Y wins approval for Mahackeno septic reserve fund

The Westport Weston Family Y is moving ahead with preparations to install a septic system for its new complex planned at the Mahackeno Outdoor Center after the Board of Selectmen on Wednesday approved establishment of an emergency reserve fund for the wastewater facility.

The fund will consist of cash and/or cash equivalents totaling about $300,000 -- an amount financed by the Y. That reserve is intended to cover 100 percent of the "anticipated replacement costs" of all the septic facility's equipment and materials, as mandated by a wastewater treatment ordinance passed in 2006 by the Representative Town Meeting.

Y officials will also have to secure the Board of Selectmen's approval to create an operational and maintenance fund for the Mahackeno septic facility. Both of those accounts must be set up before the Y builds the septic system.

"In this case here, you're typically going to have a couple of components that are going to go, get hit by lightning, have an explosion, have motors, have pumps, things like that that would go," said Public Works Director Steve Edwards. "Those are all items that would be easily covered with $300,000."

During his 25 years running the town's wastewater treatment plant, Edwards said he did not recall any "catastrophic event" that had cost $300,000. He also expressed confidence the town could cope with the prospective failure of the Mahackeno septic system.

"This is a recreational facility, and if we have to shut it down, we shut it down," Edwards added. "Worst case scenario: They could truck 30,000 gallons (of wastewater) down to my treatment plant on a daily basis for probably six months for $300,000."

The selectmen's approval of the emergency reserve fund is the latest step in a lengthy approval process for the construction of an on-site wastewater treatment facility to service the Y's planned 54,000-square-foot center at its Mahackeno campus in northwest Westport. That septic apparatus -- also known as a fixed activated sludge treatment system -- has also been approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Conservation Commission, the Flood and Erosion Control Board and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Y officials earlier this year submitted an application to the town to connect the Mahackeno campus to Westport's public sewer system. That proposal would have required changes to the municipal sewer network's boundaries and attracted vehement resistance from a number of town residents. The Y subsequently withdrew the application.

Despite the furor provoked by the Y's sewer proposal, Westport Weston Family Y Chief Executive Officer Rob Reeves has not ruled out the possibility of eventually connecting the Mahackeno complex to the town's sewer system.

"We would prefer to be added to the town's sanitary sewer system and would entertain any request from the town to consider that, but are moving forward with our plans for a septic system," he said in an email Thursday.

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Y wins approval for Mahackeno septic reserve fund