Wastewater Treatment Plant Committee Present: Ken Troup
January 12, 2006 Mark Sprague
Jodi Ross
Harold Brown
Bill Spratt
The Wastewater Treatment Plant Committee met at the Town Hall at 9:00 a.m.
Present for the meeting: Mr. David Formato and Mr. Jack O’Connell of Tata and Howard, Inc., Nat Tipton, Town Planner and Curt Plante
The committee reviewed the Main Street Property list prepared by the Board of Health that included the date the home was built, design flow and gallons per day (gpd). Mr. Sprague, Board of Health chairman stated that it was an enlightening exercise for the Board of Health and they were surprised at the lack of information available for some of the systems on Main Street. The total gpd was estimated at 38,566 for all of the properties not including the schools.
Mr. Formato stated that the information was very helpful and they will include the information as part of the report. The report will show a prioritized list of properties that could be tied into the treatment plant if the town decided to do so and had the capacity.
Mr. Tipton asked if the town would be obligated to provide additional flow if the Flatley Building were tied into the treatment plant and they then decided to expand. Ms. Ross stated that the possibility of having them offset the cost of the treatment plant has been mentioned but she is not sure anyone has talked with Flatley about this. It was suggested that legal advice be obtained as to whether the town could pick and choose which properties they would tie into the treatment plant. Mr. Formato stated that the town is under no obligation to increase the capacity of the treatment plant for anyone.
Mr. Spratt stated that with the data received so far we should only consider tying in the school at this point and maybe consider a tipping station for seasonal flow. This would eliminate the legal question about our obligation to tie in other properties. He did not think we were ready to make a decision about expanding to other properties. Adding a tipping station does have specific requirements that we would need to look into.
Mr. O’Connell stated that their initial reaction was that the committee might want to consider putting discussion of any expansion on hold until they can come up with real numbers of the capacity of the leaching field. Tata and Howard anticipated having a more definite number by mid-February.
In response to Mr. Plante’s question as to why the Ducharme and Dillis (previously Ducharme and Wheeler) plans for sandfilters were not adequate to fulfill our need instead of needing a treatment plant. Mr. Troup stated that Ducharme and Dillis’ proposal for the sand filters did not allow for any expansion, since the septic systems had a 10,000 gpd limitation. Therefore, with the sandfilters we could further expand Emerson and Florence Sawyer Schools and it would not allow us to build on the cell tower site.
Mr. Plante suggested that if we are only tying the schools into the treatment plant that we should be conservative on land use and use the school site rather than using more land on the school site.
Mr. Brown stated that the school site area has ledge which we could not build on, plus there is the proximity of the well issue and there would be a breakout problem on Derby Field. The sheep field offers more gpd opportunity, is more economically feasible, and would eliminate the present well proximity issue. He stated that it would be possible to put a playing field over the leach field area.
Ms. Ross stated that she thought it was important that Tata and Howard touch base with DEP. Mr. Formato said that he received a letter from Conservation Commission Administrative Assistant Carol Gumbart stating that a filing with Conservation Commission to do the digging of the monitoring wells is not necessary. The committee did not feel that additional capacity needed to be reserved if the town were to vote to put all students at an expanded Florence Sawyer School and use Emerson School as a municipal building. In fact, it was noted that the gpd would be less for a municipal building.
The committee reviewed a preliminary plan showing the layout of the borings and monitoring wells. Mr. Formato stated that the plan is to put the wells in areas that can be used for the compliance monitoring. Mr. Brown suggested that access to the property be gained through the Flatley property. Mr. Troup will contact Flatley Company to discuss this.
Ms. Ross stated that she has talked with David Boyer of DEP who said that it is possible to construct a police station prior to the treatment plant being functional.
A one hour meeting is scheduled with the Board of Selectmen for Thursday, January 19, 2006 at which the Board of Health, Conservation Commission, Planning Board, Historical Commission, Advisory committee, Housing authority, Affordable Housing, School Needs Committee, Master Planning Committee will be invited. A brief overview of the project will be given by the committee followed by a presentation of Tata and Howard of the analysis of the sheep field vs. the soccer field and pros and cons analysis. Tata and Howard stated that they would be in a position to give a ballpark estimate of the cost of the project and provide a revised project schedule.
The Wastewater Treatment Plant Committee will meet on Thursday, February 16, 2006 at 9:00 a.m.
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