C HATHAM W ATER A SSESSMENT  

 

For those of you who missed this year's Annual Meeting, Larry Sampson, Chair of the Water and Sewer Advisory Committee, gave a fascinating and sobering talk about the current state of our water supply. We are grateful to Larry for sharing the following summary. If you have questions, please email DPW Director Tom Temple. 

  

The Chatham Water and Sewer Advisory Committee is comprised of the following members: Debbie Aikman, Chuck Bartlett, George Cooper , Michael Skelley, and Larry Sampson. Staff Participants are: Dr. Robert Duncanson, Tom Temple, Pam Jones, and Val Peter.  

 

Current Assessment:

Good water pumping capacity = 3.7 million gallons/day maximum. Nearly 2 million gallons/day of this capacity may be threatened by the shallow nature of these wells (drilled prior to 1970) during drought.

Wells 6 + 7 capacity = 2.0 million gallons/day maximum (post treatment)

High manganese and iron concentrations required installation of an 11 million dollar facility to remove these minerals, which tend to be present in deeper wells on Cape Cod.

Peak 2015 water consumption = 4.2 million gallons/day

Peak 2016 water consumption = 3.9 million gallons/day

Peak 2017 water consumption = 3.7 million gallons/day

Current capacity = 4.7 million gallons/day (5.7 million after treatment installation)

Maximum capacity exceeds maximum consumption by ~ 10%

 

Chatham experienced an abnormal growth in peak consumption during fiscal 2014-2015 of 15%. Many efforts have been made to curb consumption during the peak summer season which have yielded some minor success. DPW Director, Tom Temple, has attributed the majority of that recent success to a fairly wet summer of 2017. Even this meager downturn in consumption should not be taken for granted and clearly much greater public response is needed to avoid a return to past bad habits.

 

The Water and Sewer Advisory Committee has considered many options for long-term stability in use and more importantly to avoid additional large-scale capital expenditures. The cheapest alternative is clearly conservation, so in May of 2017 Town Selectmen were asked to consider regulations to restrict use of town water for irrigating lawns and filling swimming pools. While all of the requested changes were not adopted, sufficient restraints were enacted to better enforce existing and future abusive water consumption. If consumption cannot be frozen at 2015 levels and continues to grow by only 10% per year (or even 5%) we are looking at possible water pressure issues in peak season in only a few short years.  

 

Reduction in water pressure may affect the thousands of Chatham residents who have unregistered/un-inspected underground irrigation systems. A lack of water pressure may cause water under these lawns to siphon back to the public water supply creating a potential health hazard for all of Chatham's town water users. It's critical to maintain some reasonable buffer capacity in the event of a well failure or a fire. We must move forward to develop additional well and storage capacity regardless of any short term success in Conservation attempts. Increases in water rates are necessary to fund this expansion, therefore a consultant has been engaged to address financial implications. Clearly a disproportionate expense to fund this expansion should be borne by those consuming the most water. Chatham has applied to the State for an additional 70 million gallons of annual withdrawal, which represents an 18% increase in annual consumption to 600 million gallons annually.  

 

It's my sincere hope that the Old Village Association will help to increase awareness of these issues among its members and the Town at large.  

Larry Sampson  

Nancy Koerner  

ALLIANCE REPORT 2017  

2017 has been a busy and productive year for the Chatham Alliance for Preservation and Conservation. Early in the new year the forum planning group settled on beach erosion as the subject of its spring forum, and moved the date to late June to make it possible for more seasonal residents to attend. During the winter and early spring we had speakers at our regular meetings who helped set the stage for the June forum.

 

In May the Alliance held what has become quite popular amongst the voters of Chatham - its annual Selectmen Candidates' Forum on topics of conservation and preservation. This year it was attended by over 100 active voters. The two candidates this year were incumbent Seth Taylor and his challenger Shareen Davis. Both showed themselves to be articulate and on top of the issues. In the end long-time resident Davis won out over Taylor.

 

The 2017 Alliance Forum's, Living and Working With Chatham's Changing Shoreline; Dynamics and Challenges For the Future was attended by over 200 interested residents. For many years, Chatham was comfortably protected by the outer beach. In 1987 this protective barrier began to be broken through, with nearly a half dozen distinct breaks now, and more likely in the near future. Natural replenishment is hampered by a rising sea level and existing breaks that capture needed beach nourishment as it is carried down from the north by ocean currents. To compensate for this loss more dredging and re-nourishment by artificial means are required - a difficult and expensive process of uncertain sustainability. Without an effective barrier beach Chatham is at serious risk. Not only would shore front properties be threatened, but our fishing industry and tourism could be endangered. Much of the latter portion of the forum was given over to an educational and entertaining description of the challenges faced by present day boaters and commercial fishermen plying the waters around Chatham; challenges likely to grow with time.

 

7 am, December 2nd ©ejhorrocks 2017

After a summer hiatus, the Alliance held a reception at the Atwood House for the presidents of the Alliance's 14 local non-profit member organizations. The many stresses on Chatham's quality of life as a popular tourist destination were voiced informally in small group conversations. At the November meeting it was decided to focus our very limited resources on our two successful annual forum series. Alliance member organization representatives did some brainstorming regarding a Spring 2018 Forum topic. A large number of the dozen or so suggested topics concern growth, density, and congestion in Chatham. These are the issues driving our challenges in conservation and preservation. While our forums on ground water (2016) and erosion (2017) were important and timely, the problems they addressed are ancillary. What many citizens talk about on a daily basis are growth, density and congestion - all major challenges to quality of life in town.

The question is not to stop growth, density and congestion (an impossible task anyhow), but how to redirect it to benefit all citizens, not just a few. Powerful forces in Chatham are working diligently to bring yet more people into town - both day-trippers and residents - without assessing the costs and benefits for all the Town's citizens. Chatham's primary selling points are rapidly being exhausted by increases in growth, density, and congestion. The current model promoting these, without regard to a corresponding degradation of quality of life, is unsustainable and self-defeating over the long run. But no one wants to talk about where we citizens of Chatham are going with it, or whether we even want to go there. Such talk runs counter to the comfortable illusion of Chatham as a carefree, timeless fantasy land where constraints and worries are all left behind when the line is crossed into town. Be sure to attend The Alliance's spring 2018 Forum next June.  

 

David MacAdam

OVA Representative to The Chatham Alliance

for Conservation and Preservation