CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE ADVISORY COMMISSIONTHREE HUNDRED AND SECOND MEETING
HELD AT CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE, Marconi Station
Area, Park Headquarters, South Wellfleet, Massachusetts,on Monday, March 14, 2016, commencing at 1:11 p.m.
SITTING:
Richard Delaney, Chairman Larry Spaulding
Lilli Green Joseph Craig Sheila Lyons Judith Stephenson Mary-Jo Avellar MaureenBurgess
Nat Goddard, alternate Bob Summersgill, alternate Kathleen Bacon,alternate
Also present:
George Price, Superintendent
Kathy Tevyaw, Deputy Superintendent
Robert Cook, Acting Chief of Natural Resources and Science Mary Hake, Natural Resource Specialist
Courtney Butler, Centennial Volunteer Ambassador Audience members
LINDA M. CORCORAN CERTIFIED COURT REPORTER
P. O. Box 4 Kingston,Massachusetts 02364
(781) 585-8172
I N D E X
Page
Adoption of Agenda ...... 3
Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting
(January 11, 2016)...... 4
Reports of Officers...... 5
Reports of Subcommittees ...... 5
Nickerson Fund Update ...... 6
Update of Pilgrim Nuclear PlantEmergencyPlanning.6
Superintendent's Report...... 13
Storm Damage/Erosion Update ...... 13
Shorebird Management Plan/Environmental Assessment Update ...... 26
Natural Resource Management Projects - Bats . ...28
National ParkServiceCentennial...... 43
Herring River Wetland Restoration ...... 49
Highlands Center Update ...... 50
NPS Policy on the Use of UAS - Drones ...... 56
Old Business ...... 69
New Business ...... 70
Date and Agenda for Next Meeting ...... 70
Public Comment ...... 73
Adjournment...... 75
Reporter's Certificate ...... 77
1P R O C E E D I N GS
2MR.DELANEY:Taketwo.At this time we allhave
3to speak loudly and clearly and articulate wellbecause
4the machine might not be working as it is supposedto.
5Okay, so with that said, I am pleased tocall
6together or call to order the 302nd meeting of theCape
7Cod National Seashore AdvisoryCommission.
8ADOPTION OFAGENDA
9MR.DELANEY:As always, you have an agendasent
10out in advance and minutes, and unless there areany
11suggested changes, let's adopt theagenda.
12MS.AVELLAR:Somoved.
13MS.GREEN:No.
14MR.DELANEY:Notyet?
15MS.GREEN:Notyet.On page 70--
16MS.LYONS:This is just theagenda.
17MS.GREEN:Theagenda?Oh, I'msorry.
18MR.DELANEY:I'm talking about theagenda.
19MS.GREEN:Sorry.
20MR.DELANEY:So I do have a motion, andwe'll
21accept asecond.
22MS.BURGESS:Second.
23MS.STEPHENSON:Second.
24MR.DELANEY:All those approve, signify bysaying
1aye.
2
3
BOARDMEMBERS:Aye.
MR.DELANEY:Okay, we'll work off thisagenda.
4APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING (JANUARY 11,2016)
5MR.DELANEY:And then we will have -- dothe
6minutes, and Lilli's about to make a comment onthe
7draftminutes.
8What would you like toamend?
9MS.GREEN:Page70.At the bottom of thepage,
10Mary-Jo Avellar was clarifying that there wasone
11abstention.It wasnotMary-Jo.It wasme.
12MR.DELANEY:Okay,allright.That'sduly
13noted.
14Any other edits, changes, or corrections tothe
15draft minutes asprinted?
16(Noresponse.)
17MR.DELANEY:Okay, hearing none, let's take avote
18on approval of the minutes with thatchange.
19All those in favor, signify by sayingaye.
20BOARDMEMBERS:Aye.
21MR.DELANEY:Opposed?
22(Noresponse.)
23MR.DELANEY:Good,allright.And those werethe
24minutes from January11.
1REPORTS OFOFFICERS
2MR.DELANEY:Now, reportsfromofficers.I
3believe there are none, but I will use thisopportunity
4to introduce to us, to you Kathleen Bacon, who isback
5here.And she's been recently nominated by Wellfleetto
6be the alternate to thisgroup.
7So thank you for volunteering forthat.
8MS.BACON:Thankyou.
9MR.DELANEY:This is yourfirstmeeting.You'll
10see we have a flowtoit.Most of the alternates areat
11the table -- I mean, the delegates are atthetable.If
12not, we hope you'd be available to step in whenneeded.
13And we also have a chance for alternates tocontribute
14during the discussion on certainthings.
15MS.BACON:I'll just go withtheflow.Thankyou.
16MR.DELANEY:Good,great.Soundsgreat.
17REPORTS OFSUBCOMMITTEES
18MR.DELANEY:So how about reportsfrom
19subcommitteechairs?As always, Maureen, would youlike
20to give us an update on the Pilgrim NuclearPlant
21Emergency PlanningSubcommittee?
22MS.BURGESS:Sure.Can I just say a wordabout
23Nickersonfirst?
24MR.DELANEY:Oh,sorry,Nickerson.Thankyou.
1NICKERSON FUNDUPDATE
2MS.BURGESS:We met this morning on theNickerson
3Fellowship Committee, and we hadsixproposals.Andwe
4were able to -- we have a fund of $3,000 to workwith,
5so it's not a big potofmoney.It's always goodif
6someone would like to contribute totheNickerson.Via
7the Friends at the Cape Cod National Seashore, youcan
8earmark your contribution for theNickerson.
9We were able to fully fund one and offerpartial
10fundingtoanother.So Sophia Fox will be lettingthose
11winners know, so I can't reveal who they areuntil
12they'renotified.
13UPDATE OF PILGRIM NUCLEAR PLANT EMERGENCYPLANNING
14SUBCOMMITTEE
15MS.BURGESS:With regard to the PilgrimNuclear
16Planning Subcommittee, as you know, the focus hasbeen
17on the recent information that they will be closingdown
18in2019.Of course, the concern for many people iswhat
19is going to happen to fix the flaws that arecurrently
20in the plant and with regard to operations beforethat
21time and, also, what is going to be put in placein
22terms of making sure they've raised enough moneyto
23decommission properly so that the taxpayers don't get--
24have to foot thatbill.
1So I wanted to update you on a couple ofthings.
2Number one -- I did give youtwohandouts.Withregard
3to the decommissioning, for your information, onMarch
423 at the Plymouth Public Library at 7 p.m.there's
5going to be a decommissioning forum focusing onwho
6should pay and just trying to keep the focus onEntergy
7having their feet held to the fire to make surethat
8they stay on target in terms of proper fundingfor
9decommissioning so they don't walk away and it fallsto
10thetaxpayers.There is an extended dead-- -- soI
11encourage anybodytogo.I have a phone number forthe
12library, if you'd like, I can give you afterthe
13meeting.
14The NRC extended the deadline fordecommissioning
15comments up until March 18, so it'scomingup.Thiswas
16a first step towards developing a regulatory basis fora
17new rule on decommissioning commercial nuclearpower
18plants.And those comments, again, I have a linkif
19you'd like to refer to the docket number where youcan
20make your comments up until thattime.
21You will recall that we as an advisorycommission
22have supported bills by both Representative Peakeand
23Senator Wolf around Pilgrim, and we have writtenletters
24insupport.And in the fall I did represent youby
1testifying up on Beacon Hill in support of oneof
2Senator Wolf'sbills.
3I wanted to give youanupdate.Let me startwith
4thegoodnews.It looks like the Peake andFerrante
5bill, House Bill No. 2167, an act relative toemergency
6planning, has moved out of committee, and it lookslike
7it has a chancetopass.Specifically, it directsMEMA
8-- that's Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency--
9to assess and report on the preparedness plans fora
10radiological accident at both PilgrimandSeabrook.So
11that would include not only emergency planningzoning
12and evaluation of current procedures, but theentire
13gamut.And it would require them to make theirplan
14public, and if it is reviewed by the Governor andhe
15finds it deficient, he has the right to send it backand
16have it re-looked at to rejectitbasically.Soat
17least that'ssomething.
18With regard to Sarah Peake's other bills, H.230--
192030, that was the Department of Public Healthfunding
20for radiological monitoring outside of theimmediate
21area around Pilgrim, which would includeCapeCod.That
22has been -- it looks like it's been extended forfurther
23study, which basically means restinpeace.It'snot
24goinganywhere.The one with regard to --including
1extending the emergency planning zone to 50 miles,that
2is still -- I guess there is a possibility thatthat
3might be, but I haven't -- has anyone heardanything
4with regard tothat?
5MS.GREEN:I know that the deadline to movebills
6out of committee is Wednesday the end of the day,this
7weekWednesday.
8MS.BURGESS:So it's not looking too goodon
9either ofthose.
10And then Dan Wolf's Bill 1797, which wouldhave
11imposed a $10,000 fee on each bundle of spent fuelrods,
12that has been put out forfurtherstudy.There's afear
13of challenge of preemption because thefederal
14government has the right of preemption over whatthe
15staterequires.So that doesn't look like it's goingto
16move, but the one which imposes a $25 million fee toput
17in escrow monies for decommissioning looks like itmay
18have abetterchance.So that's where we are withthose
19bills.
20Oh, one big thing that happened was that sevenNRC
21engineers, Nuclear Regulatory Commissionengineers,
22filed a petition with their employer to eithercorrect
23or shut down all 99 plants in the U.S. due to adesign
24flaw in the electrical power system, and that systemis
1needed to cool thereactorcore.And they've askedfor
2a response from the NRC byMarch21.So localactivists
3in response to that submitted a petition to thefederal
4regulators calling on them to fix that same flaw inthe
5Pilgrim plant, and that was written by MaryLampert,
6president of the Pilgrim Watch, and co-signedby
7organizations which we are familiar with likeCape
8Downwinders, Jones River Watershed, DuxburyNuclear
9AdvisoryCommittee.
10So I think those aretheessentials.Iprobably
11have been following in the Cape Cod Times, you know,the
12continued problems with operations at Pilgrim, soI
13won't enumerate all of them because Christine Legerehas
14been doing a good job on keeping us up to date onthat.
15So unless anybody has any questions or if Sheilaor
16Lilli want to chimein.
17MS.LYONS:I don't really haveanyquestions.I
18think that they're doing a good job, and the Timeshas
19done a very good job of keeping the focus on this,but
20in addition, if anybody has picked it up, therehave
21been a couple of documentariesonPBS.One wasjust
22recently about the Fukushima fifth anniversary --and
23that was really an eye-opening experience -- andhow
24that is draining into the drinking water andtheir
1efforts to contain that right fromthebeginning.AndI
2think there's a reporter who's going tocontinue
3reportingonthis.He just -- his name is escapingme,
4but he was in the field in theMiddleEast.And hehad
5an accident and had his arm blown off, ifanybody
6remembersthis.
7MS.STEPHENSON:MilesO'Brien.
8MS.LYONS:Miles O'Brien,that'sright.Therehe
9is.So Miles O'Brien is going to be continuinghis
10focus on this, so it is going to be I think allthis
11month.And it is eye-opening, it is frightening, andI
12think it's right in line of what we're looking athere.
13Thankfully, it is not a disaster that we're facing,but
14all of those conditions, you know, we've all fearedthat
15it's been seeping into our airways,ourwaterways.I'm
16sure it is inslowtrickles.So it'salltimely.Just
17anFYI.
18MR.DELANEY:Are thereanythoughts?Judy?
19MS.STEPHENSON:Maureen, I didn'tunderstand.
20Who's petitioning the nuclear regulatoryagency?
21MS.BURGESS:So a group of -- so sevenengineers
22that work for the NRC--
23MS.STEPHENSON:Theythemselves?
24MS.BURGESS:They themselves petitionedtheir
1employers at the NRC and said basically, "Fix themor
2shutthemdown.This isveryserious."And theyhave
3till March -- they're hoping to have a response byMarch
421, but there are people, you know, in our arealike
5Pilgrim Coalition, Pilgrim Watch who really stay ontop
6of this, and they immediately, some of thesegroups,
7pulled together their own petition, which they sentto
8the NRC to supportit.
9MS.STEPHENSON:Does the NRC have a balanced --a
10fullboard?
11MS.BURGESS:Yeah, there's --what?
12MS.STEPHENSON:Well, they wanted toappoint
13someone and Republicans werestallingthis?Doesanyone
14know what the status of the boardis?
15MS.BURGESS:I don't -- I thought they werefully
16staffed.I could bewrong.
17MS.STEPHENSON:I'm out of date, so I--
18MS.BURGESS:I know that their last twochairmen
19both recommended not starting Pilgrim up again, andthey
20both werevoteddown.They both were in oppositionto
21relicensing Pilgrim for another40years.Jaczkoand
22then a woman that followedhim.
23MR.DELANEY:And then sheresigned.
24MS.BURGESS:Then sheresigned.
1MR.DELANEY:Does everyone havethis?
2MS.BURGESS:I did pass out a couple ofthings.
3MR.DELANEY:Check in yourpacket.
4MS.BURGESS:Look at yourpacket.
5MS.STEPHENSON:No, my packet'sempty.
6MS.BURGESS:I gave you ahandout.
7MS.STEPHENSON:Under the pressclippings?
8MS.BURGESS:Yeah.
9MS.STEPHENSON:No.
10MR.DELANEY:Judy, it's an article on theseven
11engineers who made the statement--
12MS.STEPHENSON:Okay, thankyou.
13MR.DELANEY:-- about their -- to theiremployer.
14I mean, these are sevenengineers.
15Okay, other comments on Plymouth nuclearpower
16plant and the good work of our subcommittee ledby
17Maureen?
18(Noresponse.)
19MR.DELANEY:Okay,thankyou.Hearing none,let's
20move on in the agenda to the Superintendent'sReport.
21MR.PRICE:Thankyou.
22SUPERINTENDENT'SREPORT
23STORM DAMAGE/EROSIONUPDATE
24MR.PRICE:So I wanted to bring up somestorm
1damageupdates.This is notnewinformation.Itseems
2like the last several years I've been talkingabout
3storm damage, but this year both topics or bothareas
4are prettyextraordinary.
5Last month we talked about our field trip thatwe
6made to the Nauset Light BeachinEastham.Ibrought
7everybody down there because we're thinkingvery
8seriously about trying to move forward withactually
9demolishing those facilities after this summerseason.
10They're not even on the list for replacement until2019,
11and that's if thatpriorityholds.So that willbe
12somethingdifferent.And part of the issue isthat
13we've had such severe erosion of the bluff atthat
14particularlocation.
15Since I reported this to you all in January,it's
16even gotten more dire, and we've been downthere
17numeroustimes.Last week I went down with GrahamGiese
18and Mark Borrelli, the coastal scientists fromthe
19Center forCoastalStudies.And now the septic tankis
20within 17 feet of the bluff itself, which ispretty
21concerning.
22So you have to realize that this is an areathat
23when I first came here we were regularly switchingout
24the stairs of that every three, four,fiveyears.Well,
1now this is the fourth year inarow.Last year wehad
218 feet of erosion at thatparticularlocation.Idon't
3even know how many feet it's been so far this year,but
4it just isprettydramatic.And I spoke withGraham
5because if you take a look over the cliff, it's notjust
6at that particular spot where thestairsare.It's
7probably about a mile swath where it'sjust
8extraordinarycutting.And when you look over theedge,
9you can see that there's like 15-20 yards' worthof
10vegetation has fallen over that is either on thebluff
11or is on the beach, and yet up here at the MarconiBeach
12it'saccretingsand.So that beach is gettingwider.
13Those stairs arewellprotected.At Coast GuardBeach,
14it hasn't changedverymuch.I was just there againon
15Saturday.So if you remember, Coast Guard Beachand
16Marconi Beach aren't thatfarapart.So right inthe
17middle is Nauset, and that section is reallygetting
18hammered.
19So Graham was saying that part of it is thatat
20this particular time the majority of the energythat's
21coming off of the North Atlantic and facing theentire
22Cape is just focused onthatlocation.He can tellby
23looking at it, and they're going to do somemore
24research.There just doesn't seem to be anysandbars
1off -- offthebeach.Normally the wave actiontakes
2the sand offthebeach.We have awinterbeach.The
3sandbars line up right beyondthebreakers.You cansee
4various lines of breakers happening before itactually
5gets totheshoreline.That's not happening atNauset.
6So it's really given us this extraordinary amountof
7energy at that particularlocation.
8So Kathy Tevyaw and I have regularly beenspeaking
9with our regional office and trying to solicitsome
10support for emergency funding and to figure outwhat
11we're going to do with this season, figure out how todo
12the demolition and ultimately the relocation ofthe
13facilities.Thrown in there we're also trying toget
14some support to explore the removable stair option,and
15I absolutely understand how people believe,"Well,
16that's acommonsensething.Why didn't you dothat
17yearsago?"Well, for one thing, for the cost ofthe
18stairs, for the cost of what removable stairs willcost,
19if you only replaced it once every three, four,five
20years, it wasn'tthatmuch.It wasexpendable
21construction.But now if it's an every yearthing,
22obviously that ups the ante, and therefore, it makesit
23more interesting toexamineit.The other reasonit's
24not all that easy to figure, however, is all thedesigns
1we've looked at still require a substantial base ontop
2ofthebluff.So understand we don't just losethe
3stairs, but we losethebluff.So if you've investedin
4a foundation on top and it gets undermined, well,then
5that's no longer viableeither.
6So there's no easy solutions here at all, butif
7you haven't been down to Nauset Light, takealook.Our
8staff just removed the rest of the boardwalk thathad
9been going down to the walkway that is closest tothe
10bluff.We left part of that boardwalk becausepeople
11could at least go out a little bit further for aviewing
12platform, and nowthat'sundermined.So it's very,very
13impressive and a little bit scary forsure.
14So we're facing a couple of things; number one,to
15make sure that we've got a safe, viable facilityfor
16this season and then, number two, getting supportfrom
17our regional office to move ahead with thedemolition
18after the season and come up with interim plans untilwe
19get a new facility constructedonthere.So forthose
20of you that were on the field trip last time, it'seven
21more dire today than it wasthen.
22Moving to the Herring Cove North parking lot,it's
23a similar story in that years ago we justhad
24intermittent dimples, if you will, that neededrepairs.
1The last several years in a row we've had toprovide
2major repairs to the revetment area at HerringCove
3North.What's happened now is a little bitdifferent
4scenario in that this year there's so much damageat
5Herring Cove North, the cost of a single repair justfor
6the summer would be as much asalmost$800,000.Andup
7until now we've been spending two hundred, twohundred
8and fifty, three hundredthousanddollars.Peoplehave
9said to me, "Even with that amount, is that a wiseuse
10of money to just do asinglerepair?"And in myopinion
11for serving the visitors, itabsolutelyis.However,
12now if it's as high as seven hundred and seventy-fiveor
13eight hundred, even I have a problem really puttingthat
14in for a repair knowing it's only for oneyear.
15So we're in the process of discussions withour
16Washington offices and the Philadelphia officesof
17staying more in the category of what they've given usin
18the past but letting us try to figure out how torepair
19as much as we can for that dollar amount, to figureout
20how many of the spaces we can actually keep open,and
21then publicize that "This is what we're allfacing,
22folks.Thisisnature."And we still have highhopes
23that the permanent fix, which you all have -- Ithink
24everybody is familiar with, but we went throughthat
1several-year vet, thatyear-longprocess.We now havea
2fix that would, you know, move it back the 125 feetand
3give us something that we believe will have a50-year
4lifespan.That project is about $5 million, andwe
5understand that priority is still on the list for2018.
6So we can -- we feel like we can almost glimpsethat,
7and in speaking with our offices, the Denver officeand
8the Washington and the Philadelphia officesare
9activating the pieces that need to be activated nowfor
10the 2018project.
11So we have aprojectmanager.We'll be goingto
12our design advisory boardinJuly.So allthe
13preliminary things that have to put a project inplace
14arehappening.So even though the 2018 project aswell
15as the 2019 project are not cast in stone,priorities
16can change, especially if there's anotherHurricane
17Sandy or something that we have to react tonationally,
18but I'm feeling very good about thatprioritylist.So
19in light of a 2018 total fix, I think I'm lookingat
20something that's less than afullfix.I haveno
21information at this point how much emergencyfunding
22we'll actually get this yearatall.So it'sstill
23totally up intheair.We wouldn't even be able tomake
24a total assessment of the total damage probablyuntil
1May, anticipating there's still somepotential
2nor'easters that can come in and do some damage,which
3we've had experiencewith.
4So the only good news is that we can saywe
5definitely will still have the parking lot open inthe
6HerringCoveNorth.We just are not sure at thispoint
7how many spaces we would have compared towhat's
8normally there on aregularbasis.So I met withthe
9town manager theotherday.I wanted to make surethat
10you all knew what Iwasthinking.Mary-Jo, Kathy, andI
11met, and then we had a field trip this morning fora
12number of you to actually go out and see whatwe're
13talkingabout.
14So I think we're just -- you know, as I usethe
15term, we're at ground zero for sea level riseand
16climate change, and we're dealing with facilities inthe