From the Falmouth Enterprise · July 1, 2022 · By Gilda Geist
Falmouth’s Board of Health and Water Quality Management Committee met jointly on June 27, 2022, to review a MassDEP proposal that would give the town a choice: install innovative/alternative septic systems at 14,082 Falmouth homes within five years, or obtain a watershed permit allowing 20 years to meet nitrogen reduction requirements. Health board members George Heufelder and Benjamin Van Mooy said the proposal relied on nitrogen concentrations rather than total loads, leaving it unclear how the state would judge or credit I/A systems. Board member John Waterbury said thousands of new I/A systems would need some municipal or county system to make sure they work as intended.
Committee chairman Eric Turkington said he believed the real aim was to push towns toward watershed permits, but noted each would need a targeted plan like the Great Pond plan, which took about $350,000 and three years. Wastewater Superintendent Amy Lowell said permits would make every element of a plan an enforceable commitment, that the proposed $200 million in state aid would fall far short, and that the work would be hard to finish even in 40 years. Board member Kevin Kroeger cautioned that pushing deadlines out decades would mean more climate change and more people. Feedback was to be taken to a July 6 meeting with MassDEP.
This is CPWB’s summary of a news article. The full article and its photos are published by the Falmouth Enterprise.
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