Present: John Badger (Chairman), Diane Hardy (Town Planner), Peter Roy (Vice-Chairman), Rick McMenimen, George Willant
Absent: Eric Botterman (Town Council Representative), Janice Rosa, andVal Shelton, all excused.
Chairman Badger called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.
Workshop on Stormwater Management
Amanda Stone, of Natural Resource Outreach Coalition (NROC) and UNH Cooperative Extension, opened the discussion by introducing the rest of NROC team, which included Steve Miller, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve; Barbara McMillan, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services; and Julia Peterson, of the UNH Cooperative Extension.
Others present included Town Review Engineer, Tobin Farewell; Ed Wojnowski, Town Administrator; and Drew Keifaber and Jeff Goldknopf of the Conservation Commission. Cynthia Copeland, of the Strafford Regional Planning Commission, and William Arcieri, of the Water Resource Committee, were also in attendance.
Steve Miller presented a slide presentation, which gave an overview of the fundamentals of stormwater. He discussed how the built environment increases run-off. As the amount of development increases, the amount of run-off increases and the amount of water that infiltrates into the ground decreases. The amount of impervious cover is an indicator of the overall health of the watershed. Here in Newmarket, due to growth trends, there has been an increase in the amount of impervious surfaces since 1990 from 5.9 % of the land area to 10.5% in 2005. There is good local data available, which correlates the amount of impervious surface and water quality and habitat conditions. He referenced a USGS study of 10 coastal watersheds in Coastal New Hampshire
From a regulatory perspective, we have done a good job in dealing with point source pollution, but not as good of a job with non-point pollution. There is a shift in regulatory thinking from pollutant treatment to reducing the volumes and flow of stormwater, with an emphasis on managing run-off, not only for water quantity but quality, as well. An increase in the volume increases erosion and alters habitats. Increased flows alter the hydrology and the level of contamination. Uncontrolled run-off and non-point pollution are major water quality issues affecting Great Bay. Steve Miller talked about the research that has been done. The higher the amount of impervious surfaces, the lower the water quality and the higher the environmental impacts on habitat. Most stormwater controls are aimed at affecting peak run-off and do not address water quality.
He spoke of the importance of stormwater management from a community perspective. In addition to environmental impacts, there are economic impacts, including the loss of revenue due to tourism (beach closures, shellfish closures) and flood damage, drinking water purification and costs to the municipality for infrastructure upgrading. The situation is exacerbated by climate changes. Historically, there have been increases in the amount of rainfall in our region, many of the stormwater systems built in the past are now under-designed, thus resulting in flooding and the need to replace culverts and storm drains to increase the capacity.
Newer stormwater regulations are more detailed and address water quality. Many tools are now available to help us better manage stormwater. He talked about Low Impact Development (LID) techniques, such as vegetated swales, rain gardens, bio-retention systems and gravel wetlands, which provide infiltration, as well as treatment. There are a number of devices to reduce volumes or encourage evaporation. He spoke of the Stormwater Center at University of New Hampshire, which is testing the effectiveness of various techniques. They are a great resource on stormwater best management practices and water quality enhancement. They have found that many of the best management practices are very effective in removing total suspended solids (TSS) at a removal rate of 80%. He also talked of the efforts of Southeast Watershed Alliance, which is trying to attack the nitrogen issue in Great Bay, which is causing a decline of eelgrass. There are no easy solutions to the non-point source pollution, but much progress has been made.
Barbara McMillan presented some successful case studies of communities that NROC assisted, including the Town of Hampton, who worked on the site and subdivision regulations, incorporating stormwater and LID and maintenance provisions, did some citizen outreach and an “on-the-ground” project with a PREP grant. Milton, Newington, Brentwood, and New Durham, also used PREP funding to prepare new stormwater regulations. NROC also worked with Dover on stormwater issues. There had been concerns about the rising cost of city maintenance for stormwater operations and they looked into the feasibility of forming a separate stormwater utility to help defray the costs. (There is now enabling legislation to allow such utilities to form in New Hampshire.) Dover’s program included built-in incentives to homeowners that utilitize limited impact development (LID) techniques. They held workshops to help make information about tree boxes, rain gardens and pervious surfaces (e.g. porous concrete) available to the public, as well as to Public Works Department employees.
Amanda Stone gave an overview of how the PREP program works and encouraged the Town to apply for a grant. She also provided information about the Phase 2 EPA, also known as the MS-4 program. If the Town meets certain population density requirements, Newmarket may be required to participate in this EPA program, when the 2010 census data is released. In Dover, participation in the program has involved the monitoring of stormwater discharges, public education, the mapping of the stormwater drainage system, and the elimination of illicit discharges. It is hard to predict whether Newmarket will be required to participate until the new census data is available.
The NROC team conducted a facilitated discussion, led by Julia Peterson, with the Planning Board, to determine the next steps to be taken for addressing stormwater management. A summary of the discussion is attached to these minutes. The Planning Board felt that the first step should be completing an inventory of existing conditions. Are there areas in town that are experiencing issues with drainage and flooding that can be corrected by local code enforcement? For instance, are there situations where previously approved plans have not been complied with and drainage issues have resulted? Are projects in compliance with all the Planning Board’s conditions of approval? It was felt that the Town should develop an overall stormwater management plan to identify deficiencies and take some corrective measures. The recent Underwood study included recommendations for drainage improvements, which are being considered by the Town Council. Most of the discussions to date have focused on the wastewater treatment plant, as the Town is under an administrative order to upgrade the system. Our largest problems are the closest to water, where there is a high level of impervious surface and no treatment facilities. There are many facets of the problem that need to be looked at. For example, are retention ponds filling with sediment and the systems not functioning properly? The Town will be doing some additional modeling of drainage and studying of the problem. It was explained that part of the Town’s flooding problem is attributed to a “transfer” of water going from one watershed to another.
The NROC group will prepare summary notes for the Planning Board to consider. It was concluded there have been some excellent ideas presented and the Board needs to mull them over and see if there are some specific actions they would like to focus on and move forward with. Specifically, the Board needs to figure out what it would like to do for an application, if it decides to apply for a PREP grant this year. The Planning Board thanked NROC for its assistance and decided to take the matter up again at its next meeting.
Adjournment
Action
Motion: Peter Roy made a motion to adjourn at 8:40 p.m.
