Fire Suppression, Water Woes Boil Over With Development Pressure In Lincoln

By PAULA TRACY, InDepth NH

Public Works Director Nate Hadaway and Fire Chief Michael Weden are pictured at the podium at Wednesday night’s planning board meeting in Lincoln. PAULA TRACY photo

LINCOLN, NH — A shortage of water for both firefighting and use by residents and visitors of this White Mountain town during peak times and a proposed 30-unit market rate, year-round housing project brought out a packed crowd to the Planning Board meeting Wednesday night.

They learned that at least twice in recent years during structure fires in town, the fire chief was asked by the public works director to stop using town water to put the fire out because there was a lack of water.

In addition to the conflict in roles between Public Works Director Nate Hadaway and Fire Chief Michael Weden, they also heard that an October, 2018 fire flow assessment report for the town by the civil engineering firm Hoyle, Tanner & Associates warned that the water system has expanded over the years in the absence of a comprehensive planning and “suffers from serious deficiencies as a result. Beside the fire flow and available storage deficiencies noted in this assessment, both non-fire low storage and water supply/treatment capacity has, or soon will, exceed its ability to keep up with development and meet system demands,” the report reads.

Residents, like Ted Sutton, said no such comprehensive plan has been done while development has been allowed to go forward. He said this is giving him and his neighbors concern about water pressure and availability not only for washing dishes but for fighting fires.

Town Manager Jim Pineo said Thursday the town is developing a 750,000-gallon storage tank, which will be substantially completed in 2027.

But whether that is adequate for future needs is unknown without a comprehensive review, Sutton noted.

Pineo said the town is also in the process of a master plan update with the last being completed in 2016.
A copy of that 10-year-old report https://www.lincolnnh.gov/DocumentCenter/View/3214/2016_master_plan promotes growth particularly in the downtown but not, it said at the cost of the environment which draws thousands of tourists annually.

The document does address water issues and noted “lack of water pressure throughout the town, non functioning fire hydrants in private developments, private roads not built to adequately accommodate fire and safety vehicles and equipment…” as concerns.

Pineo said he did not have data immediately available to answer how many new units of housing have been approved by the Planning Board since the Hoyle, Tanner & Associates report, but a drive along the town’s Main Street, which is also Route 112 (and the Scenic Kancamagus Highway) the number of new housing units, hotels, condos and townhomes are abundant.

And while some are not yet complete the town is packed at certain times of the year, including now with summer vacationers, winter skiers, the Highland Games in September and vacation ski periods including Christmas and Massachusetts school vacation week.

The town has wells but draws its drinking water primarily from the high elevation Loon Mountain Pond and the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River provided there are adequate levels of water, according to the master plan.

Hadaway said the treatment plant can only handle those two surface water sources one at a time. In times of low water or trouble with equipment, things can be of concern, he conceded.

Does the town have ample supply to put out a fire, asked Planning Board Member Paul Beaudoin II.

“That all depends on the point in time of when a fire happens in town I guess,” Hadaway said.

Asked what happens on a summer, weekend, during the fall Scottish Highland Games when the town is full?

He first talked about a “perfect scenario” when there would be lots of water and few tourists.

“I guess in a perfect scenario when a fire happens in the middle of the night and you know my tanks are full things are good for awhile,” Hadaway said. “If the fire happens on a Saturday, like just last Saturday, and we are trying to keep up with the demand of the town with everyone that is here at any given time, it is going to be a struggle between…me and the fire chief. Obviously my main goal is to produce clean drinking water for the people.”

He said in a perfect scenario he can provide 1.8 million gallons in a 24 hour period at maximum flow. The average flow in July is about 1 million gallons a day but he said he normally does not do that. The maximum is 1,000 gallons a minute with three treatment filters running but it runs normally at 800 gallons a minute.

How many times since he has been here had he asked the department not to use hydrant. Hadaway counted to occasions.

“I had to tell them to ‘cool it’ when they had the fire down here when the tanks went into a low level,” Hadaway said. He did not specify the fire or the year.

Was it because of the amount of people in town, Beaudoin asked.

“It wasn’t that. It was the fact that I had, when the fire happened I had two tanks going up at the same time and they tagged a bunch of hydrants and they drained that tank so fast it brought me down to a low level alarm. So I told them to find another source.”

He said there was another time, recalling a fire this past winter.

Asked by another board member if the capacity is near “the brink?”

“We are close to where I can operate the plant during our peak months which would be like now, July, August, wintertime would be like January, December Christmas break where we are close to where I could operate comfortably to produce the best quality water,” Hadaway said.

What happens if a pump fails or something goes wrong, he was asked. Hadaway shook his head.

“The thing that scares me the most is when the river is drying up to where it’s like, last summer, it was like at 20 cubic feet per second,” of instream flow. “And that scares me,” Hadaway said.

Fire Chief Weden was asked theoretically if there is a situation where the town’s water is inadequate to fight a fire, how and when could he get help.

“Other than Woodstock our next closest resource would be a half hour away,” he said noting Franconia, Littleton and Campton/Thornton fire would be called to shuttle water to fight the fire.

CENSUS DATA

The U.S. Census data shows that the town had a 30 percent increase in population between 2000 and 2010 and 74 percent of the almost 3,000 housing units were seasonal. The town had a 2020 year-round population of about 1,600.

COMMUNITY REACTION

Lincoln resident David Olson attended the meeting and said the lack of water to support development “has been a known problem for many years, and as a Town we have failed to take the needed action to support all the development around us. The related effect is adequate supply and water pressure for fire suppression.”

“Unfortunately…there are other Town infrastructure issues that we have caused by allowing the volume of growth and the speed of that growth such has sewer, treatment facility, roads, police, town staffing, etc. There were also specific ordinance violations in the site plan that we’ll now have to wait to address.”

Olson said part of the problem in this town is that too many of those who live here permanently are unaware of what is really going on with some of these developments. “When they do find out they are very unhappy with the outcome. Historically, they don’t find out until it is too late to do anything about it.”

Ted Sutton, who reached out to InDepthNH.org to identify the problem with water and the Hoyle & Tanner report is a more than 40-year resident of the town who served as a town manager for a time after a lengthy career at Loon Mountain working on environmental compliance.

He said the meeting was the first time “the planning board was educated to the real issue of water and fire flow.”

‘MOTHERSHIP’ DEVELOPMENT CRASHES

The large public gathering for the Planning Board meeting Wednesday night was to be a public hearing on a proposed 30-unit market rate apartment building on the site which formerly was the snowboard shop called the “Mothership” on Route 112 across from the Common Man Diner.

Many who were there said they were concerned about the rate of development and the water issues among other infrastructure matters.

The hearing was limited to the issue of whether people supported the board’s decision before the hearing on a “stipulated denial” of the application because the Fire Chief requested that the plan include a roadway 360 degrees around the one-entrance proposed structure for fire access.

Developer Drew Goddard attended Wednesday’s Planning Board meeting via Zoom. PAULA TRACY photo

The developer, Drew Goddard of Copley Development of Stratham, who appeared by Zoom, said he’d take them to Superior Court rather than agree to the 360-degree roadway around the proposed development.

The board, with the exception of the vote of O.J. Robinson who supported the developer, supported the fire chief and agreed to a stipulated denial.

Robinson has been involved and supported planning developments in the town for 20 years and is up for re-election, residents said.

Goddard will now need to decide if he wants to take this to Superior Court, or try to find an alternative solution with the town.
He said his plan complies and exceeds fire code and “I don’t believe I have to,” agree to it, he said.

He called the chief’s request for such access among other “pie in the sky” ideas which the town could float while members said in most recently approved developments in town, a similar 360 degree fire access was required by the board.

Pressed on whether this would be market rate or affordable housing, Goddard acknowledged that while he would take grants if offered for affordability, it would be market rate.

While he said he did not have legal counsel available, “I am going to take the position to support long-term housing and greater affordability in the Town of Lincoln,” which was met with outright laughter by members of the public present.

He went on to say he would go to court and “stand up for the people who live and work in the community that need affordable housing. I will be agreeable to accept the denial on behalf of the people who live and work in the town.”

A request for comment from the state Fire Marshal’s Office was met with a spokesman’s comment that they were not currently involved in the matters in the Town of Lincoln.

This story was originally published by InDepth NH.