Mattapoisett Water and Sewer Superintendent Nick Nicholson, along with the Town’s administration, had hoped to receive a state grant to partially fund the extension proposed for sewer service on North Street and into the Industrial Business Park. When that didn’t come through, it was back to the drawing board.
The estimates to bring sewer service north on North Street and then east into the industrial park were “cost prohibitive,” as Nicholson put it during the January 6 Water and Sewer Commissioners meeting. With that option off the table, potential customers in the business park sought other avenues.
The Bay Club abuts the business park, so discussions have been underway between those business owners and the management team at Bay Club to see if it is feasible to connect to their private sewer lines. The Bay Club owns the entire infrastructure associated with the subdivision, but is connected to public water and sewer via private pipes.
Homeowners on North Street, who would have been approached about connecting to public sewer service, will not be part of any plan forged between the industrial businesses and the Bay Club. Nicholson said those properties will be part of a separate plan yet to be crafted.
The commissioners also met with Mattapoisett resident Ron Sylvia regarding the Cove Street sewer project. Sylvia had been making the rounds of various Town boards trying to find out how an empty, unbuildable lot on Cove Street (situated on a barrier beach) was showing up on engineering plans for a sewer stub. After meeting with the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission, he was directed to meet with the Water Commissioners.
Prior to the evening’s meeting, Nicholson had read aloud for the record a letter he received from Bob Rogers, chairman of the Conservation Commission, questioning the plan of record that seemed to be in conflict with the engineering plans.
After Nicholson and the commissioners reviewed the plans, the error was found.
“It should not have been done,” said Blair Bailey, attorney for the commission. “It’s going away.”
The bid plans will reflect only the 28 house lots on Cove Street and not any unbuildable lots. Sylvia was satisfied and thanked the commissioners for their responsiveness.
Nicholson told the commissioners that NSTAR has a five-year vegetation removal plan in their easements. Of particular concern was the possibility that herbicides would be used during NSTAR’s aggressive defoliation activities.
With easements going through Mattapoisett’s river valley and watershed areas, Nicholson proposed sending a letter to the utility company asking for their cooperation and consideration in this matter. The group agreed and will ask the other affected towns to be part of that communication.
Nicholson also announced that OSD, LLC will be hired to conduct a study of ‘inflow infiltration.’ The study will find those hot spots where stormwater, sump pump discharges, and other unwanted water sources are entering the sanitary treatment process. Once they are identified, a remedy to eliminate them will be developed.
Such increased water flow into the sewer system consumes resources and adds unnecessary costs. The cost for this study is $47,000 and will be funded by monies previously approved by Town Meeting.
On this cold winter’s night, the thought of swimming pools was far from everyone’s mind except the Water Commissioners.
They are developing, as part of their policy updates, a plan that will allow homeowners to fill their pools, calling it “one per year, per dwelling” for no fee. The homeowner will need to call ahead for a meter reading before and after completing the fill. The fill will be calculated and deducted from water bills. The savings to the resident will average around $160.
Continuing on the theme of developing new policies, the commission will be looking at requiring external grease traps for commercial and institutional facilities.
Noting that grease entering the sewer lines causes a great deal of harm to the system, they concurred that forward-moving external grease traps made sense. The mechanism for enforcing the requirement for external traps will have to be created – possibly falling to the Building Department – while maintenance responsibility will fall to the Sewer Department.
“The goal is to keep the system clean,” Nicholson said.
Also being reviewed are new forms that would establish a sewer bank, wait list policy, connection requests, and a leak policy. The leak policy will allow the customer 10 days to repair the problem once it is discovered.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Water and Sewer Commissioners is scheduled for January 20 at 6:00 pm in the department’s offices located at 19 County Road.
By Marilou Newell
