Alice Waugh

Outdoor water ban now in effect as drought drags on

August 23, 2016

The north shore of Flint’s Pond on August 19. (Photo courtesy Greg Woods)

The Lincoln Water Department has instituted a mandatory outdoor water ban that prohibits all lawn watering by means of automatic irrigation systems or manual sprinklers due to the worsening drought, which Monday morning’s storm did little to help.

The storm, which brought an EF-1 tornado to parts of Concord, dropped 0.55 inches of rain on Lincoln, according to Water Department Superintendent Greg Woods. Flint’s Pond, Lincoln’s primary public water source, is 55 inches below full capacity, “so even a full year’s worth of precipitation (typically 48 inches in Massachusetts) won’t bring us back to normal levels, even assuming we don’t withdraw any water as it’s filling,” he said.

The Water Department’s precipitation records show that the town is almost 7 inches below its median precipitation level for the last 40 years. Ground water levels have decreased 1.8 feet since May. As a result of the scarce rainfall, there’s been more demand for water for lawns and gardens; water use for June and July was 20 percent above 2015 and 30 percent above the five-year average, and current withdrawal rates are causing the pond level to drop one foot per month, Woods said.

On August 18, the U.S. Drought Monitor upgraded its drought assessment for most of Middlesex (including Lincoln) and Essex Counties to “extreme drought.” Several other area towns including Concord, Acton, Wayland and Sudbury have instituted watering bans similar to Lincoln’s, and 53 Massachusetts communities have restricted outdoor watering to one day a week or less.

Water levels in Flint’s Pond (formerly called Sandy Pond) since 2010.

Until the drought is over, Lincoln resident may not use underground or above-ground sprinklers or soaker hoses. They also may not fill or top swimming pools by more than two inches, or use games or toys such as water slides and sprinklers that use a continuous stream. Car washing is also prohibited.

Watering vegetable or flower gardens by means of a handheld hose is allowed from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. only. Drip irrigation systems are also permitted for two days a week as determined by a resident’s street address (even-numbered houses may water on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while off-numbered houses may do so on Wednesdays and Fridays). Violators will receive a written warning for a first offense, a $50 fine for a second offense and a $100 fine for a third offense.

Although the ban covers only outdoor water use, the Water Department encourages everyone to conserve water inside their homes as well. Conservation measures include reducing shower frequency and duration, showering instead of taking baths, reducing toilet flushing, avoiding continuous running of faucets, and using the washing machine and dishwasher only when full.

Woods said he didn’t think a complete outdoor water ban had ever been imposed in Lincoln. The water level in Flint’s Pond was lower during the 1964-1966 drought and residents were asked to conserve water voluntarily, but lawn irrigation systems were not as prevalent as they are today, he noted.

There’s no immediate danger that Flint’s Pond will run dry. The pond is still at slightly more than 50% capacity and the Water Department has increased its use of its Tower Road well to help reduce the demand on the pond. However water levels in the well have dropped 1.8 feet since May, “so we need to watch that level as well so the well pump isn’t damaged,” Woods said.

The microfiltration plant on Sandy Pond Road that treats the water from Flint’s Pond can cope with the increased concentration of organic matter in the water, Woods said. The plant treats anywhere from 450,000 to 900,000 gallons a day before sending it to a 1.2-million-gallon holding tank at the top of the hill on Bedford Road. From there, the treated and filtered water flows through Lincoln’s 57 miles of water mains to residents’ faucets (see the Lincoln Squirrel, September 28, 2014).

The bigger concern is the uncertainty in the long-range forecast and whether this will be a multiyear drought. “We started this year about 20 inches below full capacity because 2015 was dry. If the pond level doesn’t recover this winter and spring, we could be in the same [watering ban] situation next year, but potentially earlier in the season than August,” Woods said.

Farrington hopes its nature programming will blossom

April 17, 2015

Children enjoy the green open space at Farrington Nature Linc.

By Alice C. Waugh

A century-old Lincoln facility originally built to offer rural respite to undernourished city girls has reinvented itself and hopes to expand its programs that connect low-income urban children to the natural world.

Lincoln is known for its farms and conservation land, but Farrington Nature Linc is a bit of a hidden gem with its own particular niche, said executive director Wendy Matusovich. “There are many nature programs in Lincoln, but none of them have exactly the same lens as we do, which is to focus exclusively on kids from urban communities who don’t otherwise have access to nature. So few people in the Lincoln area know what we really do or what we are,” she said.

“Now and then we’ll get a child who’s afraid to sit down or run barefoot on the grass because they don’t know what’s there,” Matusovich added. “They don’t know what it’s like to be quiet in nature.”

At the rear of Farrington’s 75-acre property just north of Route 2 sits a 1912 brick dormitory. In his will, Charles Farrington, who died in 1907 and posthumously created Farrington Memorial in honor of his parents, asked his trustees to purchase a “healthy and beautiful locality to which children may be sent for a longer or shorter time to recuperate their health and draw new life, physical, mental and moral, to meet the responsibilities that may come to them.”

After World War II, the City Missionary Society hosted a variety of programs on the property, and from 1977 to 2004, Gould Farm ran a community residence for young adults with mental illness. However, after they left and another tenant for the dormitory couldn’t be found, Farrington lost the occupancy license for the building. It’s no longer in use and has fallen into disrepair, with floors strewn with chunks of fallen plaster and bits of parquet. To return it to its full overnight functionality, Farrington would have to rebuild it from the inside to bring it up to code, which would cost several million dollars, Matusovich said.

A boy makes friends with a calf at Farrington Nature Linc.

Since 2002, the property (now called Farrington Nature Linc) has been managed as a summer and after-school educational site hosting visits by Boston-area groups of children for single-day and multi-day nature experiences. Kids get the chance to hike through Farrington’s 75 acres of woodlands, fields and ponds; look for tadpoles and frogs in their pond and vernal pools; learn how plants grow in Farrington’s garden; and meet farm animals loaned to Farrington in the summer by Codman Farm.

Farrington Nature Linc is aiming to serve more kids and offer programs at during the school year as well as the summer. In 2014, it ran day programs during school vacations for the first time, with snowshoeing, sledding and hot chocolate in February and salamander searching, art projects and “frog chorus” in April. It also piloted a summer overnight camping experience with the help of a grant from the Clipper Ship Foundation. As a result, 121 children experienced night hikes, campfires and star gazing for the first time.

Also on the Farrington property, which was once a working farm, are the original 18th-century barn and farmhouse, which is now rented to tenants and also used for Farrington’s office. With proceeds from grants, donations and fundraising events—including a family spring hike on April 18 and the Fairy Festival on May 16—the board (which includes Lincoln residents Brooks Mostue, Susan Taylor, Sandra Bradlee and Jane Tierney) hopes to winterize the barn to allow indoor programs during the cold months and add staff time. Staff noticed during the first February program that while the kids had winter coat, many did not have snow pants or waterproof boots, so they also plan to build up an inventory of winter gear for their young visitors.

“The board is committed to helping Farrington grow into a year-round organization,” Matusovich said. To that end, it hopes to eventually rehabilitate the dormitory building and also boost its endowment, which currently supports only the summer programming. It also hosts birthday parties, family hikes and other activities that are open to all. The actual cost for a summer day visit to Farrington Nature Linc is about $6 per child, but Farrington has a sliding scale, so most groups only pay $1 per child and Farrington subsidizes the difference, Matusovich noted. Eighty percent of the children who visit qualify for the federally subsidized lunch program

Matusovich herself was further inspired after hearing Richard Louv speak at a conference last year. Louv is founder of the Children and Nature Network and author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder who urges kids to swap some of their screen time for green time. “It was an amazing day that gave me the state of the current research, which I hadn’t taken the time to delve into yet,” she said.

More frequent bills, new rates for town water in 2015

January 2, 2015

By Alice Waugh

For homes that use town water, it’s a new year with new things to look forward to—including quarterly water bills and new rates to encourage water conservation.

The change in billing frequency from semiannually to quarterly came about because Lincoln has failed to meet its state target limit of 65 gallons per person per day. As a result, the Department of Environmental Protection required the town to come up with a set of measures to try to meet the goal, and one of those measures is more frequent billing to keep closer tabs on usage.

“It’s like when you overspend your budget, you tend to balance your checkbook a little more frequently,” said Water Department Superintendent Greg Woods. The changes were outlined in this letter from the Water Commission that was mailed to residents several weeks ago.

Rates are also going down for homes that use less water. Under the old billing system, those that used up to 48,000 gallons of water every six months were changed $5.07 per thousand gallons. Now, homes that use up to 40,000 gallons per year will be charged only $4.06 per thousand gallons.

However, after that level of usage, the price goes up. Homes that use 40,002 to 80,000 gallons every six months will pay $8.57 per thousand gallons, compared to last year’s rate of $7.79 per thousand gallons for homes using 48,001 to 90,000 gallons every six months. Homes with a separate meter for irrigation water will also be paying 20 percent more for that water (see chart below).

A family of four that meets the target of 65 gallons per capita per day would use about 100,000 gallons per year, according to the Water Department’s latest annual report.

In comparing Lincoln to five neighboring towns, four (including Lincoln) had annual rates between $500 and $600 for a home using 100,000 gallons per year. Wayland was considerably higher at $977. However, Woods cautioned that it’s difficult to make exact comparisons because each town has a different distribution system. For example, Lincoln relies on surface water from Flint’s Pond, while Acton, at four times Lincoln’s population, has a much larger system that relies more on groundwater wells, he explained.

Currently the DEP has no plans to fine residents or towns for exceeding their water usage targets. “All indications are that they will work with communities to get into compliance,” Woods said.

Keeping Lincoln’s water flowing for 140 years

September 28, 2014

Greg Woods, Lincoln Water Department superintendent, with one of the membrane filter used to treat clean the town's water. See below for more photos.

Greg Woods, Lincoln Water Department superintendent, with one of the membrane filters used to treat clean the town’s water. See below for more photos. —Photos by Alice Waugh

By Alice Waugh

You don’t have to think about it — just turn on your tap and clean water flows. For most Lincoln households, that water starts its journey in Flint’s Pond and navigates a surprisingly intricate route on its way to your shower, sink or lawn — a journey that once involved wooden water mains and a coal-fired pump.

All but about 400 Lincoln residents (mostly on Old County Road and Conant Road) get town water, which is pumped from Flint’s Pond via a pump house next to the pond, explained Lincoln Water Department Superintendent Greg Woods. From there, it travels north across Sandy Pond Road to a nondescript one-story building where an automated system adds sodium hydroxide to adjust the pH, sodium fluoride to help prevent tooth decay, and zinc orthophosphate to reduce corrosion in the water pipes.

Then all the water — anywhere from 450,000 to 900,000 gallons a day — passes through a membrane filtration system before heading to a 20-foot-tall holding tank at the top of a hill on Bedford Road. (The 1.2-million-gallon tank won’t offend anyone’s aesthetic sensibilities, however; all but two feet of it are buried underground.) From there, the treated and filtered water flows through Lincoln’s 57 miles of water mains to residents’ faucets.

There are several safety and backup systems in place to keep the water flowing in case of emergency. The pump house has an emergency backup generator that runs on natural gas in case of a power outage. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it kept the water flowing for three full days, Woods said. There’s also a well on Tower Road that serves as a secondary water source when the main facility requires maintenance. And the system’s water is sampled every two weeks at various locations in town and tested to make sure the chemistry is correct and that there are no harmful pathogens present.

More than a century of service

Lincoln has had a water department since 1874. In the old days, water was drawn from the pond, screened in the small house at the water’s edge and pumped directly to homes via a coal-fired facility that was torn down in 1900, Woods said. Today, the larger building houses the modern pumping facility and generator as well as repair equipment and an assortment of old water meters and gate boxes — the metal tubes set into roadway and sidewalks with caps that workers can remove to access each gate, or valve, to shut off water between two points.

The state Department of Environmental Protection eventually began requiring towns to disinfect surface water that’s piped to homes (water from public and private wells below a certain depth doesn’t have this requirement), so Lincoln built the disinfection facility in 1993 and added the membrane filtration system in 2003. The disused screening building next to the pond is still there, although it started sliding off its foundation about 15 years ago and a resident paid to have it filled with cement to anchor it in place.

The pond itself is closed to all recreational use including swimming, fishing, skating and even picnicking by the shore. “I don’t want to be a Nazi and shoo people away because it really is a beautiful sight, but it is our main water supply,” Woods said.

Owing to the lack of human predators, “there are some really big fish in there,” said Woods. The pond is about 35 feet at its deepest, and one can see down about 15 feet from the surface. “It’s a very, very clear pond,” he said. Canada geese visit now and then, but he chases them off in a boat to minimize bacteriological contamination from bird poop.

Conservation measures

Not surprisingly, residents use a lot more water in the summer, when lawns and gardens get their share. In fact, the time of day with the highest demand is at about 3 a.m., because many homeowners have their sprinkler systems hooked up to timers that are set to soak the plants in the middle of the night, which is better for them than getting water in the heat of the day. There’s also a morning and evening rush, when residents are taking showers, using toilets, cooking meals and doing the dishes.

At first glance, Massachusetts doesn’t seem to resemble the Southwest in terms of water supply, but, “there are some very stressed water basins in the state,” Woods said. By state law, residents are supposed to limit themselves to 65 gallons of water per person per day, and Lincoln “has been hanging out in the upper 60s,” he said. Over the course of a year, Lincoln uses 200 million gallons of town water, but the town is supposed to reduce its usage to 182 million gallons to comply with current regulations.

Although there are no specific penalties at the moment, towns must show they have plans in place for conservation and leak detection and are making progress. In Lincoln, sandwich boards appear around town during the growing season to remind residents that they may use outside water only twice a week. Some residents get around the limit by using a private well for outdoor irrigation and town water just for indoor use, Woods noted.

Another state-mandated water conservation rule says that no more than 10 percent of pumped water may be lost to leaks somewhere in the system. Lincoln loses somewhere between 10 and 20 percent each year, “so we need to find some leaks,” Woods said. The town must repair leaks up to each owner’s property line, but homeowners are responsible for fixing pipes on their property.

If townwide water usage town suddenly spikes, workers will look for an underground leak by listening from surface points between hydrants with headphones to try to pin down the location of the suspected leak (though sometimes it remains a mystery — see the Lincoln Squirrel, Aug. 17, 2013). Water escaping from a crack in a pipe agitates the surrounding sediment, which causes vibrations that can be picked up on sophisticated detection systems. A contractor also inspects the entire system using this method once a year and identifies, on average, about a dozen locations annually (including faulty hydrants) that are leaking more than one gallon a minute, Woods said.

Leaks are a never-ending issue because many of the water mains are quite old, but it’s prohibitively expensive to replace them before they actually fail. The original water mains were made of wood strips held together with metal bands, because cast iron was very expensive back in the day. The town eventually moved to cast iron pipes and, more recently, longer-lasting ductile iron.

“We have pipe in the ground that’s more than 100 years old,” said Woods, pointing to an ancient pipe segment that had become drastically narrowed from the inside by iron and manganese deposits. Nowadays, water mains are flushed once a year by opening hydrants. This creates an artificial leak that causes the system to pump water at higher pressure to compensate, and the temporary rush of water scours the deposits the inside the pipes.

Though it’s safe to drink, the water that day might be a bit discolored, so notices are posted about when hydrant flushing will take place. “You don’t want to launder your silk curtains that day,” Woods said.

Click on an image below to see larger versions and captions.
Photos by Alice Waugh

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Groups appeal Jet Aviation decision

June 19, 2014

Two nonprofit preservation groups have filed an appeal with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in an attempt to block construction of a new hangar and parking.at Hanscom Field.

Jet Aviation, a commercial firm that leases land at Hanscom owned by Massport, applied to the Lincoln Conservation Commission under the state Wetlands Protection Act for permission to encroach on a wetlands buffer zone for its project. The company declined to apply under the local Lincoln wetlands bylaw, saying that Massport as a state agency is exempt from non-zoning local regulations and that this exemption extends to anyone who leases land from Massport. After five public hearings, the commission approved Jet Aviation’s application with conditions under the state provisions by a 5-2 vote, noting that the proposed work is in fact subject to review under the town of Lincoln’s Wetlands Protection By-law.

Save Our Heritage and ShhAir (Safeguarding the Historic Hanscom Area’s Irreplaceable Resources) filed an appeal with the DEP on May 27, arguing that Massport and its tenant, Jet Aviation, should be required to adhere to local wetlands regulations. Lincoln resident Kati Winchell of Save Our Heritage noted that while the groups want to protect wetlands and forestall increases in traffic, jet noise and air pollution that could accompany Hanscom’s growth, they’re also worried that the case could have much wider ramifications.

“This is a precedent-setting case extending beyond wetlands issues,” the groups said in a press release. In challenging Massport’s claims to exemption from local regulations, a successful appeal “may open new doors for Hanscom-area town boards who until now have worked under the long-held assumption that their hands were tied in matters concerning Hanscom Field development.” This assumption that local boards have no jurisdiction over Hanscom other than zoning has left Massport “free from meaningful local control and [provided] businesses who lease land from Massport with special privileges and immunities not available to other area businesses that play by local rules. Now, for the first time in decades, this may change with regard to non-zoning matters, pending the outcome of this case.”

“This case is lifting the curtain on Massport’s presumed freedoms and local boards’ presumed limitations,” Winchell said on Tuesday.

“This appeal… challenges Jet Aviation’s casual invocation of a claimed Massport exemption without factual demonstration, recent legal authority, or Massport even being an applicant here,” said Greg McGregor, an attorney with the firm hired by Save Our Heritage and ShhAir.

The appeal asks the DEP to either send the application the project back to the Lincoln Conservation Commission with directions that Jet Aviation is required to file under the local bylaw (under which the ConCom could theoretically insist that no part of the project be built on the wetlands buffer zones in question), or to overturn the approval because it allegedly did not, in fact, conform with state wetlands regulations.

The DEP has scheduled a site visit for June 24 as part of the appeal process.

Letter to the editor: Henry Francis on “irresponsible” Jet Aviation plan

March 18, 2014

To the editor:

I attended the February 19 and March 12 public hearings on Jet Aviation’s proposal to expand its Hanscom hanger facilities, which were sponsored by the Lincoln Conservation Commission. These were working business meetings of the commission to which the public were invited.

The commission is concerned with the issue of proposed Jet Aviation construction encroaching on a few acres of Lincoln wetlands. It appears that Jet Aviation will successfully conform to the commission’s requirements, and will therefore be permitted to proceed with their project. However, this is not the issue of importance to most citizens. We the people feel strongly that increasing Hanscom’s total hangar area, in order to house and service more of the dirtiest type of aircraft (as measured by amount of fuel burned and carbon emitted per passenger-mile), is totally irresponsible by any conceivable standard.

There is a striking dichotomy here between the will of the people and the presumed approval of this project, and I am deeply disappointed that the commission members all were excessively deferential and accommodating to the Jet Aviation representatives and their proposal, in spite of the totally obvious fact that the many citizens in attendance unanimously and angrily oppose the project—there was not one comment from the invited public in support of Jet Aviation.

At what level of environmental pollution (both chemical and acoustic) do we draw the line? The line should be drawn right now—Jet Aviation should not be permitted to expand their Hanscom facilities to accommodate more jets, and we, the people, expect the (our?) Lincoln Conservation Commission to recognize and support this position. This project, and indeed the entire Hanscom expansion juggernaut, should be axed as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Henry Francis
Sunnyside Lane

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published. Letters may be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor.

Letters to the editor: Hanscom jet plans

February 12, 2014

Following are two letters to the editor from Lincoln residents Kati Winchell and Jim Hutchinson concerning a Conservation Commission hearing on a Hanscom Civil Airport application. Letters to the editor must be signed and must be about a Lincoln-specific topic. They may be edited for length, grammar/punctuation, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Send letters via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com.

To the Editor:

A private luxury jet facility at Hanscom Civil Airport has filed plans with Lincoln Conservation Commission to expand into Lincoln wetlands buffer zones–and in the process expand the airport’s footprint. Lincoln residents should take heed of this latest move by Massport to grow Hanscom Airport.

Jet Aviation’s plans include a new hangar (40,000 square feet, twice the size of the one being replaced), new ramp space (2.1 acres), and a new landside access road. All these features would run within or through Lincoln wetland buffer zones. Jet Aviation maintains that this wetlands area is of “low quality” and can therefore be developed. The fundamental question is: Why should Lincoln set aside its wetlands protection standards to support a development that’s designed to attract and grow one of the single most destructive environmental polluters—private luxury jets?

The facility’s proposed changes are intended to attract and accommodate Gulfstream 650s, the largest private jets made for international travel. Gulfstream 650s are touted as being more fuel-efficient than their smaller cousins. The fact is, however, that a single round trip to China from Hanscom would consume enough fuel to power a Toyota Prius for approximately one million miles. It would generate approximately 400 tons of CO2 equivalent—which is equal to more emissions than a typical family in India generates in an entire lifetime. And that single round trip would carry a maximum of eight passengers.

On Wednesday, February 19 at 8:15 p.m. a public hearing on Jet Aviation’s proposal is being held by the Lincoln Conservation Commission at the Town Offices, Donaldson Room. Lincoln residents will be able to comment on whether the Con Com should approve or deny Jet Aviation’s plans to develop in Lincoln’s wetlands buffer zones. Please come and let your voices be heard.

Sincerely,

Kati Winchell
227 Concord Road

To the Editor:

Lincoln residents should be deeply disturbed by Massport’s latest plan to grow Hanscom Civil Airport, particularly as it comes on the heels of yet another development. Last year, the historic Hangar 24 was demolished and is currently being replaced by a huge 90,000 sq ft private luxury jet facility. This year, Jet Aviation (an existing private jet facility) has plans to grow that would involve incursions into Lincoln wetlands buffer zones.

Though the plans involve Lincoln wetlands, they have potential far-reaching impacts for all four Hanscom-area towns (Bedford, Concord, and Lexington, and Lincoln) because the Jet Aviation proposal would expand the Airport footprint – just as the Hangar 24 development has in Concord. As the Airport footprint expands, so do operation levels, and with them noise and air pollution. This incremental expansion of the Airport doesn’t end here; there are more plans in the wings.

Hanscom Civil Airport is located in the heart of one of America’s highest concentrations of historic and natural resources. It is the only airport in the nation that abuts both a national park (Minute Man Park) and a national wildlife refuge (Great Meadows). Growing the Airport in these unique and sensitive surroundings is inappropriate. Growing it into a Town’s wetlands buffer zone should be out of the question. It would be the height of irony were Lincoln’s wetlands protection standards set aside to facilitate the growth of private luxury jet use, one of the least environmentally-friendly activities In existence.

Next Wednesday, Feb. 19, there will be a hearing on Jet Aviation’s expansion plans at the Lincoln Town Offices at 8:15pm. All Lincoln and Hanscom-area residents are encouraged to attend and voice your concerns about trading protected wetlands buffer zones for private luxury jet use.

Sincerely,

Jim Hutchinson
Stonehedge Road