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| NORWALK HARBOR MANAGEMENT COMMISSION MINUTES |
CLICK HERE FOR HARBOR MANAGEMENT MAYORS WATER QUALITY COMMITTEE MINUTES
CLICK HERE FOR HARBOR MANAGEMENT APPLICATION REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES
NORWALK HARBOR MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
JULY 25TH, 2007
ATTENDANCE: Tony Mobilia, Chair; Pat Clark; Dr. John Pinto; Patrick Geraghty;
Jack Callahan; John Romano; Tony D’Andrea
STAFF: Geoff Steadman, Harbor Management Consultant; Brian Griffin, Deputy Harbor Master
OTHER: John Frank, Shellfish Commission Chairman
1. CALL TO ORDER
This meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. by Mr. Mobilia.
2. PUBLIC COMMENT
There was no public comment.
3. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Mr. Mobilia confirmed that everyone had read his report and no one had questions about it. He restated that he would like to schedule the State of the Harbor meeting for Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 and asked if there were any objections.
There were none.
Mr. Mobilia continued reviewing his report, and referring to the second item under Correspondence Received, added that there was no action needed from the Commission other than to communicate with the marinas to make sure they comply with the Connecticut Clean Marina Program because at the moment it is a voluntary program.
4. COMMITTEE REPORTS
a. Application Review – Clark
1. 2007-18 - Robert Manning 32 Yarmouth Road, Rowayton. Application to CT DEP & ACOE to replace a permitted small boat docking facility with a larger structure at a private residence in the Bell Island area. The proposed structure consists of a 4' x 30' piling-supported timber pier, a 3' x 32' aluminum ramp, and an 8' x 20' floating dock anchored by 3 pilings; the structure would extend 76' water ward from an existing seawall. The area is shown as a shellfish concentration area. The proposed floating dock is shown floating at mean low water, supported by flotation billets. A 24' x 24' area surrounding the float now contains boulders which would be relocated laterally to the north within the applicant's littoral area to provide a smooth area below the proposed float.
** MS. CLARK MOVED THAT THE PROJECT NOT BE APPROVED IN ITS PRESENT FORM.
Ms. Clark read the reasons from the Norwalk Harbor Management Commission Application Review Committee form which were as follows:
1. Based on objections expressed by the Shellfish Commission regarding the
placement of the dock and its attached vessel on shellfish resource areas.
2. The drawings are not certified by a licensed surveyor or engineer.
3. The proposed 160 sq ft float exceeds CT DEP guidelines.
4. It does not meet the DEP’s four standards for approval as outlined in their
letter, dated June 20th, 2007.
** MR. ROMANO SECONDED.
Ms. Clark submitted a drawing to the Commission which was shown as being prepared from a Class A survey but was not prepared by a surveyor so there is no verification of the accuracy of the presented data. Ms. Clark referred to the applicant’s plan to move the boulders, saying that the area the boulders would be relocated from were in a shellfish area and were not within his littoral area.
Mr. Frank added that the applicant planned to move the rocks to another place on the shellfish bed.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
2. 2007-19 – Norman Bloom 7&11 Edgewater Place, East Norwalk. Application to CT DEP for installation of an Edson peristaltic pump out station connecting to the city sewer line with a check valve and shut-off.
** MS. CLARK MOVED THAT THE APPLICATION BE APPROVED AND THE PUMP OUT STATION
ACCEPTED AS CURRENTLY INSTALLED AND OPERATIONAL, PROVIDED THE PROJECT HAS MET
ALL APPLICABLE BUILDING CODES.
** MR. ROMANO SECONDED.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
3. 2006-21 – Robert Sisca, 11 Winfield Street, Canfield Island Association. Letter from DEP to Robert Sisca regarding work in Raymond Creek.
Ms. Clark said that this is an update on an existing application and that the DEP copied the Commission on a letter to Mr. Sisca which told him that his application is incomplete and that the size of the structure he’s looking to install within a conservation area is excessive. The DEP believes that reasonable access can be achieved with less encroachment and they’ve asked that alternative designs be submitted. Ms. Clark said that she suspects that the Commission can expect another version of this application in the future.
4. 2005-26 – Stacy Bass 25-27 Covlee Drive. Certificate of Permission for installing a timber tie-off piling off the western side of a permitted float.
Ms. Clark said that this was well within the scope of what the Commission has approved earlier and so no input from the Commission was needed.
5. DEP Permit #200502276-JW – Marty Ehrlich 12 Pine Point Rd, Norwalk Permit to remove an existing revetment and stabilize an existing shoreline for shoreline flood and erosion control.
Ms. Clark said that this was well within the scope of what the Commission has approved earlier and so no input from the Commission was needed.
b. Finance – Cebrian
Mr. Cebrian was not present but Dr. Pinto reviewed his report.
Mr. D’Andrea commended Mayor Moccia’s for his help and support in getting the Harbor Commission’s grant of $13,875.
Mr. Mobilia said that he’d spoken to Mr. Cebrian and that the budget should be reviewed to make sure funds are being properly allocated.
Dr. Pinto said that Mr. Cebrian feels that members of the Commission are very gracious with their own funds and that their travel costs should be expensed.
c. Web page/ Newsletter – Geraghty
Mr. Geraghty confirmed that everyone had received his report and gave Mr. Mobilia a copy. He reviewed his report, saying that there were four articles and two columns ready, which he felt was sufficient content to get the newsletter going. Mr. Geraghty said that Mr. Frank had asked if there was a theme to the newsletter and he hadn’t thought about it but suggested that the Commission come up with a theme together, adding that he had an article in mind about the building permit issue and perhaps the theme should be related to that.
Mr. Mobilia said that he’d been unable to set up a meeting with the Legal Department about the permit issue but that it was forthcoming.
Ms. Clark said that the meeting on that issue should be held before content
regarding it was put into the newsletter.
Mr. Geraghty continued, saying that it had been suggested that the Norwalk Seaport
Association, Maritime Aquarium, SONO Arts Festival and Norwalk Shellfish Commission
be approached to see if any of their representatives wanted to contribute to
the newsletter. He suggested that if it was a goal to distribute the newsletter
at the Oyster Festival, it might be a good idea to build the newsletter around
the Oyster Festival and perhaps it should include more content from leisure
groups instead of technical groups.
Dr. Pinto agreed but stressed that the newsletter could not be centered in commercialism and suggested an article by Gina McCarthy, Commissioner of the DEP.
Mr. Mobilia said that for his Chairman’s article, he would write about the Harbor itself and about the new tour ship and the new fire boat and police boat.
Mr. Pinto asked if the deadline for the newsletter submissions was August 1st.
Mr. Geraghty said that the deadline was August 15th so the submissions could be reviewed and printed by September 1st. Mr. Geraghty moved onto discussion of the website, saying that he’d post the date of the State of the Harbor meeting and the date of the Oyster Festival on the site and asked if the Commission’s minutes should be posted on the site along with the agendas.
Mr. Mobilia said that the minutes were posted on the City of Norwalk’s website and didn’t think it was necessary to post them on the Commission’s website as well.
Mr. Romano suggested putting in a link to the minutes.
Mr. Mobilia suggested Mr. Geraghty speak with Larry Manzi about such a link.
d. Boating and Harbor Safety – Palau
Mr. Palau was not present to give his report but Ms. Clark spoke, saying that she’d written a letter to the Boating and Harbor Safety Committee, knowing that one of the items that they’ve been working on has been regarding Nun 28 off Sheffield Island. The letter described a need for an improved buoy at the Nun 28 location and described, with pictures which were passed around to the Commission the extensive damage to a 47 foot vessel which was traveling westward at cruising speed, heading directly into the sun when it hit the reef behind Nun 28 at the southwest corner of Sheffield Island. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the accident but there was severe damage to the boat’s solid bronze rudder, solid fiberglass bottom, 2 ½ inch diameter solid stainless steel shafts, its 705 horsepower port engine, which was moved off its mounts and the port’s transmission, which was shattered. She said that the owner takes full responsibility for the accident and that he was aware of Nun 28, and that these waters are familiar to him and he believed he was far enough off the island to be safe but with the small size of the existing buoy and the glare of the sun, he failed to see it. Ms. Clark suggested a larger buoy be placed at that location for higher visibility during the day and that the buoy be lit for visibility at night.
Dr. Pinto said that it was his understanding that several local boat clubs in the east basin were contemplating having slips for jet skis and wondered if this was an issue that the Commission should keep an eye on.
Mr. Mobilia said that if they were adding slips, they would have to go before Application Review.
Ms. Clark said that they may not have to add slips, they may use existing boat slips for several jet skis.
e. Water Quality Committee – D’Andrea
Mr. D’Andrea confirmed that everyone had received a copy of his report and referred to the second page which showed water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and oxygen saturation at the Hope Dock as of 5:15 p.m. on the day of this meeting and said that so far this year, there’d been four or five hypoxic events, meaning the oxygen in the water would not support aquatic life but there had not been any fish kills.
Mr. Romano asked what the root cause of hypoxic events was.
Mr. D’Andrea answered that the root cause was nitrogen from up stream sources such as sewage treatment plants and fertilizer gets in the water and causes an algae bloom. The algae then uses up all the oxygen in the water and fish die, accelerating the process throughout the harbor.
Mr. Frank said that decomposing fish use up a lot of oxygen as well.
Mr. D’Andrea said that this was correct and it was what spreads the problem. He added that as temperatures decrease, oxygen saturation tends to increase.
Mr. Steadman asked if there was any news on the filter project.
Mr. D’Andrea said that he’d spoken with Mike Yosak and asked for a meeting with him and Hal Alvord to discuss this. He added that the filter results were in but there had not yet been an internal discussion on this at the DPW. Mr. D’Andrea asked Mr. Alvord to be invited to that meeting and Mr. Alvord said that it wouldn’t be a problem.
Dr. Pinto asked if they would discuss what the filter would trap.
Mr. D’Andrea said that they have all their test data back but hadn’t been able to disseminate it yet.
Mr. Steadman brought up the issue of a bridge on I-95 and said that it was his understanding that its drainage system could only be fixed when the bridge was replaced. He said that earlier in the month he was at a meeting in Stratford where it was stated that the DOT would replace a bridge over the Housatonic River between Stratford and Milford called the Moses Wheeler Bridge. Fixing the drainage on the approaches to the bridge was discussed but when the drainage on the bridge itself was discussed, the DOT planned to leave the drains as they are, letting them pour directly into the Housatonic River. Mr. Steadman said at the meeting in Stratford that it was his understanding from an instance in Norwalk that the DOT recognized that this was a problem, couldn’t do anything about existing bridges but could do something about it at such a time as the bridge was going to be replaced. Their response was that they were doing everything they could to fix the drainage off the bridge but that there was nothing they could do with the drainage from the bridge. Mr. Steadman said that he’d talked about this with the DEP and the Stratford Harbor Commission and their response was that nothing should be approved by the DEP until its been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the DEP and the Harbor Commission. Mr. Steadman said that more attention should be paid to the sediment underneath the bridge to see the history of contamination there and said that it should be determined if there was a problem or not and whether or not it could be solved now, otherwise it could be another 50 years before anything can be done.
Mr. Romano asked why there couldn’t be containment tanks with infiltrators installed.
Mr. Steadman said that such tanks could be installed and they were asking the DOT to demonstrate why they couldn’t. The DOT’s response was that the design of the bridge couldn’t accommodate them. He said that a public hearing may be held on this and it may be worthwhile for the Harbor Management Association or the Commission to attend and express their concerns as this may set a precedent for the State of Connecticut.
f. Watershed Initiative Advisory Committee – Rep. D’Andrea (Alt.) J. Romano
There was no report on this item.
g. Plans and Recommendations – Callahan
Mr. Callahan reviewed his report.
h. Dredging – Pinto and Dredging Committee (Mobilia, Griffin, Steadman)
Mr. Steadman reported that the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee recommended that $8 million be put into the Energy and Water Appropriations budget for dredging Norwalk Harbor. The Senate version of the same bill appropriates $3 million to the project so at some point the two bills will have to be reconciled and a final bill prepared for the President’s signature. Mr. Steadman said that the final amount could be between $3 million and $8 million and it won’t be decided until September or October but Senator Lieberman’s office is saying it may not matter because the President is indicating that he may veto the appropriations bill. He said that the resolution of the cap requirement for the dredging project should be worked on immediately. He continued, saying that the cost of the cap is unknown and that it had been brought up through the Maritime Commission that the cost of the cap should be born by the state since it is a state requirement that the cap be there in the first place. The new dredging coordinator for the state is trying to use some of the material dredged from North Cove and Old Saybrook as the cap for the Norwalk project which presumes that the projects can be coordinated and that the funds can be allocated for North Cove as well as Norwalk, but in the budget proposed by the Appropriations Committee, there is not enough money available for North Cove. Mr. Steadman said he’d talked about this with the Army Corps and they do not believe that a cap is necessary. The material meets the federal requirement for dredge disposal without a cap so they don’t want the cap to be part of their budget. Mr. Steadman said that last year and the year before he’d attended a meeting of the State Transportation Strategy Board where the Deputy Commissioner of the DEP at the time stated that the cap requirement that the DEP was imposing was not based on science but on political considerations. The Army Corps wrote to Commissioner McCarthy, saying that they felt that the proper way to cap this material would be to cap the Norwalk project with the next Corps of Engineers project but they couldn’t guarantee when that would be and this was unacceptable to the DEP. Mr. Steadman then proposed to the Harbor Management Commission, adding that he’d talked about this with the Army Corps that the Commission attends the next meeting of the Connecticut Maritime Commission which he believed to be on August 15th in Bridgeport. He proposed that they ask to be on their agenda ahead of time, adding that they will also have a public comment period. He said that they should ask for their support to resolve the cap issue and ask them to support the Corps of Engineers position that the project be capped by a future Corps of Engineers project unless the DEP can demonstrate some scientific reason for the project having to be done right away.
Mr. Romano asked if the Harbor Management Commission planned to go before the Maritime Commission, if it would help to rally the support of Bob Virgilak.
Dr. Pinto said that it would be good to have Mr. Virgilak speak with the Harbor Commission.
i. Waterfront Facilities Advisory – Griffin
Mr. Griffin reviewed his report.
Mr. Mobilia said that he’d been to the Boating Center and that it looks very nice.
There was some discussion of cruise ships leaving from Norwalk and Mr. Griffin mentioned that they’d caused little disruption to the visitor docks.
Dr. Pinto asked if a sign was put up at the Boating Center.
Mr. Mobilia answered that a sign had been put up on the east side of the building so that boats can see it when they come in.
5. STAFF REPORTS
a. Harbor Master – Griffin
Mr. Griffin reviewed his report
** MS. CLARK MOVED TO ACCEPT THE HARBOR MASTER’S REPORT.
** MR. GERAGHTY SECONDED.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
b. Consultant – Steadman
Mr. Steadman said that during the week of August 6th, he intends to resolve a matter of a plan and would report following that resolution.
c. Planning and Zoning – Greene/ F. Strauch
No representative was present to speak and no report was submitted.
6. APPROVAL OF JUNE 27TH, 2007 MINUTES
The following corrections were made:
Under Attendance, “Assistant Harbor Master” should be changed to “Deputy Harbor Master and Others should be deleted as John Frank did not attend.
On page 8, under CT DEP # 200402094-JW, “60’” should be replaced with “60 linear feet”
** MR. D’ANDREA MOVED TO ACCEPT THE MINUTES AS AMENDED.
** DR. PINTO SECONDED.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
7. NEW BUSINESS / OLD BUSINESS
The Commission congratulated Mr. Geraghty on his new baby.
8. ADJOURNMENT
** MS. CLARK MOVED TO ADJOURN.
** DR. PINTO SECONDED.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jessica Schroder
Telesco Secretarial Services
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