Sewers Won’t Allow Harwich Homeowners To Add More Bedrooms

 HARWICH – The town has been receiving an increased number of inquiries from property owners in the Pleasant Bay sewer service area seeking to add more bedrooms or build accessory dwelling units since they hooked up to the municipal sewer system.

 Town Administrator Jay McGrail told the select board Aug. 24 that with sewer expansion in East Harwich, the water-wastewater department and board of health are receiving inquiries from residents looking to increase living capacities as they tie into the sewers.

 McGrail said he asked Dan Pelletier of Waterworks Consulting, LLC to do an assessment of how the town should handle the issue going forward. Pelletier formerly served as the water-wastewater superintendent in Harwich.

 In a presentation to the board, Pelletier said connection to municipal sewer does not, by itself, create a right to add bedrooms, dwelling units, or other wastewater-generating uses. Municipal sewer service replaces the method of wastewater collection and disposal; it does not automatically increase the allowable wastewater design flow assigned to a parcel, he said.

 The Pleasant Bay sewer service area remains in the early stages of implementation, with fewer than half of the properties anticipated to connect presently connected to the system, he said. The town has secured a limited wastewater treatment allocation of 300,000 gallons per day from the Chatham, while the comprehensive wastewater management plan projects a buildout flow of 326,000 gallons per day for the Pleasant Bay area.

 Current operating flows therefore do not represent full buildout conditions, said Pelletier, and it should not be interpreted as there being capacity available for additional development. Until a greater proportion of properties are connected and sufficient operating data are available, the town cannot reliably determine full buildout flow, he said. Granting parcel-specific variances at this time could commit capacity needed to serve properties and uses not yet connected.

 Based on his review, Pelletier said the existing sewer use regulations already establish a governing wastewater neutral flow framework. Article II provides that structures in existence on July 1, 2016 may maintain their existing wastewater flow, but may not be modified or changed in use in a manner that increases wastewater flow unless the increase complies with board of health regulations in effect on July 1, 2016.

 Adopting the regulations and a nitrogen neutral flow bylaw, Pelletier said, qualified the town for zero percent state revolving fund loans for sewer projects. 

 In the absence of representative buildout flow data, the town does not presently have an adequate technical basis to determine that sufficient capacity exists to support increases in the allowable wastewater flow assigned to individual parcels, he said.

 “Until the town has sufficient connection and operating data to reasonably evaluate buildout flows and remaining treatment capacity within the Pleasant Bay sewer service area, the town should maintain a temporary moratorium on the approval of variance requests that would increase the allowable wastewater flow assigned to an individual parcel,” Pelletier said.

 Within a mapped Zone II wellhead protection area, or another area to which the applicable nitrogen loading requirements apply, Title 5 generally limits design flow to 440 gallons per day per acre, he said. Based on the residential design flow of 110 gallons per day per bedroom, this is generally equivalent to four bedrooms per acre, or approximately one bedroom per 10,000 square feet of qualifying land area, he said.

 A moratorium would not be a full blanket one, he said, adding that if the owner of a three-bedroom house on a parcel of 40,000 square feet or more wanted to build a fourth bedroom, it would be allowed, as it would under Title 5. If a property has the maximum allowable bedrooms and the owner is looking to build a one-bedroom ADU, one of the existing bedrooms would have to be eliminated, he said. 

 Nitrogen-related easements, such as for horses, may be reviewed for release or modification following permanent sewer connection and proper abandonment of the on-site septic system; however, such release or modification should not create or imply an entitlement to additional bedrooms, development rights, or wastewater capacity, he said.

 The select board voted unanimously to reaffirm the sewer use regulation provisions approved by the health board based on state regulations promulgated on July 1, 2016