Marion officials hear the clock ticking as they try to rewrite a backstory of inherited water/sewer problems that collectively sound like the fumbles, lateral passes and other desperate improvisations typical of the final play of a football game – maneuvers that go in many directions, but rarely to the end zone.
The town’s Water and Sewer Commissioners held their first quarterly meeting on September 24 at the Music Hall. The commissioners are also the Board of Selectmen: Chairperson Randy Parker, Vice Chairman John Waterman, and Clerk Norm Hills.
Waterman explained his reasoning for initiating the meeting: “It was my feeling that as sewer and water commissioners we were not really getting regular updates on what was happening,” he said. “Also, I think it’s good for the public to hear how those projects are going so we’re going to give this a try for a year.”
Approving bills and passing judgment on meter readings still left the selectmen lacking a platform to focus on major infrastructural projects, such as the wastewater treatment plant and planned upgrades to key stretches of water-main piping. So the commissioners, along with Town Administrator Jay McGrail, Department of Public Works Director David Willett, DPW engineer Meghan Davis, T.J. Walker from the Marion Board of Assessors, Rochester Water Commission member and longtime associate Fred Underhill, and interested citizens including local builder Sherman Briggs batted around a number of topics.
McGrail acknowledged the former Water Committee including Underhill and the recently retired David Pierce.
In an update, Davis reported that the new water main on Mill Street has been installed and is in the process of chlorination and yielding samples. Davis said the water main will come online in four sections beginning in November and should be completed in the spring of 2021. Paving will occur in patches over the work. McGrail said the project came in under budget.
Davis reported on progress with a new, 12-inch water main designed by engineering firm Tata & Howard for Delano and Point roads. The existing water main (6 and 8 inches) will be abandoned in place, and the Conservation Commission has issued an Order of Conditions for the project.
Waterman said the timing of the projects will be key for the town’s financial activities. McGrail said the Capital Improvement Planning Committee (CIPC) schedule will come out in a month, and the town can more effectively decide on how to move forward with the projects.
Davis addressed planned upgrades to a combined pump station at the Mary’s Pond well field, in which a new building will replace an existing one that will be demolished.
Waterman asked Davis what happens if a well goes down and how much reserve capacity would the town have, especially in peak summer months. Davis said she and Willett are evaluating different scenarios. They are also identifying hydrants needing maintenance and prioritizing work according to need. Work is expected to commence in the spring. Davis is also working with the Mattapoisett River Valley Water District Commission, taking over Willett’s treasurer role that will see her review monthly invoicing and prepare a year-end budget.
When the floor was opened for public comment, Briggs asked Davis if she knows why it took so long to get satisfactory tests on the sections of water-main pipe that were installed on Mill Street. Davis said means and methods are left up to the contractor so a number of factors could be in play.
Briggs then delved into a number of matters related to water production, along with his own take on a history of mismanagement. “These … mistakes that were made is why we’re all here today, and I’m concerned about we don’t keep making the same mistake,” he said, referencing miles of pipe from Benson Brook out to Mattapoisett only to fall 8 feet short of a connection.
Briggs asked if Marion’s lone remaining well has the potential to be worth a rebuild. Davis confirmed that the well is running but not performing up to its capability. “The well field … it needs to be rehabbed again for it to reach its maximum capacity,” she said.
Willett added to that conversation, referencing a Tata & Howard report that shows the well to be permitted for 280,000 gallons per day. Meantime, Marion is producing close to 900,000 gallons per day from other sources, an amount Willett estimates will almost double at the completion of planned facility upgrades. “We have plenty of producing power and we can also borrow from MRV if we need to,” he said. “It’s certainly something I can ask Tata & Howard about.”
Underhill discussed Rochester’s ongoing withdrawal from a water association with the City of New Bedford, which uses at least half of its 20,000,000 gallon, per-day limit. He said Rochester is “upset” that New Bedford will see its permit renewed “pretty much intact.” Rochester has also negotiated a 5,000 gallon-per-day increase in its association with Wareham to accommodate the large development planned for the intersection of routes 28 and 58.
Recognizing the potential end of his representation in meetings with Marion, Underhill said, “I think we’ve worked very well together and kind of stemmed some of the misunderstandings that have gone on in the past between the two towns.” Marion’s commissioners returned his sentiments, and Underhill exited the meeting.
In his Water and Sewer Update, McGrail said residents are unhappy with recent rate increases.
“I think it’s important for us to explain to the public where those increases came from,” he said, referencing Marion’s two enterprise funds. “If we have a negative amount in the enterprise funds (at the end of the year), we need to subsidize it through the tax rate.”
Marion, says McGrail, has struggled the past few years to maintain a balanced budget and that the increases made during that time have been just enough to balance the water/sewer budget. Of the 2,500 homes in Marion, 1,700 receive sewer bills.
That does not, however, address $10,000,000 in debt taken on by homeowners over a one-year period that McGrail said came with an enforcement order to line the lagoon. “That’s absolutely staggering,” he said. “We went over $8,000,000 in sewer debt and over $2,000,000 in water debt in one year. We haven’t fully funded that yet; the projects are both underway and are moving forward.
“The water project’s close to completion by the end of this calendar year, and it looks like the sewer project will be to completion. But people really need to understand – you talk about, you just do the math – I mean you’re spreading $10,000,000 over 2,500 people. … That impact is tough, that’s a really tough thing to manage.”
Upgrading the wastewater treatment plant and getting the town’s water production operating up to its potential add to the expense, but they would be necessary for the town to accommodate the large developments proposed by area builders that would ultimately add the ratepayers that would ultimately contribute to the water/sewer’s financial solvency.
McGrail says Marion’s water enterprise fund (savings account) is healthier than its sewer counterpart. “What happened over the last few years is the town got in a position where we were taking some of our retained earnings and utilizing them to subsidize the rates, to lower the impact on the ratepayers. And, by doing that, we eliminated on the sewer side all of our retained earnings. So now we have no cushion, we have no way of being able to deal with a capital project other than putting it on the ratepayers and raising rates.
“So, on the sewer side … if I have a $300,000 capital project, I need to raise rates to be able to fund that because I’m not going to borrow $300,000 for that. That’s not a great strategy, the better strategy would be to build up enough retained earnings that you can fund smaller capital projects with retained earnings and not have to raise rates consistently to do those smaller projects.”
The water side, McGrail says, has some retained earnings. “But you look at the debt in the water operation, our fixed costs are the debt and the supplies and the services,” he said. McGrail said Marion needs to look at other measures to avoid paying 50 percent of incoming revenue to debt service. Staffing counts for 14 percent of the operating cost. McGrail blames debt for rising rates.
“For a small town, it’s got significant infrastructure issues. It’s a really hard situation for us to be in,” said McGrail. “I wish there was a magic bullet, and what we’re looking at, trying to figure out a way to bring in more ratepayers, is really the only solution that I can come up with. Otherwise, we just have to bond more projects, and it just gets worse. … And if we don’t, if we just stick our heads in the sand, then what are we doing there?”
Waterman agreed that projects like the Heron Cove residential development can add more users but also noted that the sewer system “with only 1,700 ratepayers” becomes more costly to accommodate more users.
Walker doesn’t think increasing the number of ratepayers will make the required dent. “If you put in a thousand condominiums and charge them the highest rate, it’s not going to bail us out so I think we really have to quickly move because other folks around us are moving and, if we wait for all these studies, I think we’re in a pickle,” he said. “We have some residents that their water and sewer bill is more than their real-estate taxes, and it’s growing incrementally.
“For those folks, they’re not really interested in hearing we’re going to sort of turn down the spigot or we’re going to adjust some rates, they want to know when relief is coming. And, I think if you boil down to it, we’re going to have to look into bringing in some outside water. It’s cheaper, it’s more effective, and I don’t understand why we’re not having that discussion.”
Walker said Wareham has millions of gallons of water that Marion could access at lower rates, but Willett insists Marion has enough water, and what is failing is the means of getting it to the customers. “That infrastructure is so old and so antiquated, that’s what these capital costs are going for,” he said.
Waterman said the town needs to make the infrastructural upgrades regardless because they have been neglected. “Once (facilities at) east and west are up and Mary’s Pond are up, we have the existing capacity to meet that need,” he said. “Regardless of whether we get the water out of Wareham or the wells, we’re still going to have to spend that money to upgrades the mains because we didn’t keep up on it.”
According to Waterman, the water main on Route 6 in the Heron Cove area is undersized as well as the aforementioned locations. Perhaps more importantly in the long term, he said that the town’s newest water mains date back to 1970, are asbestos-lined and have a life expectancy of 50-70 years so the town needs to replace water mains all over town, not in just a few urgent locations.
Waterman says Marion has been relying the past few years on two wells – two to three others are down – and the town is studying a potential emergency hookup into Wareham that would cost $700,000 to $1,000,000. Norm Hills cautioned that such an enormous investment would result in Wareham wanting water from Marion as well. Waterman said Underhill advised him to clear any such arrangement with Rochester because that is Marion’s water source.
McGrail said that, without the Mill Street project, Marion’s water-rate increase would have remained in single digits. Meantime, by spring 2021 the town will have repaired 15 hydrants inside of a year.
In his update on town sewer, Willett said the wastewater treatment plant is on schedule and off-budget only by $59,000 in change orders so far. The INI project mainly in the village area is also on schedule. Willett reported a $225,000 grant for Creek Road lift station. Other area projects are increasing in budget costs.
Parker said he and McGrail have discussed issuing a pamphlet explaining the big water/sewer picture to the townspeople.
The commissioners agreed with McGrail to maintain the agenda structure, but the schedule for the next quarterly meeting was not set.
Marion Water and Sewer Commissioners
By Mick Colageo