From left: Cindy Russo, Tim Bragan, and Rick Maiore hash out details before the start of the sewer commission meeting in Volunteers Hall, Sept. 11. (Photos by Daniel Shrives)
If there’s a specter haunting the new town center sewer, its name is “capacity.”
That concern was evident once again at a sparsely attended public hearing Tuesday evening at Volunteers Hall at the town library to review rules and regulations drafted by the three-member Sewer Commission to manage use of the nearly completed wastewater treatment system.
Fewer than two dozen town center residents attended the hearing, which was led by Town Administrator Tim Bragan and the three-member Harvard Wastewater Management District Commission. Two Selectmen, Marie Sobalvarro and Ron Ricci, were also present, along with Finance Director Lorraine Leonard. Selectmen liaison Tim Clark, who has been involved with the project since its inception in 2007, was absent due to a conflict with another meeting.
The Sewer Commission released its 12-page “Draft Rules and Regulations” in August, posting the document on the town website and mailing copies to owners of the roughly 70 properties within the district. But the meeting Tuesday was the first opportunity for residents to question commission members on their work.
The bulk of the more than 100 rules set forth in the document covers such mundane matters as the boundaries of the district, billing for usage, licensing of “drainlayers,” construction and inspection of sewer connections, liability for damages to the system, and restrictions on the kinds of materials that can be discharged.
But at the heart of the document are provisions designed to protect the right of property owners to connect anytime within the next 20 years to a system whose capacity is untested.
19,000 gallons per day
To understand the dilemma, one must start with the permit to operate the system issued to the town by the state Department of Environmental Protection in May, 2011. That document says, according to Bragan and commission members, that the renovated wastewater treatment plant can discharge up to 20,000 gallons of effluent each day into its leaching field on the north side of Massachusetts Avenue.
Billy Salter (left) and Wendell Willard listen to the details of the proposed sewer hookup process.
If the plant ever hits that limit during one 24-hour period, all further connections to the system “must cease,” according to those familiar with the permit.
As a result, the commission has decided to set its own limit, in order to provide a buffer and “to avoid the serious consequences imposed by the DEP.”
“If daily average discharge from the Wastewater Management System reaches 19,000 gallons per day,” the policy reads, “there will be a moratorium on new connections or changes in use until the Commission determines that further connections can proceed without detriment to the Wastewater Management System or risk of exceeding the discharge limit established by DEP.”
To some property owners, these limits are cause for concern. When the system was recommended to Town Meeting in 2009, owners of the churches, businesses, and homes in the center of town were told they would be guaranteed the right to connect anytime within the next 20 years in return for the betterment fee they will be required to pay to help finance the $2.5 million system. The amount of the betterment has yet to be determined, but it’s capped at $18,700.
But the language of the new regulations puts the matter somewhat differently. Only if the discharge from the wastewater treatment plant remains below 19,000 gallons per day will properties within the district be allowed to connect.
At the meeting Tuesday night, commission member Rick Maiore noted that most sewer districts require the properties they serve to hook up as soon as construction is complete.
“We’re giving town center residents a 20-year window,” he said.
“If everyone in the district were to hook up right now, the system has the capacity to deal with it. Where the anxiety comes,” said Maiore, “is that some people are not hooking up now, and they’re [asking], ‘When I hook up, is there going to be room for me?'”
Rhonda Sprague asks a question about how capacity will be doled out as her husband Whit looks on.
The answer to that question, Maiore said, will be determined by how the Sewer Commission responds to new demands for capacity between now and the time those owners decide to hook up.
“That’s what we’re focusing on,” he said. “How can we control that so we have a smooth landing and everybody gets on board?”
Growth neutrality clause
With its new regulations, the commission has given itself two tools to manage the constraints of the new system. First, any property in the district has a guaranteed right to connect to the system within the next 20 years, provided its use, net floor area, or “Title V design flow” (typically determined by number of bedrooms) has not increased since May 1, 2009, the date fixed by the act establishing the wastewater district. Provided also, one might add, that the 19,000 gallons per day limit has not been reached.
Second, new buildings or buildings whose use, net floor area, or Title V requirements have changed must apply to the commission for permission to proceed. Owners who can show that they could have built a Title V compliant septic system to accommodate changes to their property will be approved quickly, but those who cannot face a tougher road.
According to a so-called “growth neutrality clause” in the regulations, the Sewer Commission will approve only exceptions it determines are “necessary for the health, welfare or safety of the Town” or that create “a demonstrable benefit to the town.” The commissioners’ decisions in such cases must also be approved by the Board of Selectmen, who have ultimate authority over the growth of the district.
Bragan told the gathering Tuesday night that because the schematic designs for Town Hall and Hildreth House renovations result in changes to their net floor space, both buildings will have to go through the process of applying to the commission for permission to proceed.
Though the renovation of Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church Fellowship Hall on Elm Street has been complete for some time, the church will have to apply for a connection because the floor space of the building changed. But such permission will be granted quickly, Bragan said, because the church has already built a Title V compliant septic system to handle the additional floor space and can thus demonstrate compliance with the connection policy.
Cases that involve a change in use are less clear cut. New General Store owner Scott Hayward, for example, told the Commission in July that he plans to add tables and serve sandwiches once he is connected. At the time, two of the three commissioners said this would constitute a change in use for the building, but the Commission did not vote on the matter and asked Hayward to return for “further discussions” once he had formally assumed control of the business.
Throughout the evening, Bragan and the commissioners sought to reassure audience members that the system had the capacity to serve everyone in town center. The wastewater treatment plant has been active for the past two weeks serving the schools and new library. Discharge from the plant is running, as expected, at 6,000 to 7,000 gallons per day.
Moreover, Bragan told the attendees, a two-year study of water use by “all but a handful of buildings” in the center of town showed their combined daily use of town water to be roughly 13,000 gallons per day. Because water consumed by a property approximates–and even exaggerates—the amount of wastewater it will discharge, Bragan said that water use “would have to change dramatically in order for us to get to 19,000…or we would have to allow heavier users into the district.”
“So, we’re going to hold a certain amount of capacity aside for somewhere down the line?” asked Rhonda Sprague, owner of Harvard Realty, with offices in the center of town. Earlier she had wondered if town center property owners would soon be “vying with each other for a few extra gallons.”
“We’re going to watch it,” answered Maiore. “We’re going to allow growth, but we want to know where that growth is taking us.”
That confidence seems to be shared by the operator most familiar with the plant. At the final meeting of the sewer building committee on Wednesday this week, Jim Allen of Wesson and Sampson told the Press, “There’s no way we’re going to hit that limit.”
