Dennis to study impact of treated wastewater on Swan Pond River – Cape Cod Times

Christine Legere| Cape Cod Times

SOUTH DENNIS The Dennis Select Board will hire an independent consultant to study the possible impacts of releasing cleaned water from the proposed regional wastewater treatment plant into Swan Pond River.

Under a regional plan being developed for Dennis, Yarmouth and parts of Harwich, wastewater from the three towns would be treated at a single plant proposed for the Department of Public Works property in South Dennis.

Once the water has been treated, the cleaned water will be discharged at various locations in the three towns. Initially, about 300,000 gallons per day will be discharged to land at the Dennis treatment plant site and 2 million gallons per day will be piped to the Bass River Golf Course in Yarmouth and used for irrigation.

The Dennis treatment plant will be located in the Swan Pond River watershed, so the recharged effluent released there will eventually reach the groundwater and flow down through the river into Nantucket Sound.

Based on the water quality studies of the region, the wastewater treatment system is expected to go a long way toward cleaning up the impaired watersheds in the three towns by eliminating the current single onsite septic systems that have been loading nitrogen into the estuaries.

Voters in all three towns will be asked to approve a DHY Clean Waters Community Partnership at next springs annual town meetings, allowing the project to move forward.

Dennis Finance Committee Chairman James Plath recently suggested to the Select Board that an independent study be conducted before thetown meeting.

If the Finance Committee is going to make a recommendation, we want some assurance there will be no impact on the Swan Pond River, Plath said. I dont want to be sitting at town meeting with these questions.

Plath said he meant no disrespect to the towns Wastewater Implementation Committee or to engineers at CDM Smith who produced the preliminary design for the system.

Plath just wanted an independent study: take the players out of it, he said.

Select Board member Paul McCormick, who has served on the regional study committee that looked at wastewater solutions, supported Plaths proposal.

We can use the study as part of the publicity to inform townspeople, McCormick said. Wastewater treatment is very expensive. Its important to educate the townspeople so they have their questions answered before we get to town meeting.

Member Christopher Lambton called the decision for a study a no-brainer.

Its a great way to reinforce to our public that were doing our due diligence to show that investing in wastewater (treatment) is the right thing to do, he said.

A subcommittee that includes Select Board members McCormick and John Terrio and Finance Committee members Peter McDowelland Robert Prall will work with the town administration on a request for proposals for thestudy and bring it to the boardfor approval.

The DHY Cleanwaters Community Partnerships sewer network and shared treatment system will save each town millions of dollars.

Sharing a treatment plant would save the towns a combined $83 million in capital costs along with an estimated $6 million in annual operating costs.

The project will be built in eight phases, each about five years long.

Christine Legere can be reached at clegere@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ChrisLegereCCT.

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Dennis to study impact of treated wastewater on Swan Pond River - Cape Cod Times