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C5 well ownership in dispute
Banner Daily Update posted Fri. May 18
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
Provincetown’s efforts to find a back-up water supply hit another snag this week when questions were raised over who actually owns a promising drill site.
A four-acre parcel on Higgins Hollow Road in Truro, dubbed “C5,” was thought to be owned by the town of Truro. The two towns had previously agreed to explore C5 as one of multiple well sites that would give Provincetown a redundant water supply, as ordered by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
However, a property survey by an adjacent private property owner recently discovered that the plot lines in the area may be incorrect. As a result, according to Truro town administrator Pam Nolan, the Cape Cod National Seashore, not Truro, may own C5.
If so, Truro would have to obtain the disputed property from the CCNS in order to continue its efforts to help Provincetown develop backup access to the Pamet Lens, which provides drinking water to the outer Cape and which Truro has the good fortune to sit on top of. There is no discussion at this point whether Truro would ask Provincetown to contribute in some way to that acquisition.
Gary Palmer, Truro selectman, said there are ways to obtain the property without having to purchase it for cash, including trading it for another piece of town-owned property within the Seashore.
“The town owns a number of land-locked parcels within the Seashore. We can do what’s called an exchange of interest,” he said.
C5 is also a land-locked parcel within the CCNS boundaries. However, CCNS officials had already granted a permit giving Truro the right to use Seashore property to access the potential well site.
George Price, CCNS superintendent, said the Seashore would work out a deal with Truro for C5 if necessary.
“It’s in all our interests to ensure that well site is available,” he said. “I have no interest in being a road block.”
The question of ownership arose as a result of a situation in which two neighbors in the area were trying to work out a common boundary. A Truro landowner with a parcel near C5 followed the survey and title examination work she had been provided by Slade Associates and discovered her parcel was part of a larger parcel which includes C5 and appears to be owned by the federal government.
“I was shocked to come to this conclusion and felt that this information had to be known by appropriate authorities so they could do their own investigation into the facts,” said the landowner, who asked not to be identified.
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Nauset lacrosse girls stopped on Friday
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Kibbles & Skits
Sons of surfman tell sea stories
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May 17th, 2007