July 30, 2024 Planning Board Special Meeting Transcript - WEHI

37 (Pages 142 to 145) Page 142 1 earlier, have you done that test to see if your fire 2 truck can, in fact, proceed up the incline and go in 3 the back? 4 MR. ANDERSON: It's not going to go up 5 the incline that is to the east of that building. 6 It's just -- it's more of dragging hoses and relying 7 -- thank you. It's more of dragging hoses and 8 relying on -- from this point here, around -- like 9 to this point and going from this parking lot here 10 up and around here, dragging hoses to the back of 11 the building if they need to fight from that side. 12 MR. COYNE: And how many stories is 13 that building? 14 MR. ANDERSON: Four stories over the 15 parking story. 16 MR. COYNE: And is it common practice 17 for a town to have a ladder system that can service 18 the height of those systems in that town in case 19 people need to evacuate from a window? 20 MR. ANDERSON: It is; I believe that 21 the height of the building was thought out prior -- 22 as part of the settlement agreement based on the 23 firefighting equipment that was available -- 24 MR. COYNE: So that ladder should be 25 able to go in the back if need be for evacuation; is Page 143 1 that fair? 2 MR. ANDERSON: Or to the front. I'm 3 not -- this is a question we will meet with the fire 4 chief and ask him how he will fight this fire. 5 MR. COYNE: Thank you. Just turning 6 to one other topic of the water runoff. Can you 7 define what hundred-year water is, maybe in terms of 8 inches per year? 9 MR. ANDERSON: So it's basically a 10 storm that happens on a probability of once every 11 100 years -- 12 MR. COYNE: Um-hum. 13 MR. ANDERSON: -- for each area of the 14 country, that rainfall intensity varies. In this 15 area of the country, it's -- I think for this site, 16 it's probably around eight-and-a-half inches of 17 rainfall over a 24-hour period. 18 MR. COYNE: And how many have we had 19 in the last 10 or 20 years? 20 MR. ANDERSON: I'm not aware of the 21 exact number. 22 MR. COYNE: When you -- you've used 23 the term "average conditions," I believe, in some of 24 your reference to rainfall. When you do your 25 studies in terms of the capacity of your runoff Page 144 1 system, are you using an average, let's say a 50 2 percentile, so not the hundred-year average or -- 3 you said you're using 80 percent of the hundred-year 4 average; is that correct? 5 MR. ANDERSON: No, I think you 6 misunderstood

e, let's say a 50 2 percentile, so not the hundred-year average or -- 3 you said you're using 80 percent of the hundred-year 4 average; is that correct? 5 MR. ANDERSON: No, I think you 6 misunderstood that -- that testimony. So if we have 7 a certain volume of water coming in during the 8 existing conditions leaving the site, say going to 9 the Canoe Brook, as you were asking, that volume 10 times .8 is what I'm permitted to put back in there 11 later -- 12 MR. COYNE: Okay. 13 MR. ANDERSON: -- so it's 80 percent 14 of what the total discharge rate would be at that 15 discharge point. So I have to reduce the flow based 16 on, it's not 80 percent of the water, it's 80 17 percent of the total discharge rate. Also, they 18 make you do -- there's standards also where you 19 could assume that, say, the forest is woods in good 20 condition, and that is not the case here but we have 21 to -- 22 MR. COYNE: Okay. 23 MR. ANDERSON: -- assume that anyway. 24 In terms of -- 25 MR. COYNE: Just for sake of time, I'm Page 145 1 just going to squeeze one more question in just so I 2 have the liberty to finish. 3 MR. ANDERSON: Go right ahead. 4 MR. COYNE: Or you want to finish 5 your testimony? 6 MR. ANDERSON: No, no, you're running 7 out of time so go ahead. 8 MR. COYNE: So just if you could 9 explain to us, the way any system works, I know it's 10 like New York's runoff system like this where there 11 is overflow where overflow gates open and allow for 12 runoff because a system can't handle it. If we get 13 rainfall that is in excess of the capacity of your 14 system, where does that water go? 15 MR. ANDERSON: The water goes through 16 the detention basins and there's overflows in the 17 detention basins that discharge into the discharge 18 pipes that go out to the -- say, for example, we 19 have a discharge pipe at this point here that goes 20 into the culvert, we have one of the discharges here 21 and one of the discharges here. We also have one 22 here and here (indicating). 23 MR. COYNE: And that discharge is 24 untreated, correct? 25 MR. ANDERSON: Well, that discharge is