11/16/2010 SEWER COMMISSION Minutes

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recharge areas of both bays and of any public water supply wells. Rough cost estimates have been made for such a project based on a similar project currently being undertaken by the Town of Barnstable. New Seabury included a hydrogeologic analysis of the discharge of 500,000 gpd of municipal treated effluent in its Environmental Impact Report for that project.The study indicates that such a discharge is feasible and will have no adverse impacts. However,At this point,alternative discharge sites for such a pipeline are also under consideration. The use of the wastewater facilities at MMR,which discharge via a pipeline to leaching beds near the Cape Cod Canal,is also being considered in conjunction with the Town of Falmouth. However,current indications are that the discharge near the Canal will not be available to us and treated effluent may have to be returned to Mashpee for disposal. The cost of such an approach is likely to be higher than other scenarios being considered. A second focus of the Watershed Nitrogen Management Plan is municipal ownership and operation of existing private wastewater treatment plants and the expansion of their wastewater collection systems to surrounding properties,particularly in the central area of the Town,but also including the Willowbend and Southport areas (Project#2). Expansion of the Willowbend collection area,on a limited private basis including the Cotuit Bay Condominium, has already been done, as a result of regulatory,requirements of the Cape Cod Commission. Similar regulatory-driven expansions have been done for the Mashpee Commons and South Cape Village shopping center projects. Much greater nitrogen removal potential and cost effectiveness could be achieved through directing those efforts and public financing sources toward a coordinated municipal wastewater system. These expansions, however, may not be the most cost-effective approach to providing the required sewer services. Although they are included in two of the five scenarios being considered, it is very likely that additional large municipal facilities will be required either to replace those facilities,or in conjunction with their continued use either privately or as part of the municipal system. The third focus of the Town's wastewater planning efforts is on"decentralized"wastewater facilities that would provide denitrification for existing and proposed neighborhoods(cluster systems)and individual properties(on- site systems)(Project#3). Based on modeling done under DEP`s Popponesset Bay Pilot Project in May 2006, individual on-site systems are likely to play a very small role in the Town's plans, but neighborhood cluster systems are still likely to be used. One of the five scenarios currently under study is based on extensive use of such neighborhood systems in conjunction with the highly-promising"Nitrex"treatment technology. The three CIP projects submitted by the Sewer Commission are in anticipation of the Town's efforts to carry out the recommendations of the Watershed Nitrogen Management Plan/Effluent Pipeline Preliminary Design study regarding these three focus areas. While alternative development and management of such a system under the Mashpee Water District appears to be a very appropriate and cost-effective alternative, the Towns current structure calls for the system to be developed by the Town's Sewer Commission,so our capital cost projections must continue to assume that the Town will have to fund these facilities. The estimated capital costs reflected in the Commission's current CIP request have been developed by the Commission's consulting firm of Stearns&Wheler, and are based on Scenario#5 of the alternatives under consideration,which falls in the mid range of the scenario cost estimates. As we continue to refine and develop Mashpe&s facilities plan,these numbers are subject to change,but the general scale of the funding that will be required will be similar. The cost of not completing these projects will be continued eutrophication and degredation of our coastal water bodies(and of some of our ponds,with particular problems clearly evident in Santuit Pond),additional loss of shellfish and finfish habitat due to anoxic conditions and buildup of organic muck, loss of water clarity, increasing odors, diminution of our quality of life and attractiveness to tourists and summer residents and reduction of waterfront and overall property values and associated potential tax revenues, We will also be under increasing regulatory pressure from EPA and Mass.DEP to meet their established nitrogen TMDL targets and may be subject to legal action being discussed by the Conservation Law Foundation regarding failure to meet the EPA Nitrogen TMDLs for our bays.