From the Falmouth Enterprise · December 9, 2022 · By Noelle Annonen
Falmouth’s select board on December 5, 2022, approved a letter to MassDEP objecting to its proposed Title 5 changes, compiled from comments by Wastewater Superintendent Amy Lowell, the Water Quality Management Committee and the Board of Health. Interim Town Manager Peter Johnson-Staub said the town has spent or authorized $90 million on sewering and wastewater treatment since 2005, with another $60 million due for a vote in 2024. He put the cost of an innovative/alternative septic system at about $30,000 per owner plus maintenance and said such systems do not remove enough nitrogen to solve the problem. The other option, watershed permits, would require a 75 percent nitrogen reduction in each watershed within 20 years, which he said some towns can manage but Falmouth, with 14 of the Cape’s 30 estuaries, cannot.
Board members said either path would overwhelm voters, roads and town staff, and that the state’s timeline would compress and raise the cost of a plan the town already has. Samuel H. Patterson said he agreed with MassDEP’s goal but wanted a financially and logistically feasible path, and Chairwoman Nancy R. Taylor said she supported the objective but not the method. The article notes the proposal followed a 2021 Conservation Law Foundation lawsuit claiming MassDEP was not doing enough to clean up the state’s estuaries.
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