11/15/2011 SEWER COMMISSION Minutes

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Waquoit Bay watersheds to a new discharge area under the New Seabury golf course, which is outside the recharge areas of both bays and of any public water supply wells. In addition, other 'effluent discharge pipelines from municipal plants to locations at the Willowbend Country Club and north of Johns Pond are also being considered. Rough cost estimates have been made for the New Seabury project based on a similar project 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. More recent estimates indicate the possibility of an additional 500,000 gpd under other New Seabury fairways. The use of the wastewater facilities at MMR, which discharge via a pipeline to leaching beds near the Cape Cod Canal, was being considered in conjunction with the Town of Falmouth. However, that approach was recently rejected by Falmouth and appears to be dead for now. 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 the 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 in outlying areas not cost-effectively served by traditional sewers. In addition, the Town recently submitted an SRF loan proposal seeking state funding assistance for design and installation of a "Nitrex barrier"around the tip of Mashpee Neck'(Pirate's Cove subdivision) which may obviate the need for sewering that area, if successful. 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 Town's 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 GHD, and are based on Scenario #5 of the 5 alternatives noted above, which falls in the mid range of the scenario cost estimates. As we continue to refine and develop the 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 degradation of our coastal water bodies (and of some of our ponds, with particular problems clearly evident in Santuit Pond),additional 1loss 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 (particularly given the recent CLF lawsuit) to meet the established (or revised) nitrogen TMDL targets and may become subject to legal action by CLF ourselves regarding failure to meet the Clean Water Act requirement that we clean up our bays. 2