WMAC minutes of Thursday evening, September 6, 2007

Attendees: David Crosby - Chair; David Hearne; Paul Lauenstein; Rory McGregor - Secretary.

Others: Eric Hooper - Superintendent, DPW; Bob Weeks

1.  David Crosby met with the Selectmen on August 21st and reviewed the proposed mission statement and goals for WMAC.  He discussed the WMAC recommendation, submitted to the Selectmen earlier in the month, to accelerate the program for installation of new water meters from 3 years to 18 months.

David Hearne will investigate the cost requirement to accomplish the above and recommend the procedure to appropriate the funds. Eric Hooper will review the capital projects list and decide how this would impact other scheduled projects.

2.  Eric Hooper provided information on several issues:

a) Water pumped from town wells in July and August are comparable to past years.  Lawn watering is automatic for homes with sprinkler systems and not managed or monitored in most cases by home owners.  Therefore, efforts to decrease water consumption in these months must address this user group.

b) Ground water levels are declining in keeping with historical trend. 

Stream flow and surface water bodies are diminished due to 28 days of virtually no rainfall.

c) Eric presented a new graph which shows Massapoag Lake level an discharge rate (at the Pond Street spillway) over the summer months with rainfall events and amounts noted.  A new tipping bucket gage measures rainfall; it measures 5 to 10% less rain compared to earlier methods.

Paul Lauenstein presented info on decreased outflow from Gavins Pond over the past month.

d)  Break in 12" AC pipe at Oak Hill and Hampton Road  occured.  This could have resulted from the heavy equipment used in paving operations in this area.  Ensuing discussion brought up best practice issue which, generally speaking, is to replace AC pipe whenever new paving is done.   However, replacing water mains increases the cost of paving projects.

e) Eric will ask Ben Puritz to contact his counterpart in Stoughton to see if we can move forward on the emergency water hookup arrangements with their town.

f) The cost estimate to remove the iron and manganese at Well #6 would require a multi-million dollar investment.  This will be difficult to justify for a well that delivers a relatively small contribution to the Sharon water supply. 

3.  Eric Hooper will prepare a proposal by next WMAC meeting for an updated Master Plan which addresses the input from WMAC members at the July WMAC meeting.

4.  WMAC will provide input to the Sharon Economic Development and Commercialization Committee on the issue of water supply and water treatment for center of town build-out over the next 10 years.  David Crosby will coordinate with Eli Hauser to provide input from WMAC.

5.  WMAC approved the water bill insert prepared by Paul Lauenstein and directed that it be forwarded to the selectmen for their approval.  David Crosby reported that the Water Emergency Hotline listed in the brochure was a non-working number.  Paul said he would investigate and resolve.  Eric Hooper proposed that a paragraph be added encouraging town residents to contact advocacy groups and request that they promote water efficient devices (wash machines, toilets, etc.) similar to the intiatives in Sharon.  The WMAC decided this was not appropriate for the brochure.  Eric advised that he would provide the Selectmen with an alternative to the WMAC recommendation.  Inserts will be needed for the October billing when it goes out.  Rory McGregor suggested that David Crosby resolve with Eric and the Selectmen any final wording required so that the brochure is ready on time.

6.  Next meeting is Thursday, October 18th, at the Town Hall at 7:30pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Rory McGregor, Secretary