To the Editor:
For years upper Aucoot Cove has been closed to shellfishing because of Marion’s sewer plant effluent and last Friday in a joint announcement by Marion and Mattapoisett select boards the entire cove from Converse Point to Harbor Beach was closed for 21 days due to a discharge of wastewater at the Marion’s plant. What exactly happened?
There is a broken pipe in the marsh north of the cove. We believe this might be the pipe that once carried the effluent across the marsh to a discharge point close to Converse Point and east of Haskell Island.
In 2017, the Buzzards Bay project studied the matter but could not determine the facts surrounding that broken pipe. A contributing factor might be that I have seen different Marion town maps refer to the effluent course and called it the “effluent ditch” or “effluent line.”
The state has contributed 2 million to help fix the plant’s problems. Nothing has been spent or done to curb the effluent outflow directly into Mattapoisett’s side of the cove destroying its natural resources.
I would like Mattapoisett town officials to immediately take more positive action to determine what that broken pipe represents, how the effluent is discharged after leaving the plant, how the effluent “ditch” can work running diagonally across the many vertical state-dug ditches in the Aucoot marshes and taking action against Marion to fix this problem once and for all.
Brad Hathaway, Mattapoisett
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