitrates.  But the main issue here in the upper Cape is our septic systems are failing and people continue to think that it is just remarkable to have the greenest of lawns.  So fertilizer is an issue.  We really need to start looking at bylaws that either band fertilizers altogether because I, quite frankly, think a green lawn is an embarrassment.  It is shameful.  
And if we either create a bylaws said you know no fertilizing prior to rainfall, that may help slow down some of the run up, but that is a big problem on The Cape including storm runoff and I think folks don't understand a lot about pond watersheds and land use around these pond upper areas.  We need to start talking about that a little bit more.  What are the stressors, and the impacts contributing to our ponds' declining health?  Yes, houses being built and rebuilt right on top of the ponds increases the impact, but there are other things that are impacting.  So I think looking at human behavior and activities is key.
And I think there is other big fish to fry, no pun intended, here on The Cape.  And that is holding the highest wastewater treatment facility accountable for the damage and construction they are doing, both freshwater and saltwater here.  They have violated the Clean Water Act for years, pouring upwards of one and a half billion gallons of sewage into the sand beds around the facility every day.  That is every day, one and a half million gallons of sewage that is just permeating out into the Lewis Bay watershed system, the inner harbor, the three creeks that are around there.  There are some big, big problems that we see.  
We know what each of our towns is holding, but I sort of look at the next town up sometimes.  And from this area, that would be Midstate for us.  But all in all, I think that we really need to learn to live more responsibly, create bylaws or be a part of a system that can create the bylaws that are going to help the systems because the types of occasion from the world.  I know the green center where I grew up has created an alternative septic system for urine diversion.  I think we are way behind on our alternative systems, and I think we need to start looking at that.  And all that no, thank you so much for hearing me.
>>:  Thank you, Leslie.  And thank you Mark.  There was also techniques transferable up and down Cape Cod so thank you both for the comments.  Okay.  Susan?
>>:  So I know that Orleans did a pretty copperheads a bylaw on fertilizers, and I don't know if anyone in Orleans would like to talk about that.
>>:  Well, Larry and I again were at the town meeting, and the town meeting has both the fertilizer and the second-tier pesticide band.  A total of either one was a great reduction.  They are models that we can share.  I think we could share those with others.  Heather, did you want to comment?
>>:  Yes, sort of.  Just a caution.  Scott might be able to answer this better than I.  But the Department of Agriculture regulates fertilizer obligation.  And when we, with the entire Cape was engaged in a two-way planning process looking at the nitrogen impact on our estuaries, fertilizer was a problem.  And we essentially petitioned the Department of Agriculture to give The Cape communities an opportunity to conduct fertilizer bylaws that would allow us to manage the fertilizer applications.  It will shortly go into effect and now is in effect, and it prohibits communities from regulating fertilizer applications individually.  A few towns took that on.  I would say six or seven.
And I think the ship may have sailed on that particular issue.  We can look into that.  But certainly there are models, and if there is an opportunity to revisit it, there might be some more work we could do.
>>:  Thanks.  Do you want to clarify anything?
>>:  I just want to understand, clarify these bands that Orleans and the town meetings still need to have to go to the state legislative approval project.  And that is you know a goal to get on their petition.
>>:  Thank you for the writer.
>>:  Let me clarify that the whole petition processing maybe anonymous.  So I do agree.
>>:  Mr. Share, I want to add to that.  As a resource, you know just a delegate, let me ask some resolutions from others.  You know Orleans, and the Wellfleet assembly members.
>>:  Okay.  The table is yours.
>>:  I want to talk about a couple of things, the macro in the micro.  The macro, presenting the state administration.  You really need to be more cognizant of what is going on with the whole PFAS situation.  I know it was mentioned briefly, but it is a big kahuna that is coming down the pike.  
A lot of our towns will be grappling with this.  The standards, the health and safety standards are in the parts per trillion.  It is very hard to find anywhere on Cape Cod that doesn't have some sort of PFAS on the water supply.  It is a question of are you exceeding the limits too often?  And then if you are, were looking at a 10-20 million-dollar treatment plant, not wastewater treatment plant, but water treatment plant.  Testing is the key.  Get out ahead of it and do not assume just because you are any more rural part of The Cape that you are safe from it.  It is in everything, in your house.  It is all over the environment.  
And we are finding it in ponds and water supplies.  It is a forever chemical and doesn't go away and doesn't get filtered out by the soil.  So fortunately it does get filtered out by carbon and just having a brick to filter in your home, a carbon activated filter in your kitchen sink is probably the best way to deal with it for your family.  But it is a big deal.  And EPA has set the standards, and if the state follow suit it will be a real concern for water suppliers.  
On the micro level, as a Water Commissioner, the tiny water supply district, and of course in Barnesville we have you know within the villages of Barnstable and others, you know we have a very small and limited amount of aquifer coming into the village.  When I first got onto the Commission, the rallying cry was we needed more water to make more money.  And I scratched my head at that.  It did not make sense.  We should be conserving water in our little, tiny district.  We have come up with a couple of ways to address that.  One is to make a very graduated water rate.
And I think Mary-Jo mentioned summer peak pricing, which in a sense, I have the handout, come simulator.  And those very rapidly graduated pricing to address lawn irrigation.  It doesn't make sense to be connecting pipes and pumps and water tanks and filtration and adding buffers to the water supply and then running it out on people's lawns.  This doesn't make any sense to us.
So in addition to changing the rates, we also have instituted a ban on new irrigation systems connected to the public water supply.  As an alternative you can put in a private well in your yard and the cost is about 5-$7000.  With the graduated rates, people can find they can pay off their well in about three or four years.  And most of those wells have been situated outside of our zone of contribution for a well.  They are not stealing the same water but take in the water otherwise going up to the ocean.
If you look at the graph we can reduce the summer water demand by as much as 40%.  And our most recent, we have not seriously affected those because of the increased rates.  So we think it is a win-win.  And I really encourage, you know we talked about doubling the demand with Provincetown by 2040, observation will help that.  And don't let people hook up to the water supply for their lawns.
>>:  Can I just ad —
>>:  Mary-Jo?
>>:  With Provincetown, years ago when I was on the board, and before when I was on the board, we had a ban against washing your car.  Because we don't have portable water, people put wells in.  If they have a well in the ground they are allowed to have a sprinkler system, and that is the only way they can turn on the sprinkler.  Otherwise, they would have to hold it in their hand.  We been doing that for years.
>>:  Thanks.
>>:  I brought this up to the county before.  I think it would be really helpful for the state and even the Seashore to consider having some resources for people to understand about the filtration system, especially if you have your own well.  And you know with PFAS, the other thing is what about rainwater?  I mean in places all around the world, they collect rainwater in the use it for other things.  You know like irrigation, watering lawns, etc.  I mean I think that might help a lot.  And there are other ideas as well, but these are the two brought up.
>>:  Great.  Thanks.  This is fantastic.  We have two presentations, which need to begin.  We have an hour and a half to go.  Let me think all of the towns for your reports.  If you have anything in writing, Mary-Jo has notes, and if you would like to share them with me and the superintendent, we can do that.  I think this is the first time.  Like at least on this end of The Cape, like what is going on.  We are not in this game alone.  There is the county.  And there is a swath of land that has some issues too.  So do we go to Heather next for the presentation?
>>:  I think we will do Dr. Sophia Fox with the research at the park has been doing for decades with all of the faces of water.  And Sophia, can I suggest you really just take five minutes for bathroom break or at least I am going to leave for five.  You know before we get started.  And them if you want to keep —
>>:  No.  Five minutes is possible.
>>:  Thank you.
(Break)
2:38 PM (ET)
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  All right.  Great.  So Sophia is going to do a quick change this afternoon to walk us through the depth of the information that the park has been gathering for a very long time looking at the water and plenty of the things we talked about today.  She will talk about the aquifer, talk about the surface water in the ponds and talk about what we see in terms of precipitation.  And I want to offer that as we look listen to Sophia I'm excited about this meeting and how can this body be his strongest.  
One other thing I'm looking for advice from the group is what is the park's role moving forward?  Is it merely, which is not merely at all, but merely to provide ecosystem services?  To provide an area of land that is multi-developed to continue to be reserved for the entire outer tape for is a something else?  
And I think the conversation and data will help us think about what role does the park preserving in terms of  preserving for The Cape?  The inputs and outputs, and like many of you talked about that, the inputs, what are we inserting into the environment either through precipitation or otherwise that hurts our fresh water and what can we do, what in my control as superintendent, what is in your control as representatives from the towns or county?  And the output, with the Department of Environmental Quality, the control of who gets wells, they certify the wells, but it is input and output problem.
And I think the question on my mind is what is the National Park Service's role in this conversation as we think about The Cape?
>>:  May I ask a question?  Sorry to interrupt her, but one of the things that came up at a couple of the meetings and I'm sure elsewhere is the whole issue of taking water out of seashore property, a National Park land, and be considered "mining" and is this allowed?  So I have heard it come up.  It is a question.  So what does constitute "mining," which is not allowed in the National Park?
>>:  It will be addressed maybe in Sophia's presentation?
[ Laughter ]
>>:  If not, we will get to that.
>>:  Thank you.  Yes.  It has been great to sit here and listen to all of you.  You have raised great questions.  A bit of the Seashore for almost 15 years working with all of your towns.  And nothing you said surprises me.  You all said exactly what I expected.  So I am here to talk today about our freshwater monitoring, science, and management at the Cape Cod National Seashore.  This work was put together by me and my colleague Kelly Medeiros.  So in order to start talking about freshwater, I would just give a little talk through the freshwater cycle and how we view freshwater from the Seashore perspective and from the scientific point of view.  
Freshwater is cycled through a complex system from the Earth's surface up to the atmosphere, and then back to the earth surface and this goes through a series and variety of different pathways such as evaporation and runoff.  But the main things, the main pools of water that we are interested in are these three interconnected pools of precipitation, which represents rain, water vapor, clouds, and the groundwater, which here in Cape Cod is our sole source aquifer, which makes it a primary importance to us, as we've all talked about, and our surface water, which is our ponds, lakes, streams.  All of these systems or together in the freshwater cycle.
And so how do we at the Seashore try to understand the system, measuring these three pools precipitation, groundwater, surface waters?
First starting with the atmosphere, our main water vapor and cloud, we measure precipitation quality and quantity through our air quality monitoring program, which started in the early 80s, and we do this weekly on the year-round basis.
For our groundwater, our sole source aquifer, we measure just groundwater quantity not quality.  And that is through our hydrologic monitoring program started in the late 90s, and we do that monthly, year-round and there are other groups across the Cape that will look at groundwater quantity.
And are surface water in our ponds, lakes, streams, we look at surface water quantity, and that is where our hydrologic monitoring around as our Kettle Pond monitoring, which most of you know about that started in the 1970s, and we do that biweekly from March through December, almost year-round.
So our air quality monitoring program is cited in North Truro and Mitre Site.  Our data collection is part of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program as well as the Mercury Deposition Program.  And the goal of this monitoring program is understanding the impacts of air pollution and climate on that precipitation pool as we are talking about.  And for this we measure the amount of rain, and the chemistry of the rain looking primarily at the byproducts of the combustion, the pH, and the mercury in the water.
For our groundwater and surface water monitoring, we gather this through quantity.  We had the hydrologic monitoring program, and the goal of the program is to understand the agents of change in this system largely as a result of urbanization, climate, and sea level rise.  And for this we measure the groundwater and pond water levels.  We have 18 observation wells and 12 ponds where we do this, and you can see here they are located across the Outer Cape.  
We don't go as far down as Orleans, but we do sample these four groundwater lenses, which we have talked a lot about today, but not this one.  And as you can see, these lenses are shaped like mounds.  That is how our groundwater exists along with these valleys, which we are familiar with.  This is across the Outer Cape.  We have our wells situated in the tops as well on the deeper part of the groundwater to better understand the shapes of the systems.
And then lastly, we are looking at the water quality in our ponds, as well as in Truro and the Seashore and the goal of this is to assess our changes in water quality and to understand how the pond processes are changing in the environment we live in.  There we measure the pond to physical, biological, chemical components at 20 different ponds, and we get things like temperature, pH, oxygen, light, nutrients, and phytoplankton.
And so taking all of this, we collect all of this data every year, all year-round.  Then it is our job to do the science and understand how these interconnected freshwater systems, taking all this data, how do this and does the precipitation come from the atmosphere, fall down onto our ground water in our landscape, filter down into our groundwater, and then move into our ponds or into coastal waters?
And again, our precipitation at North Truro and our groundwater and surface water quality at and around the Cape and other areas.  In order to talk about this we have talked about the factors that are driving the change in the systems.  And we will start with a little background about the atmospheric changes from industrialization.
And so what we have here is a picture of the earth.  This is from NASA, and it is depicting the change in the earth's temperature relative to, I believe, it is a 100-year average of the Earth's surface to mature.  Everything in the warm color is warmer than average and everything in the cool colors are cooler than average.
As you can see this is due to the high acute relation of the GHGs, the earth surface temperature is higher than almost everywhere and then the circle here is where we are in the Gulf of Maine, and we are a warming hotspot.
Furthermore, what we have seen is that the earth is warmer and every year since 2020, we have set a new hottest year on record, record.  And that is unprecedented four consecutive years in a row.
And so what does this look like?  This is a depiction here of Massachusetts and it is showing the mission scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for a lower emissions scenario and higher emissions scenario.  At this point in time the lower emissions scenario has been removed from the conversation that we follow the higher emissions scenario.  This is depicted in red and shows the heat index.  What does a climate feel like to us?  It is saying that by about 2070, and certainly by the end of the century, Massachusetts is on the trajectory that we are on  And may feel like, South Carolina.
And that is the first story.  So we have also seen atmospheric changes in the electric power sector.  We've talked a little bit about this today, the impact of this.  In the '90s the Clean Air Act amendments or passed to control air pollution and really deal with the acid rain problem we had across our Region.
And this is a graph showing the omissions of acidic compounds from power plants from the '90s until about 2012.
And what we saw with the regulations, there is a significant decline in emissions.  The sulfur and nitrogen emission compounds, which are very bad.
In addition, here, we have the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index, PHDI, Port Massachusetts.  Everything in green, above the line, are wetter than average years.  And everything below the line, in yellow, are drier than average years for about the last two decades.
What we can see is that the dryer periods have been more frequent during the last decade then they were the previous one.
>>:  They are longer periods as well.
>>:  They are longer periods.  Those are what we have seen.
And this is the locations for the ground water.  So we know the ground water lenses.  And we rely on the rainfall to recharge our lenses.  And so understanding the wet and dry periods is important to understand the availability of rainfall to charge our ground rainwater.
How does this all connect?  Here, I am showing you a little bit about our precipitation quality and the recovery that we have measured with the rain falling down at North Truro.  And you can see we have a sulfate and nitrate use actively causing compounds that are being emitted from power plants declining over that same period that I was showing you before in our rainwater.
And this has resulted in the pH of our rainwater increasing significantly by approximately one pH unit over this period of time, which makes our rainwater 10 times less acidic with the rainwater, which is great as a potential.
And so connecting all of this, we want to know what does this mean for our ponds?  Our ponds sit in the landscape in the rain is falling down on the landscape going down into the rainwater and directly on the pond itself.  And we want to understand the acid rain recovery for the pond.  I will talk here about the ponds in Wellfleet.  We have shown the sulfate concentrations is one of the active causing acidic compounds from precipitation has decreased over the last several decades almost cut in half in the pond.  And that has resulted in an increase in the pH of the pond but almost two units, which is about 20 times less acidic condition within the pond.  So you can imagine that if you are an organism, well, we are all organisms, but it does make a very big difference.  These ponds are on the pathway to recovery from this extremely acidic condition they are put in due to air pollution.  This is one story we can connect these resources to.
Another one here, we will talk a little bit about groundwater and surface water quantity.  Here we have some of our measurements in groundwater wells on the top here and, again, our Palmer Hydrological Drought Index in yellow and anything about the blue lines are the wet periods and anything below the blue line is this dry period, and we can see that our wells really falls nicely when it is wet.  We have more water in the wells.  When it is dry, we have a dip in the water level.  We are very linked up to this climate record.  Not so much like did it rain yesterday, but when you look at these bigger indices, there is a close correlation between it.
So this is where like climate comes in.  And so one of the other things that we see in the groundwater is we see the seasonal differences where it is dryer in the summer then winter and spring, and we also see these interannual changes.  So here, we see the level of the groundwater to the water levels in the pond.  I'm sure many of you go to the ponds, and you can see we have our dry years where there is a lot of shoreline and our wet years where it goes all the way up to the sure.  
And really, I am here to tell you it is really driven by the drought index.  What is the climate doing at that time?  We have the water level here in two ponds in blue.  We had the duck pond up above and the great Truro below.  We have the corresponding wells in orange and pink, and you can see they are very directly related to one another.  The ponds are really reflecting what is happening with the groundwater.  We have a very good correlation between the levels in our wells and in our ponds.  We know what is falling down is precipitation based on those climate regimes, and this will be affecting our groundwater and on surface waters.  
We see increasing air temperatures across the Region, and this is affecting our pond water temperatures.  This has significantly increased over the last several decades amperage eagerly so in summer and fall.  And here we have all of our ponds, which is sort of is amazing to actually see a trend in everything all at once.  That is really hard to get.  So this is real concerning for me.  And what we have seen is about a four degree increase in pond surface temperature, in the summer.  When we move into the fall, that increases 10 degrees over this period of time.  
This is a huge increase in temperature.  And again speaking of the organisms that live in the ponds, we also see the temperatures in the fall last further and further into the seasons, and they are longer, warmer, for longer periods of warm temperatures.  And we particularly see this will be get down to this, weeks see the nighttime temperatures increase more than the daytime temperatures.  It is not getting as cold at night.
So what are some of the impacts of the changing climate on our ponds?  These higher temperature conditions are putting stress on our ponds.  And so they really exacerbate the local impact that we are place on our ponds.  And so things that we have been talking about, high nutrients, inputs from septic and fertilizers, shoreline development, visitation removal, these of higher impacts on the ponds that are under temperature droughts.  
We have all of these drought periods of low water levels, and we see lots of alterations to the shorelines and the nearshore visitation and as a result of these with increased trampoline and visitation in particular, here is one of our ponds in a dry year a few years ago and people like to walk around the whole pond, which they normally can't do.  And we get these trails, and all of the vegetation gets trampled.
And if this happens maybe in one year, the vegetation can recover.  But if it happens in multiple years in a row, you will see this area visitation be lost.
And this is not a healthy condition for our system.
One of the other things that we all know a lot about now is the cyanobacteria blooms.  Within a national seashore, our ponds are considered to be in a low nutrient condition with respect to wastewater pollution, and those impacts.  However, we do see many of the cyanobacteria blooms, which we are contributing to the warmer water temperatures and the dynamic in the plankton communities that result.  We had our first official bloom in 2019.  As blooms become more prevalent now, I get reports of earlier blooms from people who are sending me pictures.
But this is the first one we saw in 2019.  I believe this was the year it was closed for Fourth of July.
And 2022 that was our peak year so far.  We had at least 14 blooms in seven different ponds across Wellfleet and Truro.  And so we had a lot of press coverage including the Boston Globe, the Independent usually runs an article every year.  But we are really linking this to the changes in the temperature.  And that across The Cape and Crystal Lake and Orleans had an early bloom that we'd ever seen there.  There's a lot of change happening and so we are very concerned.
So why do we care about the cyanobacteria?  As many of you know, it is known as a harmful algal bloom.  It affects water quality and water life and creates toxins, which are harmful to people, animals, and the environment.  They are dangerous to you, your family, and your pets.  That is what we are most concerned about the.  
People and pets should not swimming waters where there are blooms and accidentally ingesting the water during recreation may make you are your pet very ill or even die, for your pet at least.  And so some of the things that we might look out for his first about look out for a bloom before you go into a pond.  Like for humans, headaches, skin irritation, respiratory illness and a domino pain.
And then for the dog, drooling, stumbling, vomiting, they need to go straight to the vet.
So because of this important human health aspect, I work very closely with people like Emily and the Wellfleet and Truro conservation department work together to address the issues.  We have a lot of work coming up.  This year our goal is to increase capacity to observe the bloom by encouraging bloom reporting by members of the public because we can't be there enough to keep everybody safe.
So we are increasing and improving our public communications on the issue, particularly signage.  You see one of the signs.  I forgot to bring it.  It is in my car.  We have made the signs of.  They are out in every pond now so people are aware that it any point in time there could be a harmful algal bloom in the pond, and we want you to be able, as the public, to recognize that and stay out of the water if they see them and reported to us, Emily, and to Truro and Wellfleet.  
And we are doing the public presentation.  And we will be doing a lot of increasing sharing with our partners and preserve Cape Cod and the Cape Cod commission and the towns.  We are trying to better advise our health advisory folks to protect people and pets from the risks.  And one of the big challenges right now is working with the partners to provide funding to better understand how these blooms are forming and their toxicity.  There is a lot that is not understood about how they form, how toxic they are, when they are not toxic, when they are.  Are they toxic when you don't see them?  All of these things are part of our growing understanding of this of the cyanobacteria blooms permit much of what I talk to you today about is what we publish in the scientific literature.  These are papers that we have published on this work on our freshwater resources.
And so hopefully I have convinced you that is important for us to be monitoring our freshwater system is an interconnected system.  They are telling us that our global folks are seen more extreme shifts in temperature and other climate-related events like drought.  The physical structure and chemistry and biology are all changing over very short time fields and so keeping up with that requires a lot of information.  
And many of the changes are harmful to human health as well as the ecological integrity of the system, especially the cyanobacteria blooms, and they are really allowing us to have this comprehensive view of how Cape Cod is being affected by the local changes as well as the different processes that we have gone over.
So again, we don't work alone.  We have lots of partners in this work.  There is a lot of great data and resources out there between the association with Cape Cod and the Cape Cod commission and interior and the resources.  We have the Park Service resources and our national program and U.S. Geological Survey and other public groups all work together on these issues.  And I want to tell you that monitoring is hard work.  We cannot do this without many technicians, interns, and volunteers.  I want to thank them.
[ Applause ]
A couple of questions?  Brian?
>>:  This is a very macro question.  This is with the current political cycle.  Is there any diversions of opinion within the federal government that you want to tell us about with the impact of climate risk as it affects the Seashore otherwise?  Or is there universal acceptance as the real problem?
>>:  There is universal acceptance that this is a real problem.  The Park Service has many programs nationally that are focused on these issues.
>>:  Good to hear.
>>:  Larry?
>>:  Thank you very much.  I have to leave, but I do have a question.  What are your feelings about the ponds and the treatment of the ponds for those issues?
>>:  I think in those cases where the water quality has reached a point where there are not many other options that many of the treatments that Orleans and others have undertaken may be necessary to kind of reset everything to try to get back to something that could be considered having some integrity.  But I generally don't support them unless we reached a point where there is really no way back.
>>:  But they are affected?
>>:  They are effective at what they are targeting.  So each one is not overall effective, but they target different things.  Putting things together you know it gives us a cocktail of things to address the problem, which is generally the best approach.
>>:  So you mentioned how they affect animals and humans.  But how does the algae blooms affect the life in the pond and around the pond?
>>:  So it is really different for your organism.  It is not well understood, but we do know they affect fish, and they do affect birds, and they do affect mammals.  Mammals have some effect similar to how they affect humans.  So our understanding is that they generally affect most things.  We just don't how significantly.
>>:  Are you thinking to start researching that as well?
>>:  I think that is being researched by more people.  You know we are trying to more work in the solution category than understanding all of those impacts.  I think we know enough to know that we can't just do nothing.  We need to be working on it.
>>:  Sheila?
>>:  Just a quick question.  So I know they were working with the Cape Cod commission.  And I just wanted to confirm that we are monitoring all ponds.  And we are monitoring the sites at entry and everything else.  Is that correct?
>>:  Yes.  So Wellfleet in particular have eight of their ponds.  They are taking samples biweekly for cyanobacteria specifically from about April through November.  And other towns have various different monitoring programs.  We are somewhat responsible for the other ponds within the Seashore, and village pond does its own monitoring through the association with Cape Cod.  They do some in Orleans.  There are groups to help with that.  So there's a volunteer base working with this primarily.
>>:  There are other things as well.  And it was my understanding that all of the ponds in the town within the Seashore were being monitored.  No?
>>:  Most of them are.
>>:  Okay, thank you.
>>:  They are not all monitored.
>>:  I was thinking about other things.
>>:  I work very closely with the Wellfleet national resources Advisory Board.  We are working on our new management plan for Wellfleet.
>>:  Thank you.
>>:  I was going to ask you know there was a program for that.  Is that in effect?  Does it need volunteers?
>>:  So there is one program that has been going on for a long time.  It is POW.  They have a sampling of ponds across Cape Cod, and they sample just like one or two times per year, and that is it.  And they do that with volunteers.  And our ponds are also reflected somewhat in that program.  They have a touch on that.
And then there is a program that Heather will talk to us about, the new freshwater initiative, which is really regionwide and really bolstering what we learned through POW and the other program.
>>:  Does anyone, had they asked the question from fashion Leslie or Tom, do you want to ask a question this morning?
>>:  No.
>>:  Okay.  Gray.  Thank you--
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  And Heather is going to add a couple of thoughts from her presentation.
>>:  During the transition, I want to add a little plug for the Center for coastal studies programs.
[ Laughter ] --
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  We process and analyze a lot of the samples.
>>:  All of them.
>>:  All of them.  Thank you for remembering.  So it makes sense to analyze all of this.  Particularly to look at our website, on the marine side, we have 150 sites around Cape Cod.  You can go to the Center for coastal studies and look at water quality.  You will see an interactive chart.  You can go to any one of the hundred 50 sites and look at the data from all of those years for trend analysis in each of the constituents.  Really, it is open to the public.  We do that and give all that data to the Cape Cod commission, and they run the website with us.  It is all through the Commission now, Heather?
>>:  Yes.  Some of both I think.
>>:  Are you seeing Marine water quality monitoring, for example, that goes on in New Orleans?  I happen to be one of the volunteers who does the sampling.  That is all processed?
>>:  We don't do a high percentage of everything.  We do 150 sites that we control around the Cape.  You guys do a little bit on your own.  We would be happy to consolidate that.  That is the best thing.  And that is also for the Cape Cod commission.
>>:  It would be wonderful.  One of the things we have difficulty with is getting the trends from the early monitoring.
>>:  If you like, I can connect you with Dr. Amy Costa.  She can show you the trend analysis.
>>:  Fascinating.  Okay.  Thank you.
>>:  Yes.  All right.  Are you guys ready?
>>:  A lot of data all the time.
>>:  Yes, great thank you.  So I am going to spend a little bit of time talk about our freshwater initiative, which we have been touching on throughout this meeting.
And then I will talk a little bit about ground water resources and collaboration with the Seashore staff.
And then hopefully, not too much information on the slides, but he would get them later.  So just in case anyone —, I think, most people in this room know about the Cape Cod commission is and for anyone watching, we are the regional land use planning and economic development agency created in 1992 serve the citizens and 15 towns of Barnstable County.  We are a regulatory agency.
And so I probably don't need to spend a lot of time on this side.  But a great graphic that just sort of illustrates some of the human-induced impacts on ponds through various sources, nutrients can make their way into groundwater, stormwater runoff, fertilizer and pesticide applications, and through our septic system discharges.  It goes into the groundwater and are ponds, most of them actually intersect with the groundwater.  So this is how the water quality reflects to some extent.  Next.
And so the initiative, I will not go through all of the project tabs, but as Lili noted, the county was generous in funding a pretty big project to look at a lot of different aspects about ponds.  We have spent a bunch of time on different tasks establishing the baseline that is basically gathering data and putting energy into collecting new data.
And then the strategy development, identifying strategies for drafting pond water quality problems and related tasks.
And then there is task related to ongoing monitoring and analysis and making the data and analysis of the data available to everyone into the future.  Next.
So briefly we engaged the Eastern research group in helping us do several economic studies over the course of the last year.  A very interesting, there is a whole report on the website that wants to dig into it.  But two key takeaway's is that our ponds are really a key part of the economic engine here.  It was from 1.3 to 1.7 million estimated visits to Cape Cod ponds and lakes annually.  And that pond values and specifically pond sales prices are correlated with approximately two ponds with good water quality.  So 9% premium on those homes.  And there was also a positive correlation with rental properties.  Next.
This graphic is showing a little bit of the history, really of the POW program.  And it continues to be an effort utilizing volunteers to get what are called snapshots, samples, usually one time a year in a pond, usually in August.  But you will see the variation as the water cycles through the years that individual ponds are not sampled consecutively or consistently from year to year.
That led to, and it does not also necessarily represent the work that the Seashore does in consistently monitoring ponds and the Outer Cape to make that note.  But it does illustrate the variation in sampling.  So that led me to the freshwater initiative to establish the pond monitoring program.  The idea here is to look at ponds Cape wide.  We have a funding for three years with monitoring 50 ponds across the Cape, which adds up to about three or four ponds per town.  They are monitored once a month initially April through October.  The months have now been extended in order to make sure that we are observing the stratification in the pond, so March through November.  And so that work is done and is organized by the association to preserve Cape Cod.  They have mobilized a huge body of volunteers.  You can volunteer if you want to at the website.  We will have that set up, and they will train you.  And that is a great effort.  And they are collecting that data and collecting the samples and sending the samples for the coastal study.  Another key partner in getting the samples analyzed.
So that data along with other data, the Seashore data, we are working together it all into one database and sort it and make sense of it.
And then we have been working with consultants to identify appropriate trend analysis, and we are going to incorporate those trend analysis into an online data portal, which we are in the process of developing with an end-user group and make that easily accessible to anyone via the website.  Other aspects of this data management include a regional data and trend analysis in keeping this going.  We will be banging the drum for more money to keep the monitoring going.
So another task related to data is a satellite to help us expand our ability to understand what is happening with our ponds while the 50 ponds is great, there are 895 ponds on Cape Cod.  So using the satellite will help us sort of expand our understanding of what is happening with the pond water quality.  And these are the partners on two projects.  Next.
So just touching on a couple of resources.  Early on we developed a pond that was newer.  We have a website.  You can Zoom in and look at the pond and get details on basic stuff around this.  How big is it?  Is there a watershed?  And then next for more specific, next slide, more specific information about what is going on in regards to that pond.  So the colors and at the graphs help us understand what the surrounding land cover is and break down the land.
And then we have spent a bunch of time researching and also working with a technical advisory group to gather information on different strategies that can address different challenges in the ponds.  And the strategies are roughly broken down to these scales to approach.  There is a strategy that happens in the pond.  This is something can you address it at the pond sure level or something happening in the watershed?  And we are addressing the threats accessed at the bottom.  There is the sediment, the nutrient, the pond erosion, the invasive species.  And we are outputting a lot of information we gathered into the fact sheets.  They are in draft form.  There on the website if you want to check them out.  We have asked the stakeholders, which we will talk about in a minute to give us feedback on the content of the fact sheets.  We want to make them as useful as possible.  Next.
And sort of the last thing I want to talk about with the freshwater initiative was to take a look at the process.  At the beginning of June we concluded the last of three meetings with each of the sub regions organized around the major lenses, which we are having a really great conversations with individuals from these communities on their concerns about the ponds and the reactions to the work we have done and their suggestions about future needs and resources that they can make use of.
So we have taken all of that in, and we are now in the process of drafting up and implementation plan and have recommended actions and resources and all of the good stuff that we like to do.  Next.  And so just to touch on some of the collaboration that is happened.  Sophia did this as well but between the Cape Cod commission staff, and the national seashore staff, just on the freshwater initiative project, we are actively working on incorporating the data that they have been collecting for decades into our pond water quality database.  That is an ongoing process.  
We want to do it right.  They are also engaged in the end-user and the development of our pond data portal.  Helping us design that portal so it is as useful as possible.  And that we are handling their data appropriately.  We have done this with the remote project and reviewing our strategies and our back sheets to the technical advisory group and then they have also participated in our stakeholder engagement process.
So I just wanted to also talk about groundwater resources.  This is not really, an area of expertise for me.  But I wanted a few things to share on this topic.  So quality wise, we can talk about concerns about the availability of water.  And to start with here on the Outer Cape, there is a lot of water in the lenses.  The challenge is accessing it and increasingly as we have more and more development, there are fewer and fewer places to actually cite the wells.  Where we can cite the wells, we are limited in how much water we can take without having adverse impacts to surface water bodies.  
There is also, because the lenses are relatively thinner out here, there is concern with saltwater coming up into the wells.  And so there is lots of water, but where to get it is maybe the question without having other impacts.  Quality wise, this is an area we all have been focusing on for some time.  We know there is impacts from septic system, storm water, fertilizer, etc.  Through the plan, with questions, everyone is involved or aware of at some level management of nitrogen and nutrients that has been ongoing, and towns are now dropping their targeted watershed management plans, and they are considering installing sewers, IA systems, and other means of addressing nutrients that are impacting our groundwater and our estuaries.  Note here also that they develop and of the public water supplies can help address some of those impacts related to having septic systems and private wells located in this proximity.
And then there are impacts.  So USGS worked on a study with a BCC in the Cape Cod commission, and there might have been other members.  I do not remember, but looking at the public supply wells, and whether they would be impacted by sea level rise.  And for the most part, the word is that those large public supply wells, they are located more centrally in the Cape, both in the mid- and upper Cape but also in the Lower Cape and Outer Cape.  
And they are unlikely to be impacted by sea level rise.  However, near the coast, it may be impacted.  If they take on water, will egregiously become salty.  I think the main take away here and from what I've heard in the discussion is as there are needs for new water supplies, public water supplies identified, we are need to find appropriate locations and share water.
And I think that's about it.
>>:  Thank you.  Great information.  So let's start with questions and comments from the commissioners, and the public.  Any follow-up or discussion or any actions?
>>:  I have a lot, but nobody wants to hear them.  You know like when we could stop development for a while and really take a look at things before we keep building and building.  And it is not affordable housing being built.  I can see that all around my own area.  Bigger and bigger houses all the time.  And those beautiful, wooded areas were a lot that somebody owned and then they sold and now someone wants to build on them.
So to me, it is very concerning that we are kind of going along with this and how do we just keep fixing it as opposed to being preemptive in the beginning.  And I know that is a lot.  It is a lot to say that.
And I think at one time Provincetown did have a moratorium on development.  And they were finding out what their water situation was.  And who knows what forces came to be.  It has boomed.  I mean, we work there.  How do we see it?
>>:  I know we mentioned the moratorium.  We need to have them.
>>:  This is a very sensitive area.  The whole Cape is, but out here is particularly one.
>>:  One of Heather's points that was brought home to me, is the water supply, you know the access to it, because there was not enough access.  That just illustrate your point.
Okay.  Good.  Like I know Scott wanted to make a comment.  And we talked about (?).  Did you want to give an update?
>>:  Sure.  Thank you.  This is a great meeting.  I'm really glad I came.
>>:  Can you give the full title?
>>:  Can you introduce yourself for the record?
>>:  Scott Worsley, I'm working as a water resource person, and I want to use beak briefly about a couple of things, not to repeat, but in addition to the great discussions that we have had.  But maybe a little bit of repeat.  I think and towns, not just in Truro and Wellfleet, but other towns, and one since we share this.  As been pointing out, we are looking at this through different lenses.  And one of the things that we are looking at is the transfer of water from one lens to another.  So very briefly the work I am doing, and Truro is really a couple of things.  And the river is one of the few estuaries that has not been studied by the Massachusetts estuaries program.  It is kind of a little bit of an unknown in terms of this.  But we are trying to get a better handle on that.  And the second thing I'm working on is this intermunicipal agreement between the product center referral is very interesting.  
Maybe you know this based on 1907.  There was an agreement that somebody mentioned earlier was up for review.  There is a long paragraph in the agreement to talk about the water resources plan.  That hasn't been done.  And frankly, it is true.  There's a lot of water in Cape Cod in general.  But the US yesterday on the sea level rise is great.  But it did not cover the Lower Cape for the Outer Cape and I think it is a little bit of a different story out there.  Mentioned the lenses.  There was a previous USGS study that did show some issues with saltwater protrusion and pumping and the contamination of the wells.
One thing to keep in mind as sea level rises, the whole groundwater lens floats up.  And we used to get fairly close to the interface.  And it will be a challenge going forward.  One thing we are looking with the different groups is to have different conversations between the two towns and advancing the model so we can better understand what is going on out there.  We have had some recent discussions that I want to make sure you are aware of where USGS is looking at developing essentially a new groundwater model for the Outer Cape specifically this area that might help answer the water issue in the rivers.  With had a couple of discussions.
And I think we been going through this for a week or two with USGS and it strikes me that we need to get the national seashore in that too as another partner.  And one thing USGS is asking is who do we work with, who are our partners and frankly, where is it some of the money coming from.  And so that is sort of ongoing.  And so one thought is under the water management act, it is about withdrawing from the public water supplies.  They looked at Cape Cod about this.  
The basis for this transfer is something we look very carefully, which is relevant to the Cape with the state law.  But again pumping water from the furloughs to Provincetown is what we consider consumptive use, meaning it is not going back in.  So that in conjunction with the sea level rise, I think it may point to some significant challenges in the future.  So what we are trying to do as part of the intermunicipal agreement is aligned the future water demands.
And this is great to be on track with.  And not today, but in the future, we take into things like sea level rise, and that will be the purpose of the model.  So we are very hopeful that will move ahead.  Maybe I'll stop there and asked my client, Emily, if you want to add to that at all, not to put you on the spot.
>>:  Not right now.  But I think I will save that for the next meeting.
>>:  Okay.  That is it.
>>:  Thanks.
>>:  , absolutely.
>>:  Thank you for coming to us with solutions.
>>:  We are not including drought periods as well, right?  Sea level rise, drought periods, increase visitors, less ability to recharge?  I think this is a doomsday scenario.
>>:  —
>>:  That is where I am today.  Not feeling good at all.
>>:  I know.  And --
[ Overlapping speakers ]
; I want to add one comment.  Somebody mentioned about this project.  I want to throw on a note of that one.  Because affordable housing, and the water supply are like really to good in Cape Cod.  My experience it is one of the very few affording housing projects statewide.  And actually, they had benefit restoration in mind.
And I think this is a really great a study moving forward.  And I know the burros are looking forward to doing some things the same.  But I think that project really needs to be looked at carefully.  A lot of people think we cannot have affordable housing without compromising order quality because of that project to be involved.
>>:  Great.
>>:  Okay.  The last couple of comments, and we have to wrap up.  David?
>>:  I want to see the money present go around.  But I've read about these.  And it probably is appropriate for Cape Cod but will never happen.  But the system, the fire suppression and the water comes from the substandard water.
And then looking at this from the different lenses, it goes from the sink, the laundry, the drinking fountain.  And the fire suppression, which uses a fair amount of water intermittently, that can be the not so good water.  Just don't let the kids run in it.  But what I am saying is that in Japan, you know not only with recycled water, which is like after the toilet flushing, like washing your hands, other washing, but in other communities they have two systems, two pipes that come in.  Like bottled water or non-potable water.  And really that can help save water, mostly for (?).  Hong Kong comes to mind.  It is very highly dense.  I don't think I said that correctly.  But high density.
And then The Cape, it is looking to create, but again you know they can make affordable housing unaffordable.
>>:  So a couple of things the county is working on.  So there is the tech center.  It is doing a lot of work on the AI system but also on these toilets that are self-containing.  There's a great segment on this.  There is a segment on that kind of stuff.  And also — sorry — I lost concentration — but I think that is enough, right?
>>:  Okay.  Unless there are any other comments from here, I think to summarize what we have done on this topic is exchanging an immense amount of information, number 1.  And one of my takeaways is that I am pleased to see so many towns individually and collectively really, addressing this critical resource from all sides, supply-side, regional coronation side.  So it is a huge critical issue for the Cape and at least they are paying attention to it now.
And I think there will be more opportunities to share lessons learned with the towns, looking for more opportunities for regionalization.  As several people have said, especially most recently, we share three or four lenses here, and we share them.  That means we have to work together.  So lots of good outcomes.
I know I've asked a few people from the towns to share their notes.
>>:  I sent mine to you privately.
>>:  I think this is a great resource to have on the website or somehow — like the meeting notes — because there is a lot of data here.
I am sure we did not capture everything that was said, but I hope we captured a lot of it.  And we will make sure that we can use this as a resource for future discussions apartment, but I want to open it up and moved to the public comment period both on the water quality issue and on anything else that we want to discuss.  So the doors open to the public.  Please identify yourself.
>>:  Yes.  I am on the site board on the east end and just to piggyback, someone said about this, like 10 years ago with the water system, we had nothing before that.  Just private wells and over 5000 connections ready to go with people.  And we are just building up our second tank, which is right up in the middle of the Seashore.  Okay, I think we can see it from Fort Hill.
And we just entered into the hit and miss agreement.  And we have run water up to the campground and the drive in, and that area.  Running water down the other day was not feasible.  And as far as running water into the seashore, right now it is not happening, day, but we are hoping.  
Our promise at the beginning of the water system was everybody pays for it and everybody has it available.  So that opened up the Seashore, the Kabal Road, the Ocean View Drive.  There is issues where we did permitting and testing 10 years ago.  And now it has changed and the rules of change in the Seashore.  We are not able to at this time.  We had our last contract go out.  This is because of the role change.  But hopefully, we will again make water available to everybody.
>>:  Great.  Great to see my old hometown so active also many fronts.  Thank you.  Other comments?  From the public?
I do have one--
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  Anything from the public?
>>:  Hold on a second.  Can you please read that?
>>:  So you will read that?  Do we have anymore?
>>:  We have one person who was to make a comment.
>>:  Okay.  So there was a previously submitted comment from Key Kerr.  I will read it to you.  It says I am writing to oppose any allowance of hunting or trapping on any public site that is managed by you, the National Park Service.  We are non-hunters, and we believe this continuation of hunting, trapping, abuse of animals needs to be stopped forever on public lands.  The way the laws are, they are completely violated and only warnings are ever given by the police.  So they are always at work, and it shows this program does not work.  We ask for peace entry quality for wildlife.  So it is in the record.
>>:  Here, here.
>>:  I see a couple of hands.
>>:  The first person is Gail Cohen.
>>:  Please.  You are and look.  It took me an hour to get on.  So I don't know whether you spoke about the airport or not, the lease, it is the most important thing going on.  They are in violation of the legislation of the covenant from the state to the Cape Cod National Seashore and everything else.  They have to do the lease by 2025.  I don't know whether it is done yet.  You need to address it.  You need to find out what the hell is going on, and you need to stop it.  There is no need for it.  It has been by special use permit all these years since 1961.  You are letting them bully you again.
And Rich, you and Mark, I will never forgive you for not fighting the National Park Service.  There are three testaments.  You know they lied to Congress.  I am the one who told you that you could testify, and you did.  But Mark, especially let the people of Cape Cod down, and it is a crime as far as I'm concerned apartment now having tried this, let me say that I'm glad is existing why —, which is why you gave into them.  The Park Service they insisted.  I don't know how they could have advised on anything.  It covers everything, the cause that was deleted, and the charter.  Everything has a permit or is commercial or is recreational.
Anyway I am glad you exist for the one reason that the press covers you.  And that is important to get to the people of Cape Cod what is going on with the National Park Service via Cape Cod National Seashore that takes their instructions with the Regional Office and from Washington, DC.
Now your goal, Rich, is to reform the National Park Service because you have direct contact with the Secretary of the Interior.
Now they were going to separate from the Department of Interior.  Instead they've infiltrated it, which is why Janet Armstrong got a big ticket.
Now you need to make sure that Janet Armstrong gives her two years and gets beyond that because everyone else, the grandchildren, etc. were able to keep their checks and Janet Armstrong needs to connect her checks that her father worked so hard on.
And if Janet Armstrong does not get a 10-year lease afterwards.  You are going to get it from me.  Okay, in terms of water, let me tell you that years ago I think Olson was superintendent or may be right after Olson, there was a problem with the water tower in Provincetown and I suggested that my cousin Frank, he was supposed to do a sculpture and sculpt it in something.  And they were not even interested.  But that is okay.  The Provincetown Art Association it is never inviting Frank to speak, and he was friends with the Provincetown artists.
But anyway let's see.  Okay.  In terms of the water situation, ask the old timers.  In one-month they could solve all the problems about the water except for the rising sea levels, which has to be addressed.  So ask the locals.  At the National Park Service uses their Colorado office.  They bring in outsiders.  No, start asking the locals about the dunes, about the Cove, about whatever.  Asked the locals, especially the old-timers because they know Provincetown.  They know the game.  So okay.  Well, that is it for now.
>>:  There will be a lot of tasks to take care of.  I have a long list here, and I will keep it and do my best, Gail.  Thank you.  Let's go to Janet.
>>:   (Nothing)
>>:  The floor is yours.
>>:  She is muted.
>>:  Can someone unmute her.
>>:  Once we unmutes her, she has to accept it.  Try again.
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  Okay, Janet, go ahead.
>>:  Okay.  I don't know if my face is on, but my voice perhaps?
>>:  We can hear you.
>>:  We cannot see you, but we can hear you.
>>:  I am not sure what that is.
>>:  Now we can see you.  Go ahead.
>>:  I wanted to address, tension on what Gail said, I did not know what she would be doing, but lastly, when I was speaking with Rich and everybody else, I spoke at the end about the Dune Shacks, in particular about my family's history there.
And I think I gave a little bit of history.  We had just a few moments to hear because of the eclipse.  But in any case, I was starting to reach out, I have a two-year agreement, as Gail touched upon, however when Joan Horgan and Stacy and the other folks were out a while ago to have the inspection of our house, I was told that I did not officially.  I have not received that from Joan yet, but I feel certain that I will.  
So that gives a two-year use permit.  I am more concerned about the fact that the committee that you and I were on, Rich, and 13 other people in 2010 reached the use and agreement, that was 20 years and I applied for the 10-year rented cottages.  So suddenly last year we slipped into this new RFP, which is 10 years is that of 20 years, which by all of our very careful studies we determined 20 years is much more valuable and much less of a deterrent the people who just slacked off and do not do the care of their places.
So that is a consideration.  And so I think that and the other five criteria for a transition of a lease for a Dune Shack, which we very carefully, over 13 sessions in a year, determined that we should have familiarity.  And that is along with the other five criteria.  I understand that the highest bidder is sort of low-key now, but that is a concern to all of us as well.  My parents, in 1948, found this place.  No windows.  You know 3 feet of sand inside.  
And they spent the rest of their lives, literally, taking care of this place before the Park Service  came.  I think Gail is being punished for 78 years of devotion by saying okay, we will see who keeps doing it and have you pay an exorbitant amount of money.  I think I share this with the rest of the people, and I understand that the six checks going through this for the past year have been awarded to their own places, but it still leaves a very tentative spin on it.  I do not know why we can't go back to the original preservation agreement, which was agreed upon by the superintendent and all of the town representatives.  And it makes me wonder about what is going to happen for our future.  This is our thoughts on the mechanisms for transition and what we came up on, very well study commission thing.  
The RFP was slammed on us with no warning and no contribution or as the original preservation said, it was very study, very careful.  The superintendent and the group from Cambridge were mediating this whole process.  It was reached upon very carefully and everyone participated.  So I am not sure if the current RFP with the 10-year lease or the 20 year lease, I am not sure if that is solid and locked in, or if there is any room for discussing it with the people with their concerns, most pointedly the dune dwellers, me of 78 years, and the other people for a minimum of 20-30 years involved in these places.  
So I am about restoring the original agreement, and what will happen in the future and specifically with me.  I once was, I think, lost under the sand for eight years until they discovered oh, I am here and now that is when the trouble started.  And I don't want to point fingers.
>>:  Thank you.  The whole Dune Shack issue has been a long, complicated, multilayered issue with park management, and you as an individual, and for me, even my involvement on the chair of the subcommittee.  You touched on a lot of issues.  Frankly, some of, which were addressed with the MOU.  And if you are here for the superintendent's presentation, obviously several of the original family members fell through the process.  It was difficult and necessary.  That is a big, long answer.  Public lands, private use, federal government regulations.  
But we get through the process.  And so I know it was painful in many ways and was stressful.  But I think in the end the Park Service has for the most part been able to respond to the federal responsibilities of a manager public lands.  You have been good in the long-term stewardship of the properties.  There still is some loose ends as you pointed out a list of them.  But none that we can address right now on this slide.  I think the superintendent is taking lots of notes.  
And they will follow-up with some of those specifics when we have a chance. maybe it starts with a couple of you coming in here to have a meeting.  But I think overall the process has changed some adults.  And we can look at the clock and see it is 4:00 and lot of people have to pack up.  So thank you, Janet for your comments and thank you, Gail, and others for your comments.  We will do what we can.  The superintendent has a last comment before we close.
>>:  Yes.  If I could just have your time for the last couple of words.  So again, this is the Advisory Commission.
What I wrote down is what I am taking away from this conversation in terms of your advice to me.  Number 1, the park should and could, should continue to provide those ecosystem services that we do, not only with just again be an open and public land, but also in terms of open space for the water system recharge, etc. and the work that our team does with the water quality research, and the data.  And other team does a good job sharing the data.  But I think I heard pretty early that the data sharing and making that publicly available is important to this group.
And then the third item I took away was the importance for us to continue to work with the town as we look at the water systems, both wastewater and freshwater.  Not only for the Seashore but also to serve the town.
There is a pathway to water.  There's a Director's order, 35A, which provides the guidelines under which we can permit water to be extracted from the park.  It has a pretty high threshold and talks about establishing the need for the water is because of the park.  But it is a pathway, right?  It is not a solid "no.," and that is something we can certainly work through on the system of a case-by-case basis.  Those of the three cases of advice I have taken away.  If folks have captured that differently, please let me know.
And the other thing I wanted to add to the group as I will not be in-person for an August meeting.  I did not realize that I was going on a family vacation, but I'm going to see my daughter at the Grand Teton so I will not be here.  I can be here remotely.  And Leslie is my designated alternate.  She will be in the room.  I want to be on remote for this meeting.  It is on zoning, both on the Seashore district.
And I think we also are two things today about zoning.  I'm excited for the conversation and Rich, I assume you and I will get together after this meeting and similarly do a little bit of homework so we can come armed for that conversation.
And that is what I had, sir.
>>:  Good.  Is it on zoning or fire?
>>:  Okay.  Zoning..
>>:  Okay.  I had them reversed.
>>:  Does the zoning include the building guidelines and all of that stuff?
>>:  I think that is what it is.  I think that is the concern about the mansions being built and if there are any controls.  That is a big part of it.
>>:  Eastham is doing a lot of good work on that part.
>>:  I think the idea is to come to talk about what has your town or organization done to increment the secretarial standards, right?  That is how the Seashore was established.  The towns, the regulatory body would not be the federal government, but the towns around, for observing the Seashore district.  Like sort of where do we sit today?  And is there still work yet to be done?  Because I think what else?  Like are there other topics that we need?
>>:  Maybe what some of the towns are doing for the open space and reservations, which sometimes includes land.
>>:  But it would be good for the towns that are within the Seashore to bring in with the zoning is they have in relationship because a lot of it was done on kind of, and under basis but never really, codified.  And as we all know in Wellfleet; I will look into those and look at that as well--
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  There are issues--
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  That is next time--
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  I just did not know.  Janet Armstrong raised her hand--
[ Overlapping speakers ]
>>:  Janet, is there something else?  I think your hand might be.  But a motion to adjourn.  Is there a second?
>>:  Motion.
>>:  Thank you.  Next topic is zoning.  And don't forget to take one of the books.  That is a nice primer, a background.
>>:  Thank you.
>>:  Thank you, everybody.
>>:  Thank you.
CAPTIONER:  Meeting dismissed.
4:07 PM (ET)
>>:  Recording stopped.