The Town of Marion is joining up with surrounding towns including the Town of Wareham to pursue an EPA Southeast New England Program (SNEP) grant to fund a feasibility study for a regional wastewater treatment system.
Spearheaded by the Town of Wareham, the grant would fund a study to look closely at relocating the outfall points of each of the towns to one into the Cape Cod Canal with its swift current that would ideally prevent the build-up of nitrogen pollution. The study would include assessing the possibility of interconnecting the facilities of each of the towns into one cohesive system.
“What this grant is looking to do is look at a regional approach to wastewater management … treatment, [and] discharge … to the area of the Cape Cod Canal where there is significant flushing,” said Marion Town Administrator Paul Dawson on Friday, January 8 during a special morning meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen. “It’s an effort to look at each participating community’s wastewater treatment capabilities [and] infrastructure and standardize that.”
The final goal, Dawson said, is perhaps a concept for a model for future development.
The notion, Dawson added, would be of particular interest to Marion as the Environmental Protection Agency considers its final conditions of the town’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
“I think it bears good reasons as to why we should consider participating in this,” Dawson told selectmen. “It has at least the potential to help the town…. I think the EPA would look favorably upon our participating in a program like this.”
There would be no upfront costs to pursuing the grant or the feasibility study, should the grant be awarded, Dawson said, since the $10,000 matching contribution by the town could be paid with in-kind services, such as town staff assistance in filing the grant application as well as preparation and sharing of information by engineers employed by the town.
“It’s a concept that’s driven in each community by different reasons, but it’s a situation that’s worthy of investigation,” said Dawson. “I think it’s an opportunity for us to look at it … and there is no commitment beyond this grant. It could only be good for the town, and I don’t see any reason why we should not pursue this.”
The grant opportunity already has the support of the Wareham Board of Selectmen, and Selectman Jonathan Henry supported the idea, just as long as present efforts to pursue a grant to study the feasibility of hooking up specific areas of Marion and Mattapoisett to the Marion Wastewater Treatment Facility aren’t affected. He also expressed a concern over the “touchiness” of inter-municipal projects. He said neither town involved should “screw it up by leaving someone out of the equation.”
“We’re still under the gun when it comes to the NPDES permit,” Dawson said.
“It makes all the sense in the world to sort of hitch our wagon to someone else,” said Selectmen Chairman Stephen Cushing. “We’re looking down the barrel of a shotgun right now.”
The selectmen voted to pursue the grant.
Also during the meeting, selectmen ratified the contract for the Planning Board’s newly hired part-time town planner, Kenneth Buckland.
Town Meeting back in 2015 approved $30,000 for the Planning Board to hire a part-time planner to assist in the creation of a Master Plan.
The next meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen is scheduled for January 19 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
By Jean Perry
