Wanted: Sewer Treatment, Discharge Spots

 HARWICH – The town needs to lock down a means of treatment for its wastewater and identify locations where it will place its effluent recharge, the town’s wastewater engineering firm said during a presentation Monday night updating the comprehensive wastewater management plan.

Most critical is to identify sites to recharge treated effluent, Jeff Gregg of GHD, Inc. told the select board. 

Water/wastewater department consulting engineer Dan Pelletier told the select board several weeks ago that the town of Dennis will not discuss a treatment agreement with Harwich until the town provides sites to recharge treated effluent.

 “My discussion with Dennis on the staff level is come back to us when you’ve got a recharge site. That’s their position currently,” Pelletier said at the board’s June 8 session. On June 29, the select board agreed Select Board Chair Peter Piekarski and Town Administrator Jay McGrail would hold discussions with Dennis officials about processing Harwich wastewater. 

Gregg said a recharge site has to be suitable in size, with topography, if ponds and water bodies are nearby as additional criteria. Sandy soil locations are important along with the land being owned by the town. Separation of groundwater is also important, he said.

 “A nice high sandy spot is the best location where water moves quickly,” Gregg said. 

Water/wastewater commission chair Bob Young wanted to know if cemeteries and golf courses could be used as recharge areas. Gregg said he was not sure about the use of cemeteries, but golf courses have been used. It was pointed out that Cranberry Valley Golf Course is in a drinking water protection zone. 

The town’s initial comprehensive wastewater management plan (CWMP) was approved in 2016.

The town has five watersheds which the Massachusetts Estuary Program has identified as in need of nitrogen removal to meet the total maximum daily load requirements: Pleasant Bay, Herring River, Allen Harbor, Wychmere Harbor and Saquatucket Harbor.

Major progress has been made in the Pleasant Bay watershed, which received the first watershed permit in the state. Efforts have been underway to remove 100 percent of nitrogen intrusion over the 20-year life of the permit. With the sewering projects underway in East Harwich, phase 3 and 3A of the comprehensive plan, Gregg said the town is closing in on 37 percent compliance.

The town has an intermunicipal agreement with Chatham to treat East Harwich wastewater at the Chatham treatment plant. As more homes connect to the East Harwich sewer system, the capacity agreement will be better understood, said Gregg, and decisions will be made as to whether Harwich will need to provide an effluent recharge location in town.

In 2021, the Conservation Law Foundation filed suit to accelerate nitrogen removal in Cape waters. In 2023 the state Watershed Program was established requiring that 75 percent of the nitrogen in the watersheds meet the total maximum daily limit within 20 years. 

Towns had to make a decision on whether to move forward in the permitting process or be subject to state-mandated implementation of innovative/alternative (I/A) treatment systems in nitrogen sensitive watersheds. He said the I/A systems approved by the state were not efficient enough to meet TMDL levels. The town agreed to pursue the watershed permit and has until 2030 to obtain a plan approval, with 20 years to comply.

The updated wastewater plan would address phase four, beginning in 2029, of the eight-phase plan. Gregg said a third watershed permit would be necessary to address phase nine, once the needs in the Herring River watershed are clearer based on future development there. 

Calculations provided with the update offered estimates of $280 million in 2025 dollars to address infrastructure associated with sewering in phases four through eight. Treatment infrastructure and recharge was estimated at an additional cost of $132 million.

McGrail said the $132 million was an estimate for a separate Harwich treatment plant, but he is looking at a $75 million placeholder to work out a deal with Dennis to utilize its plant. 

McGrail said the town may need to develop a policy to deal with additional buildout. The town will not know the actual figures until areas are built out, he said. Upfront, there may need to be a moratorium on building if those properties are not identified in the CWMP.

Water/wastewater commission member Noreen Donahue said the town has to conduct a growth and flow analysis, look closely at I/A use, the phasing schedule and the financials. She challenged some of the projections in the initial CWMP and the uses of outdated water flow data. She suggested there may be smaller development clusters where I/A systems could be used and cited the changes in locations in the adjusted phasing schedule, asking how committed the town would need to be to the phasing plan.

Water/wastewater commission member Ann Frechette questioned the practice of approving project funding one phase at a time, saying it pits different neighborhoods against one another. She said the town should pursue funding for all phases at one time, which is the approach Dennis took.

Water/wastewater commission member Ed McManus recommended using the newly approved local comprehensive plan goals for housing and economic development to better identify the areas where sewering is necessary.

Resident Patrick Otton said the GHD Inc. plan is a highly viable sewer plan, but it is not a comprehensive plan. He suggested they look at other means of addressing nitrogen removal, such as urine diversion systems and reduction in fertilizer application.

Finance Committee member Scott Norum also pushed for the use of I/A and urine diverse systems to reduce the cost of sewering. He said urine diversion would also address the phosphorus problems the town is having in the ponds.

 “We should explore the alternatives and model them before going forward with a treatment plant,” Norum said. 

The select board said there would be more discussion on the update of the CWMP in the near future.