CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE ADVISORY COMMISSIONTHREE HUNDRED AND FOURTH MEETING
HELD AT CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE, Marconi Station
Area, Park Headquarters, South Wellfleet, Massachusetts,on Monday, September 19, 2016, commencing at 1:05 p.m.
SITTING:
Richard Delaney, Chairman Larry Spaulding
Don Nuendel Lilli Green Joseph Craig
Sheila Lyons (partial) Mary-Jo Avellar
Mark Robinson Maureen Burgess
Nat Goddard, alternate Kathleen Bacon, alternate
Also present:
George Price, Superintendent
Kathy Tevyaw, Deputy Superintendent Lauren McKean, Park Planner
Sue Moynihan, Chief of Interpretation & Cultural Resources Nita Tallent, Chief of Natural Resources & Science
Bill Burke, Park Historian
Courtney Butler, Centennial Volunteer Ambassador Russell Braun, Truro Building Commissioner
Attorney Donald Nagle, attorney for Adventure Bound Camping Resorts/Horton's Campground
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
(June 6, 2016)...... 3
Reports of Officers...... 4
Reports of Subcommittees ...... 10
Update of Pilgrim Nuclear PlantEmergencyPlanning.10
Nickerson Conservation Fellowship ...... 24
Superintendent's Report...... 28
Update on Horton's Campground Private Commercial Properties Related to their CSCs ...... 29
Cape Cod Modern Houses and the National Seashore -
Bill Burke, Park Historian ...... 70
Shorebird Management Plan/Environmental Assessment Update ...... 82
Seashore Projects ...... 82
National ParkServiceCentennial...... 82
Nauset Light Beach Update ...... 83
Highlands Center Update ...... 85
Herring River Wetland Restoration ...... 89
Old Business ...... 92
Live Lightly Campaign Progress Report ...... 92
New Business ...... 97
Date and Agenda forNextMeeting...... 100
PublicComment...... 106
Adjournment...... 119
Reporter'sCertificate...... 120
1P R O C E E D I N GS
2MR.DELANEY:Goodafternoon,everyone.Whatday
3isit?We wanted the rain but not all atonce.
4Hereweare.And I'm very honored to call toorder
5the 304th meeting of the Cape Cod NationalSeashore
6AdvisoryCommission.
7ADOPTION OFAGENDA
8MR.DELANEY:You have an agenda sent outin
9advance.Unless there's a proposed change tothe
10agenda, I'll entertain a motion to adopt it asprinted.
11MS.AVELLAR:Somoved.
12MR.NUENDEL:Second.
13MS.GREEN:Second.
14MR.DELANEY:All those infavor?
15BOARDMEMBERS:Aye.
16APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING (JUNE 6,2016)
17MR.DELANEY:You also have the minutes sent outin
18advance.And as always, I look to our scribe from--
19our representative from Eastham to take the firstwhack
20atit.
21MR.NUENDEL:Okay.I'm always impressed whenI
22start readingthesethings.The number of topicsthat
23we talk about isjustamazing.Weworkhard.I'mnot
24bragging, but it's afact.
1I read these, and I read themprettycarefully.I
2recommend that we accept theminutes.
3MS.BURGESS:Second.
4MR.DELANEY:Anyone else with a comment, edit,or
5change?
6(Noresponse.)
7MR.DELANEY:Okay, all those who are in favorof
8adopting the minutes as written, signify by sayingaye.
9BOARDMEMBERS:Aye.
10MR.DELANEY:Thoseopposed?
11(Noresponse.)
12MR.DELANEY:Motioncarries.
13Thank you very much to our excellenttranscriber.
14REPORTS OFOFFICERS
15MR.DELANEY:Now we'll move to Reportsof
16Officers.
17And I don't have any particular report other thanI
18will just say that I had a chance to spend the last--
19three days last week in Washington with Secretaryof
20State John Kerry and about 60 or 70 other ministersof
21state or secretaries of state of foreign affairswho
22came together to announce commitments totheocean.And
23the total number of square miles that was putinto
24sanctuary status or some level of protection bythose
1countries was about 1.5 million square miles ofocean
2protected.President Obama came to make ourannounced
3-- the United States commitment, which was todesignate
4some of the canyons and the coral, the seamounts andthe
5canyons off of Stellwagen, off of Georges Bank forabout
65,000 squaremiles.
7It was kind of fun to see the perspectivewhere
8back here the newspapers were making this hugedeal
9about 5,000squaremiles.Oh,myGod.You know,what's
10going to happen tothefishermen?Meanwhile,other
11nations around the world were putting aside 1.5million
12squaremiles.So it was kindofexciting.Andthere's
13other -- there were about $5 billion worth ofother
14commitments to do management, research, education,and
15work around marine pollution, including plasticsand
16overfishing and illegal fishing of the highseas.
17And I bring that all to our attention notonly
18because it's very exciting where we deal withoceans
19here at the Park, but because of the status of this--
20our area, which is now the National MarineMonument.
21The Department of Interior will be very much involvedin
22managing that, so it's maybe like our offshore CapeCod
23National Seashore in a way, Iguess.
24Mary-Jo?
1MS.AVELLAR:I haveaquestion.I went on awhale
2watch this week, and they kept referring and some ofthe
3signs I noticed down at MacMillan Pier kept callingit
4the Stellwagen BankNationalSanctuary.Isn't itthe
5Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank NationalMarine
6Sanctuary?
7MR.DELANEY:Yeah.
8MS.AVELLAR:I don't see Gerry Studds' name ona
9lot of the signage that I saw down on MacMillanPier,
10and I'm kind of concerned about that because hedeserves
11to have his name everywhere we can findit.
12MR.DELANEY:I agree with you, and you'respeaking
13to therightperson.I chaired that advisorycommittee
14as well, and we meet just next week, and I'll raisethat
15issue with thestaff.
16MS.AVELLAR:Yeah, the Dolphin Fleet told methat
17it's in the brochures or something that they handout,
18but I didn't get abrochure.
19MR.DELANEY:His name is being lost, andhis
20contribution should continue to berecognized.
21MS.AVELLAR:Exactly.That's what I wasconcerned
22about.
23MR.DELANEY:Good, allright.
24Yes,Maureen?
1MS.BURGESS:Mr. Chairman, I have a questionabout
2the designation of thatmonument.
3So a president can designateamonument.Cana
4succeeding president remove amonument?
5MR.PRICE:I think that's an interestingquestion.
6I'm, frankly, not sure if they can remove amonument,
7but in the past the contention has been betweenthe
8President naming a monument and the Congress fundingit.
9That's usually where the rub is, but presidentshave
10been naming monuments for alongtime.That wasTeddy
11Roosevelt's big claimtofame.He named some ofthe
12monumentsnationalmonuments.President Bush namedthe
13(inaudible), a marine monument off of Hawaii, beforehe
14departedoffice.So that's the executive authorityover
15the historic -- I forget whichact.
16MR.DELANEY:AntiquitiesAct.
17MR.PRICE:AntiquitiesAct.You're right,that
18allows that tohappen.
19So I'm not sure if it's as politic as just thenext
20president can deauthorize it ornot.
21MR.DELANEY:I don'tbelieveso.Executiveorders
22can be undone pretty easily by the succeedingexecutor.
23MR.PRICE:Yeah.
24MR.DELANEY:This is an act under -- authorizedby
1law.So it would beharder.
2MR.PRICE:There have been NationalPark
3designated sites deactivated or deauthorized, but it'sa
4bigprocess.I'm thinking of Michigan, Mackinac,for
5instance, but it's a bigprocess.
6And, Mary-Jo, just so that you know, a lot ofareas
7end up having other names attachedtothem.Sothe
8Blackstone Valley now has Chaffee's name andMarsh-
9Billings isnowMarsh-Billings-Rockefeller.And alot
10of times it's an acquaintance-type thing with thename
11as far as what the originalnameis.(Inaudible)the
12addition institutionalized is what we're seeingright
13now.
14MR.DELANEY:And just before I go on tothe
15reports from subcommittees, Mary-Jo, coming back toyou,
16if I may mention one of our heroes in the pastwho's
17been very active with our issues in the CapeCod
18National Seashore, Gerry Studds, but also, as youknow
19well, we also lost Josephine Del Deo, who wasequally
20important inourlives.You've known her a longtime.
21Would you want to offer a couple of thoughts orcomments
22aboutJosephine?
23MS.AVELLAR:I've known Josephine since Iwas
24about six years old when Ciro & Sal's was startinga
1restaurant because I lived right across thestreet.
2It's now called Poor Richard's Landing, but inthose
3days it wasAvellar'sWharf.And our bedrooms --my
4bedroom was right onthestreet.And I don't thinkthe
5place waslicensedthen.I mentioned it in the --I
6gave the eulogy actually attheservice.And itwas
7kind of a loud -- it was a late-night kind ofplace,
8which drove my father crazy because he was alight
9sleeper.But I just remember Josephine, of course,as
10being one of the preeminent people in Provincetownto
11push for the creation ofthePark.And I was -- Iguess
12it was 1960, so whenwasit?1960.
13MR.PRICE:'61.
14MS.AVELLAR:So I was like still in highschool.
15I don't rememberalot.My parents I'm quite surewere
16very involved because my mother and Josephine werevery
17close.
18What I always liked about Jo was that not onlywas
19she instrumental in the creation of the Seashore,but
20she wasn't afraid to take the Seashore on whenthey
21tried to get rid of theduneshacks.And we have herto
22thank that we still have thoseduneshacks.Soher
23contribution to not only Provincetown and thehistoric
24district and that sort of thing, but her impactis
1nationwidereally.And she never stopped pushingfor
2what she felt was in the best interest of notonly
3Provincetown but the Park aswell.
4Hers is a voice that I'm going to be missingfor
5many, many years tocome.
6MR.DELANEY:Thankyou.Weallagree.That wasa
7specialperson.
8Maureen?
9MS.BURGESS:If I could, I just wanted also --I
10attended the service, and I just wanted to say thatour
11superintendent made some very nice remarks ather
12service, at her burial also and gave her a lotof
13credit, and I think his remarks were verymuch
14appreciated by thefamily.
15MR.DELANEY:Thank you,George.
16Okay, so moving on to Reports ofSubcommittees.
17REPORTS OFSUBCOMMITTEES
18MR.DELANEY:And the first one will be anupdate
19of our Pilgrim Nuclear Plant EmergencyPlanning
20Subcommittee.
21Maureen,please.
22UPDATE OF PILGRIM NUCLEARPLANT
23EMERGENCY PLANNINGSUBCOMMITTEE
24MS.BURGESS:Thank you,Mr.Chairman.So Iwill
1give the commissionersanupdate.Largelythis
2information I've garnered from newspaper sources, andif
3I could ask the reporter to begin with the factthat
4Burgesssighed.
5(Laughter.)
6MS.BURGESS:So one good bitofnews.At theend
7of the legislative session in late July, Houseand
8Senate negotiators approved a state energy billthat
9establishes a panel which will be involved inthe
10decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear PowerStation,
11which, as you know, is now planned to be shut downin
122019.So while the overall reaction tothe
13establishment of the panel to deal withEntergy
14Corporation, Pilgrim's owner, was positive, noteveryone
15was satisfied with the list of members who may be onthe
16panel; that is, the decommissioning panel, theoversight
17panel.And the bill now awaits Governor CharlieBaker's
18signature.
19Our representative, Sarah Peake, wasvery
20instrumental in keeping the proposal alive in theHouse
21 / while in / the Senate her counterparts, Dan Wolf and Vinny22 / deMacedo / --
23 / MR. / DELANEY:deMacedo.
24 / MS. / BURGESS:-- deMacedo of Plymouth kept italive
1in theSenate.
2Peake thought it was a big win for the peopleof
3Massachusetts because the committee, to quote her,will
4make sure that public safety concerns are addressedand
5financial concernsareaddressed.And issues likeair
6monitoring and emergency planning will also beaddressed
7bythecommittee.And you may remember thevarious
8bills that Representative Peake had put forward inthe
9House, which we always supported with letters fromthe
10Commission, and it sounds like those issues havebeen
11incorporated into what the panel will beaddressing.
12So in terms of the composition of the council,the
13council will include members from state andlocal
14government, science and health experts,appointed
15citizens, Entergy representative, and a presentor
16former employee of thePilgrimplant.Thecommittee's
17composition in the original version of the billalso
18included citizen members who live within the10-mile
19emergency planning zone around the plant as wellas
20representation fromBarnstableCounty.However,those
21members were not included in the final version whichwas
22approved by the House andtheSenate.And SenatorWolf
23was quite disappointed because, to quote him, "Itgives
24Cape Cod less of a voice and the corporation more ofa
1voice.It also gives less of a voice to the citizensof
2the Commonwealth because the Attorney General is noton
3it."And he was very perplexed to see whythe
4composition was changed because he felt so muchthought
5had gone on toit.
6As you know, Vermont Yankee, which has beenshut
7down through the efforts of citizens and alsotheir
8governor, has been placed in SAFSTOR, which isthe
9federally approved option that they do have tomothball
10it for up to 60 years, and that's what we'rehoping
11would not happen with Pilgrim because we want to seea
12funding and make sure that the money existsto
13decommission properly and so that it does not fallon
14the citizens,taxpayers.
15So we had a number of violations,unfortunately.
16That's why Imentionedsighing.Once again, inAugust
1716, Cape Cod Times reported that a stretch ofhot
18weather has, again, affected operations atPilgrim
19Nuclear Power Station, making this the third summerout
20of the last four that the plant has been forcedby
21excessive water temperatures in the bay to powerdown.
22The temperatures of the Cape Cod Bay seawater areused
23to cool the reactor and the turbines, and theywere
24exceeding the maximum allowable federalstandards.
1As you know, Pilgrim draws over 500 milliongallons
2of water into the bay every day killing multiplefish
3and sea lifeandshellfish.And though the capis
4currently at 75 degrees, but when it goes into thebay,
5it comes back 30degreeshigher.And you recall thatat
6our spring meeting we talked about the outdatedEPA
7water discharge permit and the EPA after 20 yearsI
8believe of neglect was finally relooking at thepermit,
9and many of the groups like Cape Cod Baywatchare
10concerned that it doesn't go far enough toremediate
11this very hot water that's being put back into thebay.
12Also in August, Pilgrim was shut down for fourdays
13due to a malfunctioning steam isolation valve whichis
14designed to prevent radioactivity from leaking intothe
15environment during anuclearaccident.That samevalve
16had caused a shutdown in Augustof2015.OnSeptember
176, The Globe reported that Pilgrim was shut downbecause
18of a mechanical issue, the second issue in recentweeks.
19And then on the 13th, The Globe reported thatPilgrim
20power plant is not aging gracefully and that it'sa
21reason to worry because, once again, it had shutdown.
22Operators pulled the switch after detectingunexpected
23fluctuations in waterlevels.
24Christine Legere, who's been on this for theCape
1Cod Times and has done such good coverage, describedthe
2fact that Pilgrim was slowly powering up on thatTuesday
3and reached nine percent of its capacity whenyet
4another mechanical malfunction forced operators toshut
5the reactor back down, marking the eighth day theplant
6hasbeenoffline.Operators shut down the plant, aswe
7said, on the 6th because of a faulty regulatorvalve.
8Also, a concern was that while the plant was stillin
9shutdown mode there was a leak of 2,680 cubic feetof
10hydrogen gas in the turbine room which then wentinto
11the atmosphere forcing plant operators to filereports
12with state andfederalregulators.However, thelocal
13fire chief, Ed Bradley, in Plymouth, to quote him,said,
14"Entergy Corporation, which owns and operatesthe
15Pilgrim Station Nuclear Power Plant, not onlydidn't
16notify the fire department of a hydrogen release atthe
17plant as is required to do, but the company then fileda
18false report onthematter.Entergy reported tothe
19Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the 9th ofSeptember
20--" -- I'll just repeatthequote:"At 17:39Eastern
21Daylight Time on Friday, September 9, 2016,the
22Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protectionand
23the Plymouth, Massachusetts, Fire Departmentwere
24notified of a hydrogen release in accordance withplant
1procedures as outlined in the Code ofMassachusetts
2Regulations," and there's a numberforthat.But
3Bradley said thisisfalse.Not only was hisdepartment
4not notified of the event on Friday, September 9, asthe
5report states, he only learned of the incident whena
6reporter from the Cape Cod Times contacted himon
7Monday, September 12, threedayslater.Bradley hadto
8actually call Entergy to find out what was goingon.
9Now, many activists are very up in arms aboutthis
10and consider this a public safety crisis, andthere's
11been a great deal of criticism of Governor Baker fornot
12calling for animmediateshutdown.Recently there wasa
13sit-in at theStateHouse.And you remember DianeTurco
14from the Cape Downwinders who addressed us at aformer
15meeting.She and two other Cape Downwinders engagedin
16a sit-in and refused to leave until they could meetwith
17Baker, but they were arrested, and now they havebeen
18banned from the State House where they hadpreviously
19been permitted to lobby with legislators for theclosing
20of this degradedplant.
21Last Tuesday you may have seen there was amajor
22call in to Governor Baker asking him to act toprotect
23publicsafety.He has been mostly silent on theissue,
24finally issued a statement saying that thefederal
1government was handling this throughtheNRC.Ihave
2GovernorBaker'snumber.I can give it to you afterthe
3meeting if you'd like to add your concernsas
4individuals.And next Wednesday, the, as theyare
5called -- the Pilgrim State House 3 will be backin
6Superior Court to appeal their stay awayorder.
7So it wasn't a good summer, and it's justgetting
8worse.
9MR.DELANEY:No,no.Wow, thank you forthe
10discouragingnews.It does continue togetworse.It's
11just a nonstop series of malfunctions andmismanagement
12and maybe evenmisinformation.
13MS.BURGESS:Yes.
14MR.DELANEY:How much is it going to taketo
15finally have a major accidenthappen?
16MR.NUENDEL:(Inaudible) happening, it might bea
17badmajor.
18MR.DELANEY:Yeah, it may be that--
19MR.NUENDEL:Our governor should be on thislike
20whiteonrice.He reallyshould.
21MS.AVELLAR:It's almost criminal reallyand
22borders on malfeasance in myopinion.
23MS.BURGESS:So I don't know that there'sanything
24more wecando.We certainly added our lettersto
1proposals.Unless, Mr. Chairman, you have asuggestion.
2MR.DELANEY:Well, can any members think ofsome
3concrete action, as Maureenjustsaid?We've writtena
4numberofletters.They've been well received byour
5colleagues, who noticed, made animpact.
6MS.AVELLAR:Maybe we have to have our towns,each
7town write totheGovernor.I will be reporting tothe
8board of selectmen, and I'm going to recommend thatthey
9write a letter telling them that it's not enough torely
10on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- becausethey've
11been negligent for how long now? -- and that thehealth
12and welfare of the citizens of Massachusetts,especially
13this part of the world, are atstake.
14MS.BURGESS:That's something that sounds goodto
15do.I can do that with mytown.
16MR.DELANEY:Yeah, let's -- thank you,Mary-Jo.
17There's been a lot of letter writing, but I realizethe
18towns haven't actually weighedin.
19MS.BURGESS:No, notmuch.
20MR.DELANEY:Lilli?
21MS.GREEN:Thankyou.
22I agree todothat.And perhaps if we wereto
23write a letter to Governor Baker stating what wejust
24stated and then we could bring that to our towns,it
1might behelpful.
2MR.DELANEY:Okay.Larry?
3MR.SPAULDING:Isn't the last thing that we didis
4to support Wolf'sbill?
5MS.AVELLAR:Yes.
6MR.SPAULDING:So we haven't done anythingsince
7this fiasco in four or fivemonths.
8MS.BURGESS:That'scorrect.
9MR.SPAULDING:It seems to me it mightbe
10appropriate for the Commission to write Governor Bakera
11letter to revisit the situation because of themore
12recent problems and for the state to getinvolved.
13MR.DELANEY:Okay, now that I think aboutit.
14Yeah,Don?
15MR.NUENDEL:Maybe we should considerreminding
16theGovernor.Remember when we had thatdoctoral
17student?
18MS.BURGESS:Yes.
19MR.NUENDEL:And he used a differenttechnique.
20Itwasn'tdisaster.It was moreeconomicdisaster.And
21remind the Governor how much money does the stateget
22from Cape Cod because of Cape Cod's activity andtourism
23andallthat.And remind him that, you know, ifthey
24make a mistake and we're the Downwinders and thisplace
1becomes uninhabitable for many years, do you wantto
2take thatchance?
3MR.DELANEY:Yeah,yeah.I think -- I likeall
4thesecomments.
5MR.SPAULDING:Also, I assume that GovernorBaker
6has never seen that analysis that we haddone.
7MS.BURGESS:We could include the economicimpact
8statement withtheletter.We could do aletter.
9MR.DELANEY:Okay, so could -- Maureen, thisgoes
10backtoyou.Could you take a first cut atthis?
11MS.BURGESS:Sure.
12MR.DELANEY:Then we'll get a letter thatstates