ConCom still working on missing GHYC findings
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Various witnesses showing that Great Harbor Yacht Club's docks, piers and dredging plan would not significantly impact shellfish and finfish populations in the harbor were paraded before the Conservation Commission at its May 15 meeting.

At the third continuation of the public meeting opened on April 18 to collect evidence to make three findings missing from the ConCom's order of conditions - this one centered on the recreational scalloping impacts of the planned yacht club - the commission heard testimony from Land Council attorney Peter Fenn, the scallopers who are appealing the ConCom's order of conditions for the club's water-based part of the project and others.

In the end, the commission made no finding, and decided to close the public hearing and try to come to a decision at a meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. this afternoon.

At the May 15 meeting, Pete Sullivan of Sullivan Engineering, Great Harbor's dock and pier designer went first, telling the commission that the bottom of the decking of the club's piers would be 5.5 feet from the surface of the water at mean low tide, allowing pushrakers to walk beneath them as they scalloped. Additionally, the docks on the outer sections of the piers are removable, making it possible for commercial scallopers to dredge between them, he said.

Then came two islanders who have spent much of their time in this area and who shared their observations with the ConCom.

"My feeling about that area is that it is just not a productive area," said recreational scalloper Paul Boucher. "I've tried that area and my feeling is that there just isn't much in that area and I've never seen anyone in here."

Grey Lady Marine employee Mark Williams corroborated Boucher's testimony, telling the ConCom that in the 15 years he worked on this section of Nantucket's waterfront at the boatyard, he cannot recall too many recreational scallopers pushracking there and commercial scallopers doing too many tows in front of the boat yard.

"If you took a line and snapped it off that south bulkhead, I've never seen anyone pushraking north of that line," Williams told the commission.

Fenn's main premise on behalf of the Land Council, scallopers and other opponents of the project is that the installation of the piers and the dredging of 795 cubic yards of sand from the harbor floor will destroy eelgrass, a habitat for bay scallops and a breeding ground for winter flounder.

Although the commission only wanted to hear information on impacts to recreational scalloping in the project area, opponents stressed that what is done in this part of the harbor negatively affects marine life in the rest of the harbor.

Town Biologist Keith Conant expressed the sentiment of the Land Council and other objectors when he gave his assessment of the impacts.

"If you don't maintain the habitat you won't maintain the ability for the scallops to reproduce themselves," said Conant. "Without fetch and without wave action that is normally there, without docks and piers to block it, you're going to increase sedimentation coming out of the Creeks and you're going to increase the eutrification and you're going to actually add to the filling in of the harbor, so you're looking at longterm impacts over a broad area."

At one point, Fenn told the commission that his clients would withdraw their complaints if Great Harbor shortened the length of its piers, but no such offers were made by the

club's representatives. I

DELIBERATIONS

The Conservation Commission resumes its deliberations at 4 p.m. today, tentatively scheduled to be held at the Planning Department offices at 2 Fairgrounds Road. Call the Conservation Commission office at 228-7230 for the location of this meeting.