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completed but unused treatment plant on Meetinghouse Report of the Road up in the air. Should it not be available, the Sewer Commission wastewater that would have gone to that plant will go to the proposed Town plant. To the Honorable Board of Selectmen and the Regarding design of the Town plant,the next step Citizens of the Town of Mashpee: in Phase 1 of the Plan,we were disappointed that our funding requests submitted for Town Meeting were not The Sewer Commission took a few more steps placed on the warrant by the Selectmen. However, in forward in 2017 toward achieving the work outlined in December the Commission sought the Selectmen's the Watershed Nitrogen Management Plan (WNMP) support for the use of $450,000 of DRI nitrogen approved by the state (MEPA and DEP) in 2015. mitigation funds, from a number of development Although we still await formal approval of the full Plan projects, being held for the Town's use by the Cape by the Cape Cod Commission (CCC) under their Cod Commission, to fund preliminary design of the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) regulations, treatment plant and are encouraged by their response. we received a first phase CCC Consistency Letter in It is hoped that design work will begin in 2018. October 2015,allowing work on the Plan's first 5-year phase (2017-2021) to begin,and a second phase CCC One of the features of our Watershed Nitrogen Consistency Letter this fall, allowing work on items Management Plan from the start has been that it looks anticipated in the second 5-year phase(of 5 phases)for at the entire watersheds of Popponesset Bay and the reasons noted below. The CCC has held up our eastern sub-embayments of Waquoit Bay, including application for a number of years as they developed a those portions outside of Mashpee. As a result, our new review process for wastewater plans,to determine planning process has always included representatives the plans'consistency with their only-recently adopted from Barnstable, Sandwich and Falmouth,who share "208"Cape-wide wastewater plan,instead of requiring those watersheds with us. Meanwhile, the Cape Cod the extensive, but somewhat inappropriate, review Commission's "208" wastewater plan is also focused required for a typical DRI.We are assured that the new on watersheds,ignoring town boundaries.In addition, review process will become available and our full Plan Mass DEP has put forth the concept of"watershed- will be approved in early 2018. based permits" to encourage and facilitate formal shared responsibility and cooperation between all the With the Phase 1 Consistency Letter in hand, towns in a watershed.With the assistance of consultant October 2015 Town Meeting funded$100,000 for the funds also approved by the October 2015 Town development of conceptual plans for sewer collection Meeting, along with legal services contributed by the systems to be tied into the existing Mashpee Commons Town of Sandwich,the Towns of Mashpee,Barnstable and Wampanoag Tribal wastewater treatment plants. and Sandwich have taken the first step toward such a The project scope was adjusted to include conceptual "watershed-based permit" by negotiating and signing plans for sewer collection systems to be connected to an Inter-Municipal Agreement (IMA) between the the proposed new Town wastewater facility adjacent to three Towns.The IMA identifies each town's share of the Transfer Station and the conceptual plans were responsibility for the nitrogen loads reaching finalized in August 2017. Proposals for a larger popponesset Bay and for bringing those loads down to development at Mashpee Commons, along with the the levels necessary to restore the ecological health of size of the wastewater flows from the logical sewer the Bay and its sub-embayments (Ockway and collection areas that might be connected to their Shoestring Bays, the Mashpee River estuary, treatment plant, which has limitations on its capacity popponesset Creek and Pinquickset Cove), based on for enlarged treatment and discharge, mean that an the Total Maximum Daily Loads(TMDLs)established alternative treatment plant and/or discharge site will by the EPA,which were in turn based on the multi-year have to be found for those flows,most likely involving Massachusetts Estuary Program study done by UMass- treatment at the proposed new Town wastewater plant Dartmouth as described in previous annual reports by and/or the construction of a discharge pipeline to the Commission and at our mashpeewaters.com discharge beds under the New Seabury golf course. website.The IMA also commits the Towns to achieving Meanwhile,the uncertainty regarding the Tribe's Land the nitrogen reductions for which each is responsible into Trust status leaves the possibility of tying into their and provides for a mechanism by which the Towns can 159