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HOSTED DOCUMENTS
November 12, 2008 Meeting
minutes
November 12, 2008
Community Groundwater Study Group meeting U-32 Community Building 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Our meeting began with a powerpoint presentation on groundwater from Larry Becker, Vermont's State Geologist. He said the geological formations of New England are very complex. New England rock is mostly under compression, so much of the water is found in fractures. Other water is found in sand/gravel formations. Larry gave us a general understanding of the effects of glacial recession on land formation, the location and movement of groundwater, the effect of pumping water, and the interaction between surface water and groundwater. He explained that groundwater can surface as a spring. In response to a question about capturing free-flowing spring water, Larry said that even if there is no pumping of the water, capturing and removing the water may, over time, lower the water level of the recharge area and lower stream waters.
Since 1966, well drillers have had to report all wells drilled, giving their depth and the material the drill passed through. There is an Agency of Natural Resources website that has some of this information. In the last 15 years, location tags have been placed on wells, allowing more accurate identifying data. A community project to use GPS to find wells is possibly going to happen in Randolph.
Geologic mapping has different uses. Larry showed us a map of the Williston area and explained how the mapping locates wells, helps town planning and can be a template to view town resources and assist long-range development. There are at least 250 municipal wells in Vermont.
We talked about the potential usefulness of geologic mapping in East Montpelier. Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources administers a grant program that uses federal funding to conduct geologic mapping of selected Vermont towns. In October, East Montpelier submitted a request for mapping, but was not chosen this year.
After Larry's presentation, we had a short business meeting. We considered, and rejected, the idea of bringing a resolution to East Montpelier's town meeting that would prohibit corporations from extracting the town's groundwater. We decided, instead, to work on securing strong groundwater protection in our Town Plan and our Land Use Regulations.
Proposed Land Use Regulations, containing strong protection for groundwater, did not pass at a recent selectboard meeting. A petition was circulated that got enough signatures to have an Australian ballot vote on January 6th, 2009. After the Land Use Regulations are hopefully passed, we will seek to amend the Town Plan to include text that expresses an intention to protect East Montpelier's groundwater.
We will put our efforts into educating people about the Land Use Regulations, getting out the January 6 vote, and in creating an educational display for East Montpelier's Town Meeting.
We reported that the Kellogg-Hubbard Library programs about water were very successful. The programs led to interesting discussions, including issues regarding how NAFTA could affect local control of water.
The Study Group's steering committee will write up a report for the East Montpelier Town Meeting booklet and circulate it via e-mail for comments. Everyone was encouraged to look at the excellent website Tim Jennings has created for us at http://community-water.org
We didn't set a date for our next meeting. To be announced.