Wayland water committee sets cyanobacteria plan, backs Heard Pond permit extension

WAYLAND -- March 8, 2023, Wayland Surface Water Quality Committee maps cyanobacteria testing program and backs Heard Pond permit extension. At its March 8 meeting, Chair Tom Klem and member Carole Plumb said they will reconvene with Health Department staffer Julia Younghans and Recreation's Catherine Brenna to design a monitoring regimen that could keep the Lake Cochituate beach open during presumptive bloom sightings, rather than wait on state lab tests that run up to $500 each. The committee unanimously requested a three-year extension of DEP order of conditions 322-0678 for weed management at Heard Pond. Members also reviewed a restructured budget: a $25,000 Town Meeting article plus roughly $52,000 in carryover, with harvester operations moving into the DPW budget. Select Board member Carol Martin, attending as a guest, cautioned the committee on a new state PFAS advisory for Cochituate fish: "We are not scientists, and so we should probably not ponder it's in the fish but not the water."