EAST AMWELL BOARD OF HEALTH APRIL 28, 2009 1

The regular meeting of the Board of Health came to order at 7:30 p.m. Present for the meeting were: Tracy Carluccio, Les Hamilton, Tim Martin, Jim Russo, Larry Tatsch and David Wang-Iverson. Tony Berberabe and Ted Peyrek were absent.

ANNOUNCEMENTS/AGENDA REVIEW

D. Maksymovich announced that there have been 5 suspected cases of Swine Flu in New Jersey. For the Board’s convenience she placed a copy of the Swine Flu Key Facts About Swine Influenza from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She stated that there are copies on the back table for the public.

D. Maksymovich reminded Board members that they are to return their 2009 Financial Disclosure Form to her this evening or make sure the Municipal Clerk has them by the end of the week.

D. Maksymovich added the following items to the agenda: Item 5.C.4. Memorandum of April 22, 2009 from G. Scibilia re: Block 11 / Lot 37.03 Approved Septic Design; item 6.2. Model Septic Maintenance Ordinance Meeting at the Hunterdon County Department of Health of May 20, 2009 re: Model Septic Maintenance Ordinance; item 7.B.12 fax of April 24, 2009 from LINCS re: Human Swine Flu Investigation in California and Texas; item 7.B.13. fax of April 25, 2009 from LINCS re: CDC Investigation and Interim Recommendations – Swine Influenza.

The following item was removed from the agenda: item 5.B.2. to be placed on a future agenda.

PRESENTATION OF THE MINUTES

There being no corrections to the minutes L. Tatsch motioned to approve the minutes as presented, seconded by L. Hamilton and carried with T. Martin and D. Wang-Iverson abstaining.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

There being no comments from the public L. Tatsch motioned to close to the public, seconded by D. Wang-Iverson and carried by unanimous vote.

UNFINISHED AND NEW BUSINESS

A. HUNTERDON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH INSPECTOR’S REPORT. Daniel Wyckoff, Hunterdon County Department of Health representative was present for this portion of the meeting.

1. MTBE VICINITY OF ROUTE 202/31 & 514 OLD YORK ROAD – UPDATE. D. Wyckoff had no further updates on the MTBE.

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2. MESZAROS, LINDBERGH ROAD – UPDATE. D. Wyckoff had no further updates. L. Tatsch commented that a few weeks ago he drove past the property and he noticed a number of people there working on the property and one of them was Mr. Meszaros daughter, Nancy and he had a discussion with her. She told him that she and her family are attempting to clean up the solid waste from the property. He brought this to the Board’s attention in the event any of the members of the Board see any activity there it is likely to be the Meszaros family.

L. Tatsch informed the Board that the Township has received a Green Acres Grant for $500,000.00 for the purchase of various Meszaros properties and an adjacent property owned by two sisters who live in Virginia. He said that D & R Greenway is the agent working on that grant. Discussion followed on the negotiation process regarding the purchase of the land. At the conclusion of the discussion L. Tatsch commented that it is not going to be an easy task but the Township Committee is hopeful that it will happen.

3. OWENS (a.k.a. Woody’s) BLOCK 16 / LOT 11 – UPDATE. D. Wyckoff reported that he did not have the opportunity to review the Remedial Action Work Plan. He stated that they are making progress and submitting reports on time. He told the Board he would research this further before the next Board meeting.

4. INCOMPLETE FILE NOTICES, MARCH 20, 2009 FROM ERIC FAULSTICH, REHS, HUNTERDON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. D. Wyckoff reported that each of these individual items remain incomplete at this time. They are being monitored by E. Faulstich, Hunterdon County Department of Health REHS and there is some compliance but each file is not complete at this time. He stated that when the property owner is put on notice that no permits will be issued until the file is complete he will let the Board know. In the meantime, the sites are being monitored by an inspector attendant staff. A brief discussion followed.

5. LETTER OF MARCH 27, 2009 FROM TADHGH RAINEY, MOSQUITO VECTOR CONTROL, HUNTERDON COUONTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, RE: BLACK FLIES QUESTIONS AND ANSWER SHEET. D. Wyckoff said that the report speaks for itself.

1. MANNERS, BLOCK 35.01 / LOT 3 – SEPTIC REPAIR. T. Carluccio invited any member of the audience to come forward who has an interest in this application. Robert Zederbaum of RBZ Enterprise and Bergen and June Manners owners of the property introduced themselves for the record.

R. Zederbaum started the conversation stating that he was not sure why they were before the Board of Health this evening. He said that he would provide a bit of history on this project and then the Board can decide which way the Board would like them to go. He provided a brief history of the site conditions.

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R. Zederbaum conducted an investigation which revealed that the select fill in the bed is in beautiful condition; it is nice and clean and dry. He explained how this investigation was done and determined when they pumped the tanks down that the tanks were being infiltrated by surface water; there was considerable amount of seepage back into the tanks. He detailed the chronology of the application for the Board and how he decided on using an under drain system.

R. Zederbaum stated that he talked to the Road Department Supervisor who indicated that he loved to see people connect to a catch basin road drainage system because it eliminates all of the icing problems and all of the rest. (Note: After the meeting D. Maksymovich spoke with the Road Department Supervisor who disagrees with this representation of the conversation.) R. Zederbaum stated that this would still require a permit. He told the Board that he sent his plan to Dennis O’Neal, Township Engineer, and asked D. O’Neal what they needed to do to get the permit. He said that D. O’Neal replied that it was his opinion that the Board of Health’s approval would be needed for the septic repair before he could issue a permit to tie into the catch basin.

T. Carluccio thanked R. Zederbaum for the introduction. She stated that the Preview Committee met to review this request for approval. She said they looked at the County letter which discusses the plan to put in the drain. Since the septic tanks are involved the under-drain is considered to involve the septic system, requiring Board of Health and Hunterdon County Department of Health approval. She reviewed the site plan with the Board and R. Zederbaum.

T. Carluccio commented that this was briefly discussed at the Board’s last meeting because she happened to be at a meeting with D. O’Neal and he had just had a conversation with R. Zederbaum. The Acting Road Superintendent was there and was asked what he thought of tying the under drain into the Lindbergh Road drain. She reported that the concern of the Road Department Superintendent is about overloading that inlet. He informed them that the drains were put in to improve the run-off on the road and that the inlet was sized for road run-off only. The inlet is a finite system and the concern is that it is going to be overloaded by having a discharge from a property into it not knowing how much water is going to be entering the inlet. She said these inlets and the road drainage system were designed on engineering plans based on the volume of water from the road, and not on additional volume from properties. T. Carluccio stated that the road design and drainage to be beyond the Board’s purview; that is a Road Department matter. A very lengthy discussion followed.

At the conclusion of the discussion T. Carluccio said that this is a bit of a quandary the Board was put in because the County has asked the Board to approve the concept of the proposed under drain. But, it is really not the Board’s purview, even if it were a part of the septic system the Board would never allow a drain involving a septic system to discharge to an inlet. She said that is really up to the Township Road Department. D. Wang-Iverson said that the Board should just approve the repair of the tanks. L. Tatsch agreed. He said he feels it would be to the benefit of the applicant that the tanks be replaced rather than repaired because by the time the tanks are uncovered and cleaned as thoroughly as they need to be cleaned to do any kind of repair and then

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sealed the cost is going to be expensive and there is a very strong likely hood that the repair will not last very long.

L. Tatsch said that his inclination is to disallow the under-drains. He stated there are too many things militating against this drain for this particular case. The degree of discharge is totally unknown at this point; it could be 10s of gallons per minute or it could be very low. The field and the whole septic system are fairly old and could fail in the future. If the tanks are indeed replaced the groundwater inflow into the septic tanks will be stopped. T. Martin commented that the Board’s rationale is with good watertight tanks then the drain is totally unnecessary and that drain is part of the septic design because it is running between the tanks and the field. T. Carluccio agreed, even though it exceeds the distance requirements and technically is not part of the septic; it is in between two components of the system.

As a result of the review and discussion L. Tatsch motioned that the Board of Health recommends against the drain; the Board also recommends that the tanks be replaced with water tight tanks and tested in place to insure water tightness and that concrete risers be employed, the motion was seconded by D. Wang-Iverson.

After additional discussion L. Tatsch amended the motion by adding that the reasons for recommending against the drain are: 1) uncertainty of actual water source; 2) uncertainty of the volume of flow of the drain; 3) an unsuitable discharge point for the drain; 4) Should the field or other components for the system fail in the future, there is the potential of the drain to channel septic effluent from the failed or other system component into the road, a water course or stream. D. Wang-Iverson seconded the amendment and the motion carried by unanimous vote.

C. SCIBILIA, BLOCK 11 / LOT 37.03 – SEPTIC SYSTEM DESIGN. T. Carluccio acknowledged receipt of the correspondence as listed on the agenda.

D. THE RIDGE AT BACK BROOK, BLOCK 25 / LOT 10. T. Carluccio reminded the Board that the Board received the water sampling report last month. It was determined at that meeting that she would write a memo to the Township Committee and the other boards that highlighted some of the concerns and issues the Board discussed at the meeting. She wrote the memo and she called Stephen Souza, Princeton Hydro to discuss it with him. She told the Board he suggested that he write an addendum to clarify those issues instead of the Board of Health sending a memo and he submitted it to the Board at this meeting. T. Carluccio then reviewed the addendum with the Board.

T. Carluccio commented the Stream Monitoring reports from the Ridge at Back Brook show that there are regional conditions that are impacting the streams before they enter the Ridge at Back Brook site. She said the result is that the TP (total phosphorous) and the NO3 (nitrate) is high; in many instances they are higher when entering the golf course then when leaving the golf course. T. Carluccio remarked that in the past the Board had recommended that to the Township Committee that a sub-committee, the Environmental Commission or another board or committee could apply for a grant to conduct a program to sample the Back Brook and its tributaries to pin

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point where these problems are coming from. She reviewed the recommendations in the addendum. She remarked that this is great advice the Township has received as S. Souza has provided an analysis on this issue and provided a proposed testing protocol at no cost to the Township. D. Wang-Iverson commented that by doing this testing it provides the Township the opportunity to identify the pollution source. T. Carluccio agreed. A brief discussion followed.

At the conclusion of the discussion L. Tatsch suggested sending the addendum to the Environmental Commission with a cover note that says this would be an interesting project and see if they are able to apply for grants. He said he would really be reluctant to suggest that the Township pay for this considering our present budget situation. But, certainly this may be a good grant application. The Board agreed to forward the addendum with a note to the Environmental Commission with a copy to the Township Committee.

E. TABBY’S PLACE, BLOCK 9.01 / LOT 5. T. Carluccio acknowledged receipt of the First Quarterly Water Meter Reading for 2009.

ORDINANCE REVIEW COMMITTEE

T. Carluccio acknowledged receipt of the correspondence as listed on the agenda. She told the Board there is a Model Septic Maintenance Ordinance meeting Wednesday May 20^th. T. Carluccio will attend for the Board of Health.

ITEMS OF DISCUSSION

A. SOURLAND MOUNTAIN SMART GROWTH / AMWELL MUNICIPAL STORMWATER TASK FORCE / WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT PLAN.

Sourland Mountain Smart Growth: T. Carluccio said that most recently she has met with Banish Associates, who are the consultant for the Smart Growth Grant. She met with the staff person from that office and a planner from one of the other townships that’s involved in the Smart Growth planning effort and went over the model ordinances that are going to be included in this plan. She informed the Board that consultants for the plan had been to all Township Planning Boards once to discuss this and are going back to the Township Committees over the next 4 to 6 weeks. The model ordinances will not be mandatory but used as a tool for the townships to develop their own ordinance.

Amwell Municipal Stormwater Task Force: T. Carluccio had nothing new to report.

The Wastewater Management Plan: T. Carluccio said that the Septic Maintenance Ordinance is the newest information on this.

B. EDUCATION AND HEALTH ISSUES. T. Carluccio reviewed the correspondence as listed on the agenda. D. Maksymovich will have the Township Web-master put a link on East

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Amwell Township’s website to link to the County site. D. Maksymovich suggested placing the CDC Swine Flu Fact Sheet on the Counter. The Board approved.

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S ORAL REPORT. D. Maksymovich reported that Mr. Silva, Block 8 / Lot 8 will be able to repair his system. He does not really need a new system. The approved design will be in the properties block and lot file.

D. Maksymovich told the Board that she has an updated list of activities scheduled for South County Park and will e-mail to interested Board members.

CORRESPONDENCE

T. Carluccio acknowledged the correspondence as listed on the agenda.

BILLS OF THE EVENING

L. Hamilton motioned to pay the bills of the evening, seconded by T. Martin and carried by unanimous vote.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

There being no public present L. Tatsch motioned to close to the public,; seconded by L. Hamilton and was carried by unanimous vote.

ADJOURNMENT

L. Tatsch motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:45 p.m., seconded by D. Wang-Iverson and was carried by unanimous vote.

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Darlis Maksymovich, Administrative Officer