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Photo Celine Gandolfo
Two hoses hooked to a Provincetown fire hydrant discharged 2.3 million gallons of water into the Foss Woods wetlands, a protected conservation area. |
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Banner file photo
DPW director David Guertin misjudged how long water would be emptying into wetland near the town’s water tank. |
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Town dumps water into wetlands
DPW director cites ‘avoidance of health crisis’ as justification
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — The department of public works discharged 2.3 million gallons of chemically treated water into a protected wetland last week without notifying local conservation authorities, raising concerns that the fragile wetland may have been damaged.
Carl Hillstrom, Provincetown water supervisor, said the DPW emptied 2.3 million of the 2.7 million gallons in the Mt. Gilboa water tank into a wetland in the Foss Woods conservation area beginning Monday, May 14, and ending at midnight on Wednesday, May 16. Foss Woods is a 14.5-acre parcel off Route 6A that was purchased by the town in 1994 as the first property in its newly created conservation lands. Wetlands cover a portion of that property.
Celine Gandolfo, president of the Provincetown Conservation Trust, which is in charge of protecting the town’s conservation lands, called the water discharge “a tsunami” and said the water level in the Foss Woods marshland was “probably 10 times or more” what it normally is even during the wet season.
“Chemicals and pH balance could negatively affect certain populations of animals, plants and amphibians. There are certain species that would not be able to escape the rapid rise in water level,” Gandolfo told DPW director David Guertin in an email.
“Additionally, a high-velocity surface runoff into the wetland introduces concerns surrounding erosion, silt and sedimentation, all of which are very harmful to the ecosystem as well,” Dieter Groll, co-chair of the town’s conservation commission, told Guertin.
On Wednesday, May 16, Groll ordered Guertin to stop flushing into Foss Woods until “we can collectively figure out how to mitigate the adverse impacts.” Guertin initially told the commission and Town Manager Sharon Lynn the tank would be emptied by 5 p.m. Wednesday, then changed that estimate to 8 p.m. While Hillstrom said the discharge was finished by midnight on Wednesday, Gandolfo said she visited the site Thursday morning and water was still coming out of the hydrant hoses, though at a slower rate.
“[Guertin] just ignored us, basically,” she said.
“Unfortunately, [Guertin’s] estimate of time was not correct and it extended into the next day,” Lynn said.
The impact on the wetlands is still under investigation by conservation officials. However, wetlands experts said there are two primary areas of concern: 1) that sediment on the bottom of the pond would be disturbed, potentially harming eggs and larvae buried there, and 2) that chemicals in the treated drinking water might disrupt the fragile ecosystem.
“Chlorine is generally not good for aquatic organisms,” said Jo Ann Muramoto, senior scientist at the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. “Anytime you introduce a sudden change in water quality, some organisms can’t take that.”
Mark Robinson, executive director of the Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, said sudden flooding of vernal pools, which often exist in wetlands, can damage the eggs and larvae of species that reproduce only in vernal pools, such as salamanders, fairy shrimp and wood frogs. In addition, the Mt. Gilboa tank discharge may have been a violation of the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act and Provincetown’s own conservation bylaws, which both outlaw any alteration of protected wetlands.
“The amount of water and type of water [from the Mt. Gilboa tank] could be construed as an alteration of a wetland,” Robinson said.
The water tank was drained last week to allow the installation of a flow diffuser, which mixes the water in the tank to regulate water temperature. The warmer water at the top of the tank was essentially stagnating, causing a bacteria problem, according to Hillstrom and Guertin.
“Avoidance of a health crisis is of compelling public benefit when weighed against a virtually non-existent receptor impact. We were not conducting ‘harmful activity,’” Guertin wrote in an email to Gandolfo.
Hillstrom said it “didn’t cross my mind” to alert conservation officials about the water dumping. He said the Mt. Gilboa tank was drained into the Foss Woods wetlands approximately two years ago when the tank was repainted. Any time major maintenance is needed on the tank, it drains through the same hydrant, he said.
As for any potential damage to the wetlands from chlorine and other chemicals in the drinking water, Hillstrom said it would be minimal.
“We drink it. We put it on our lawns. I think that says it all,” he said.
Town Manager Lynn has called a meeting between the DPW and the conservation commission next week to address concerns.
“To me, the issue was one of non-communication. We’re cleaning that up, if you will, and going to the next step,” she said.
Dennis Minsky, co-chair of the conservation commission, said the commission still has the authority to issue an enforcement order even after the fact if it believes the wetlands were harmed. The enforcement order could require some sort of mitigation, or repair, of any damage to the wetlands, or impose certain conditions the next time the tank is drained. The commission will wait until the meeting next week to determine its next step.
“My quandary is, which [enforcement action] would be the most effective? The bottom line we want is compliance and understanding and education.” Minsky said.
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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May 24th, 2007