Field Notes
by Peter B Brace
PADDLE YOUR OWN KAYAK ON MIACOMET POND If you want to ply the waters of Nantucket's great ponds in a kayak you'll have to do it in your own vessel or one rented from one of two downtown locations.

In a 3-1 vote last week, the Board of Selectmen amended town regulations to prohibit all commercial activities at town-owned beaches near the island's great ponds. The vote was in reaction to Kathleen Fee's proposal last summer to operate a kayak rental business at Miacomet Pond. But after the Beach Management Advisory Committee - as directed by the selectmen - researched the idea and held a public information gathering hearing, the message was that people want the ponds left alone.

"We are simply recommending after having held an open meeting with the public . . . that we not have rentals," BMAC member Maureen Beck told the board at its Jan. 17 meeting. "Many of them stressed the fact that they enjoyed the pond on their own use."

The selectmen's vote does not preclude the board from reviewing and licensing future commercial operating proposals for its beaches.

SAND CONSULTANTS It takes a consultant to understand other consultants. That appears to be the thinking behind the selectmen's decision to hire their own consultant to bring the board up to speed on the benefits and dangers of the Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund's plan to rebuild three miles of the island's eastern shoreline from Sesachacha Pond down to Codfish Park. Before the board can sign SBPF's notice of intent for an order of conditions from the Conservation Commission, it wants to get all the technical details about the project explained.

The 4-0-vote in favor of hiring a consultant sets in motion the writing for a request for proposals (RFP) by the board's staff that is going to be publicized to attract consultants from which the board would select the lowest bidder. Using the information gathered by the consultant, the board would likely issue a letter to the ConCom outlining its concerns for the project.

PLUGGING HOLES WITH STATE DOUGH Nantucket, along with 79 other Massachusetts cities and towns, recently got a low-interest loan for $8,050,000 from the state's Department of Environmental Protection through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.

The money is going to help pay for the town's inflow/infiltration project currently invading the Brant Point area where, as residents and business owners know by now, living and working over the last two months is proving to be a challenge during construction. C.C. Construction, Inc., of South Dennis and the town are replacing 7,400 linear feet of the town's aging wastewater collection system pipes and 5,200 linear feet of its water main pipes.

The work is designed to prevent groundwater from flowing into the pipes - infiltration - and to keep property owners from channeling their roof and driveway runoff into storm drains - inflow - to make the most room possible for the treatment of wastewater. Excess water getting into sewage pipes is included in the gallons-per-day of sewage the Surfside Wastewater Treatment Plan is permitted to treat by the state's Department of Environmental Protection.

If the DPW can fix all those leaks and stop all that non-polluted flow into the system, for every two gallons per day that the town takes out of its sewer system, DEP will deposit one gallon-per-day (GPD) into the island's sewer bank from which sewer connections are deducted on a per-connection basis.

Nantucket's sewer bank is a savings account of sorts that allows the town to add gallons of wastewater per day beyond what is already allowed by the state.

WINTER IS FOR PLANNING The Board of Selectmen bought Nantucket four more weeks to digest the voluminous 2007 Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plan. At last week's meeting, the selectmen voted to hold a public hearing on Feb. 21 to wrap up public comments on the harbor plan. But the public can't make any comments if it doesn't know what to comment on.

To wit, there are several places one can peruse this latest draft of the harbor plan, including the Nantucket Atheneum, the UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station where you can get a copy by calling field station director Sarah Oktay at 228- 5268 or online at www.nantucketharborplan.com/, where it is available for download, and at the Marine & Coastal Resources Department where

you can get a CD of the plan. I