Embracing big-sewer alternatives

Embracing big-sewer alternatives

In June last year, Orleans held a special town meeting to vote on plans to move forward with design and construction of a big-sewer wastewater treatment system that would ultimately cover half the town at a cost of somewhere between $150 million and $250 million. I spoke against the plan because the proposal was for the oldest, most expensive and disruptive technology available.

I pointed out that the Cape Cod Commission had been given $3.35 million by the state to fund a 12-month study, the "208 plan," to evaluate alternative ideas and technologies that Cape towns could use to solve water quality problems. (The 208 Plan draws its name from Section 208 of the federal Clean Water Act, which addresses requirements for developing and implementing regional wastewater management plans.) I suggested Orleans wait a year to see what ideas the plan came up with and then look to incorporate the best of these ideas into the town's wastewater plan.

On Feb. 6, just eight months later, Paul Niedzwiecki, the Cape Cod Commission's executive director presented the first findings of the 208 process. Already the commission has concluded that by adopting the ideas and modern technologies advocated by the 208 plan's scientific experts instead of traditional big sewers, the cost of solving the Cape's wastewater problems could be reduced from as much as $8 billion to something less than $4 billion — that cuts the total cost in half.

Mr. Niedzwiecki showed an illustration that demonstrated how much conventional sewering would be required in a given area and then showed the same region treated with alternative technologies, including permeable reactive barriers, oyster reefs and other solutions to restore our natural water systems. The total project cost was dramatically reduced.

The Cape Cod Commission had earlier presented the results of a study of Town Cove in Orleans; by using traditional big sewers, it would cost Orleans taxpayers $80 million to treat Town Cove, but this can be reduced to $21 million using the alternative technologies advocated by the 208 plan — a reduction of almost 75 percent!

This is positive, exciting news. By incorporating lower-cost, water-body-specific solutions, Cape Cod towns can save millions of dollars in their water quality improvement projects. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection also has announced its support for the 208 plan's modern technology solutions and has committed to be "flexible, creative and imaginative" in the permitting of alternative solutions.

Other Cape towns are already successfully adopting alternative solutions. In Wellfleet, for example, the town expects to solve 100 percent of its water quality problems by restoring the natural oyster reefs and other natural water system functions that existed a century ago around Wellfleet harbor. The town of Falmouth has also started to use oysters to remove nitrogen and clean the water because it is a natural, low-cost, efficient solution that generates rapid results. Wellfleet and Falmouth have seen nitrogen reductions and water quality improvements in the first year of their efforts. Can other towns use oyster reefs and aquaculture to improve water quality in impaired water bodies? Of course they can!

Mr, Niedzwiecki concluded that instead of comprehensive wastewater management plans (CWMPs), Cape towns need to implement "targeted wastewater management plans," and that it makes more sense to start first with the most degraded water bodies using alternative technologies rather than big sewers.

Congratulations and thanks are in order to Mr. Niedzwiecki, the 208 plan scientists and the many citizen volunteers who have devoted so much time and energy to this process.

The solutions endorsed by the 208 panels have the support of the DEP and can save Cape Cod residents tens of millions of dollars.

Thanks are also due to the Orleans voters who made the right call by choosing to allow the 208 teams time to study and recommend more modern, cost-efficient solutions. It was the right decision.

With so much time and effort invested in the old big-sewer plan, the challenge for the Orleans Board of Selectmen is to show the courage and leadership to embrace these modern ideas and technologies and deliver the associated cost savings to Orleans taxpayers.

John Hodgson is an Orleans selectman.

This posting first appeared as a My View piece in the Cape Cod Times on March 24, 2014 and is posted here with the author's permission.