Please attend the Orleans Town Meeting on Monday, October 29
6:30 P.M. at the Orleans Middle School!
Here are five Articles with environmental impact worthy of your support.
Article 3: Fund the Water Meter Technology Replacement Program: $1,980,000. With new cellular technology, water usage can be monitored continuously and more accurately at less cost, offering opportunities to conserve water, provide better customer service, improve revenue flow, and manage water infrastructure more efficiently. Quarterly water billing would be possible for the first time. More timely detection of leaks could save customers in total over $120k annually. It is estimated that Orleans loses 55 million gallons of water a year, thus wasting over $150k that it costs to treat that water for human consumption. A vote for cellular meters is a vote for water conservation!
Article 5: Fund the Nauset Beach Retreat Master Plan and Facility Relocation: $1,200,000. After an extraordinary winter of storms and beach erosion, the Article will fund dune enhancement and temporary facilities at Nauset Beach, as the Town continues long term planning for an accelerated retreat to higher ground. Time and tide are not our friends.
Articles 13, 14 & 15: These votes to accept Massachusetts General Laws governing betterments** are in preparation for a final plan and proposed financing of the new sewer system. They provide a legal framework for but do not involve what the betterment charges will be for those who will be hooked up to the sewer collection system. Those decisions have not yet been made. Just tidying up Town laws to be ready when the Town returns with a proposed schedule of betterment fees.
**Betterments involve the determination of increased property values resulting from public investment in infrastructure such as a hook-up to the Town sewer collection and treatment system.
Moving Ahead with OPC’s Demonstration Project
On Sarah’s Pond in Orleans!
Ultra-Fine Bubbles: A technology too promising to ignore.
On Monday, November 6, the Orleans Pond Coalition will appear before the Orleans Conservation Commission to file an RDA, the start of the permitting process for its first demonstration project, a cutting edge oxygenation technology that uses extremely small oxygen bubbles to assist recovery of ailing ponds and lakes. The "Ultra-Fine" oxygen bubbles are too tiny to see under a microscope and stay in solution for very long periods of time without dissipating into through the water like most conventional aeration systems. Ultra fine bubble technology (UFB) has not yet been used in the Commonwealth or elsewhere in New England. This project has been a year in the planning, with the assistance of Dr. Kenneth Wagner, and will be financed entirely with private funds. OPC will be contracting with SOLitude Lake Management to install the system. Assuming the permitting process goes smoothly, the demonstration project will begin in Sarah’s Pond in early May.
What better way to celebrate OPC’s fifteenth anniversary than to take the plunge!
Celebrating Fifteen Years of Water Protection and Conservation
Let them eat cake!
Last Saturday, October 20, OPC’s Annual Meeting was a celebration of its fifteen years as the Town’s most reliable source of information and advocacy for water protection and stewardship. With a capacity crowd at the Orleans Federated Church, OPC’s membership enjoyed a seated brunch and a riveting lecture by Dr. Ken Wagner, one of the Commonwealth’s most respected limnologists with over 34 years of technical experience in environmental management and author of numerous publications, including the influential Practical Guide to Lake Management in Massachusetts (2004). His topic, “Understanding Cape Cod Lakes and Their Management,” was a homerun with his audience. Commenting on his interaction with the membership, Dr. Wagner said that “they were all so engaged and nice; no curmudgeons!” That’s the hallmark of the OPC membership. And OPC is thankful for their generosity, commitment and spirit. Something to celebrate every year!