6/21/2011 SEWER COMMISSION Minutes

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Since my appointment to the Mashpee Sewer Commission,I have been concerned about the emphasis placed on centralized wastewater treatment facilities. At present, there are seven wastewater treatment plants in Mashpee: New Seabury, Southcape Village, Southport, Windchie Point,Mashpee Commons,Willowbend, and the High School. There are new ones planned for: Mashpee Village,Wampanoag Village,Cotuit Meadows, and the Haney Property. In addition the Sewer Commission has discussed three other locations: East Mashpee(near transfer station), South Mashpee(near new fire station) and West Mashpee (near the high school) This would be a total of 14 wastewater treatment plants in a town with a land area of 23.5 square miles,3.8 square miles of water and a 2010 population of 15,947, Whatever happened to onsite alternative, innovative,cost effective and politically feasible approaches` The claim that wastewater treatment plants are the only reliable means to treat wastewater is unfounded. The USEPA cited several misunderstandings to implementing more effective onsite wastewater management programs,including public misperceptions that centralized sewage treatment plants perform better,protect property values, and are more acceptable than decentralized treatment systems. Decentralized wastewater management (DWM) is defined as the collection,treatment, and reuse of wastewater at or near its source of generation and they currently serve approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population, and approximately 37 percent of new development. DWM systems have been shown to save money, to promote better watershed management since there would not be a concentration of water flow from a treatment plant greatly increasing water in an area not accustomed to such flow, and are suitable for a variety of site conditions. A prime example of the use of DWM is Calvert County,Maryland, a 30-mile long north to south peninsula that is bounded on the west by the Patuxent River and on the east by Chesapeake Day and is five to nine miles wide. It should be noted that on December 29,2010,the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established the Chesapeake flay Total Maximum Daily Load ('I' L), a historic and comprehensive"pollution diet"with rigorous accountability measures to initiate sweeping actions to restore clean water in the Chesapeake Day and the region's streams,creeks and rivers. Calvert County has a total area of 345 square miles of which 215 square miles is land and 130 square miles is water. The 2010 population was 88,737. Of extreme importance is an email from the Division of Environmental Health of the Calvert County Health Department,which is attached. Compare that to the present plan that would require the takeover,maintenance, repair, and perpetual costs of operating all wastewater treatment plants in Mashpee which initially would run in the neighborhood of$ 00 million to$500 million plus sewer charges,repairs, etc. at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars per year, in perpetuity.It makes sense to leave existing wastewater treatment plants under their present ownership, since that was a condition for those sites to exist, and using onsite wastewater treatment for existing septic systems(out of a total of 5,256 households existing in 2010). Taking into consideration the number of septic systems remaining in Mashpee, the type of system(s)to be installed, and the financing available,the costs will be a small fraction of the total cost of any present plan regardless of which governmental entity would be responsible for the plan. You be the judge of how you want to spend YOUR tax money, as that is the only money available to anyone at any level of government. Ralph J. Marcelli Mashpee