To: Members of the Chatham Board of Selectman, Dr. Rober Duncanson
From: Summer Residents Advisory Committee
Subject: Recommended Changes to the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan
September 2007
In August of 2006 our Committee communicated to the Board of Selectmen its recommendations for the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan. They included:
The Plan's goal should be to clean up all of Chatham's waters, embayments and ponds, by providing sewer connection to all Chatham households
and businesses.
Contract to complete the project in 8 to 10 years.
Undertake a feasibility study of the benefits and costs of distributing effluent for use in irrigation, prior to the final design of the system.
Finance the project through a combination of the tax rate and betterments and a real estate transfer tax.
The Committee has had the opportunity to review the Executive Summary of the draft Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan ("Plan"). As a first order of business the Committee would like to thank Dr. Duncanson for his dedication and thoroughness in putting together the Plan. We predict it will likely become the standard against which all other Cape Cod communities' plans will be judged in the future.
We were pleased that the Plan provides for an expansion of and upgrade of the existing wastewater treatment facility and expansion of the wastewater collection system to a sufficient capacity to sewer all of Chatham. Chatham's salt water embayments and fresh water ponds are among its most important assets and the Plan would return them to health.
That being said, the Committee does have two issues it would like to address with respect to the Plan. One is the time frame for completion of the Plan, and the second relates to the feasibility of recycling the eftluent for use in irrigation.
As we have previously noted, the Committee is concerned with the projected thirty year time frame for completion of the project for the following reasons. The thirty-year time frame to complete the sewering of the Town delays the improvement in the quality of Chatham embayments and ponds, undoubtedly increases the cost of the project and may risk its completion.
The Committee appreciates the concerns expressed in the draft with respect to the inconvenience and financial risks to Chatham's summer economy the aggressive timetable we suggested last year could present. We, however, continue to believe that the schedule suggested is unduly long and is necessitated by the plan to stop work for the summer months, which quite frankly are the most desirable from a weather standpoint for the work to proceed.
It is a fact that no matter what part of the year the work is done, it will of necessity inconvenience someone. Therefore, the Committee recommends that the project proceed on a twelve month basis, planning the work for the summer months away from the more heavily trafficked areas i.e. neighborhoods away from the beaches and commercial areas.
On the second issue, the Committee would again ask that consideration be given to incorporating the recycling of the treated water into the Plan. While we are fortunate to have a more than adequate supply of potable water, if there is an opportunity for its conservation, it should be looked at seriously.
The redevelopment in Chatham has resulted in homes with much more extensive landscaping than in the past. While this has been a boon to local landscape businesses, it has resulted in more and more residences installing irrigation systems necessary to maintain that landscaping. Even the new housing on Lake Street has an irrigation system, as does the Chatham High and Middle School. All of that coupled with two golf courses and the possibility of a driving range on the capped landfill presents a real opportunity for recycling effluent.
Don Deary, the operator of Bayberry Hills, a nine-hole golf course built on a capped landfill in South Yarmouth, was recently quoted in the Cape Cod Times, saying that there was resistance at first to the idea of using recycled water from the wastewater plant to irrigate Bayberry Hills, "but it has slowly gained a following and now is a revenue generator for the town."
We therefore ask that a feasibility study of the cost/benefit of distributing the eftluent for use in irrigation be done before the final design of the wastewater treatment facility and collection system is completed.
Again, we would like to congratulate Dr. Duncanson on the fine job he has done on this very important project.
cc: Mr. Fred Jensen, Chairman, CAC Mr. William Hinchey
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