From the Falmouth Enterprise · September 1, 2023 · By Noelle Annonen
Falmouth’s select board voted on August 28, 2023, to pursue watershed permits under the state’s new nitrogen rules, affirming July recommendations from the Board of Health and the Water Quality Management Committee. Wastewater Superintendent Amy Lowell said that without a town plan, every property in an impaired watershed would need an innovative/alternative septic system whether or not it would help. The town must file notices of intent with MassDEP by January; if it missed that deadline, anyone installing a new septic system or increasing flow would need an I/A system. Once the notices are filed, the town has until July 2030 to get a wastewater plan approved for each impaired estuary, and pursuing permits starts a 20-year period to complete the work.
Lowell said plans can be tailored to each area, such as sewers in dense neighborhoods and I/A systems in rural ones, along with shellfish and possibly urine diversion, which committee chairman Stephen D. Rafferty noted is not yet approved by the state. She stressed that Town Meeting votes will be essential over the next two decades, noting that plans to sewer the Teaticket/Acapesket area, rejected in the spring, would return to Town Meeting that fall.
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