Minutes

Meeting date: 
Thursday, February 8, 2018

Minutes

Herring River Restoration Committee (HRRC)

Cape Cod National Seashore Headquarters

Wellfleet, MA

February 8, 2018

 

Members Present: Tim Smith, Hunt Durey, Steve Spear, Steve Block, Gary Joseph, Eric Derleth (by phone), Hillary Greenberg, Peter Herridge

 

Others Present:  Margo Fenn, Martha Craig, Carole Ridley, Christine Odiaga, Helen Miranda Wilson, Shawn Mulligan, Kathy Tevyaw, David Ricketts

 

Gary Joseph opened the meeting at 9:30 am and provided brief remarks about the HRRC. He has been a member of the HRRC for a decade.   He would like to see more focused discussion and decision-making at the meetings. One way to do this may be to rely more on the subcommittees to provide recommendations to the full HRRC. He is continuing on in his role as the Wellfleet representative for the time being.

 

Administration/Coordination:

 

Approval of Minutes:  The Committee voted to approve the minutes of January 10, 2017 meeting.

 

Schedule of Meetings:  The Committee approved the following schedule for upcoming meetings:

            Wednesday, March 21, 2018:              HRRC regular meeting

            Thursday, April 5, 2018:                     HRRC regular meeting

 

The group noted that the Herring River Executive Council plans meet with the newly appointed Stakeholder Group in the spring.

           

Permitting:  The Committee discussed a draft critical path chart for submission of the Cape Cod Commission Development of Regional Impact (DRI) application.  Carole Ridley requested that the HRRC review the tasks, proposed deadlines and assignments to make sure they were complete and feasible.  The group discussed each task, made follow-up assignments, and suggested several changes to the draft timeline. Carole agreed to make the changes to the critical path chart and send the revised version to the HRRC.

 

Strategic Planning and Fundraising:  Shawn Mulligan and Kathy Tevyaw joined the meeting to talk about the funding strategy for Project construction and implementation.

Carole Ridley explained the objective of increasing the profile of the Project among partnering federal agencies, so that it may be considered for both existing funding programs and for any unexpected infrastructure-related appropriations. In addition to federal agencies, the Project team will continue to reach out to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have a compatible mission.

 

Shawn Mulligan reported that the National Park Service (NPS) has named Brian Carlstrom as the new Superintendent of Cape Cod National Seashore. Carlstrom currently serves as Deputy Associate Director for the Natural Resource Stewardship and Science (NRSS) Directorate in Washington, D.C., where he develops and implements resource stewardship and science policies and direction Service-wide. Carlstrom will begin his new assignment in April.

 

HRRC members representing federal agencies reported on outreach and briefings for senior officials within their agencies.  The project is well known and well regarded within the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The group agreed that it would good to get some cross-agency dialogue among the partner agencies.

 

The Committee reviewed a list of NGOs that may have an interest in the Restoration Project as well.  The list will be further developed, along with a contact strategy for each priority NGO. Steve Block suggested compiling a list of private foundations that could provide funding as well.

 

Adaptive Management Activities:  Tim Smith and Eric Derleth updated the Committee on adaptive management activities.  They are working with the Woods Hole Group (WHG) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) adaptive management team to structure an expert elicitation process for making ecological predictions about Project effects, where modeling data is not available. This expert elicitation process would look at topics such as carbon flux and climate change, salt marsh and sediment dynamics, water quality, shellfish, fish passage, and related issues. The Committee discussed a two-pronged approach to seeking this scientific expertise, including gathering information through a common website, and then using a group of local experts to analyze the range of scientific predictions and refine them for the adaptive management consequence table. The Committee supported the proposed approach and noted that the proposed website could be a useful resource for public information in the future.

 

Public Outreach:  The Committee discussed a draft memorandum to the Herring River Executive Council (HREC) that outlines and evaluates risk management for the Project.  This memo is intended to address a number of questions and issues raised by the “Concerned Citizens” group in recent months.  The Committee reviewed the draft memorandum and suggested some clarifications and revisions.  On a motion by Hunt Durey, seconded by Steve Block, the Committee voted unanimously to have HRRC and FHR jointly send the revised memorandum to the Herring River Executive Council prior to its next meeting.

 

Hydrodynamic Modeling:  Steve Spear reported that WHG has begun some additional modeling runs.  This work is expected to be completed by mid-March.

 

Preconstruction Monitoring:  The Committee discussed two recent meetings with USGS officials.  The first meeting focused on baseline water quality monitoring that USGS has been conducting at the Chequessett Neck Road (CNR) dike and upstream.  A draft report is expected in April with a final report in the fall of 2018.  The plan is continue bimonthly sampling through September, then remove the equipment. Tim Smith reported that USGS and NPS have submitted a joint grant proposal to seek funding to integrate several separate water quality data sets into one database.

 

The second USGS meeting focused on groundwater monitoring in the Mill Creek area. A draft report on this work is also expected in April. The Committee discussed the need to have a real time rain gauge in the vicinity in order to be able to correlate data on groundwater levels, precipitation, tidal cycles and coastal storm events.

 

The group also discussed sediment sampling. Martha Craig reported that FHR had received a revised proposal from ESS to do this work.  Steve Spear also reported on a groundwater study being prepared by Larry Martin.

 

Regulatory Oversight Group (ROG):  The Committee discussed when to schedule the next ROG meeting. The group agreed that it would make sense to meet first with the individual state and federal agencies that will need to issue permits.  However, it might make sense to plan a ROG meeting in late spring to update them on the adaptive management plan.

 

Other Work Program Tasks:

 

CYCC Design:  Steve Spear reported that the latest archaeological report has been submitted to the National Park Service for review.  Once this is approved, ESS can resume work on the golf course design plans. ESS is also working on a pump design.

 

Low-lying Property Survey and Engineering:  Steve Spear updated the Committee on recent plans and discussions with two property owners.  Negotiations are ongoing with others.

 

Rare Species Monitoring:  Oxbow Associates has submitted a draft report to FHR.

The HRRC will review the report and get comments back to Oxbow.

 

CNR Bridge & Tide Gate/Mill Creek Dike & Tide Gate Design:  Fuss & O’Neill has completed permit-level plans for these Project elements.  They are still working on the regulatory compliance reports to be included in permit applications.

 

Tide Monitoring:  Some of the existing tide monitoring equipment was removed in order to prevent ice damage.  It will be reinstalled soon.  The Committee discussed where and how many monitoring stations are needed.

 

Documents Referred to in the Meeting:

 

            -Minutes of the 1/10/18 HRRC meeting

            -Draft HRRC Risk Management Memo to HREC