Nahant to test pond for chemical

NAHANT – Selectmen Thursday night finalized the Town Meeting warrant, unanimously approving a $10.1 million balanced 2012 budget and added a request for a $250,000 dredging project prompted by a potentially-harmful chemical detected in Bear Pond.The budget estimates revenues of $9,886,070 and forecasts appropriations of $10,073,592, according to Town Administrator Mark Cullinan. The $187,522 difference will be filled with available free cash and tax overlay money, Cullinan said..The budget reflects a 1.7 percent increase in revenue from 2011. Appropriations will increase by $341,251 from the 2011 budget passed at last year’s Town Meeting.Cullinan also recommended the town hire outside contractors rather than task municipal maintenance workers with a project to dredge Bear Pond, the pond at Kelley Greens Golf Course into which most rainwater in Nahant drains.Cullinan said that he was prompted by soil samples from the pond contained the chemical chromium.Selectman Michael Manning, a chemical engineer, explained that there are two types of chromium, chromium 3 and chromium 6. Chromium 3 is common in any backyard, he said, but chromium 6 was used in chemical plants and can be hazardous.Two samples from Bear Pond showed “elevated levels of chromium,” (beyond 30 parts per million) but tests have not determined which of the two types of chromium is present.”They haven’t done the tests, but the State says you treat it as the more dangerous chromium,” Manning explained. “I’m fairly certain it is the chromium you’d find in a backyard and not a chemical plant, but the data will be (here) in about a week.”Nevertheless, Cullinan recommended that the town hire experts to do the dredging.”There were going to be more permitting costs, more testing costs, I thought why not just get it done,” Cullinan said, adding that the project would be paid for by revenue that the town receives from the golf course.