Do Chatham and other Cape Cod towns really need Big City Sewers for healthy coastal waters?

A study by a very qualified group of Orleans scientists and engineers of nitrogen contribution to Pleasant Bay shows that all the septic systems ringing the bay only contribute 1% to the total nitrogen in the bay. See the attached summary of the report, p. 8, in particular.

Pleasant Bay Synopsis and Bios.pdf

Spending hundreds of millions on centralized sewer systems in Orleans, Harwich and Chatham will therefore in all likelihood have no effect on Pleasant Bay water quality, but a devastating effect on town budgets. What if similar testing in other Cape embayments also show that the septic nitrogen contribution to total nitrogen is miniscule?

The easy assumption that too much nitrogen in coastal waters is the source of all the ills it is blamed for has never really been proven. It now also appears to be the case that septic nitrogen may be such a minor contributing factor that spending billions on the Cape for centralized sewer systems could be a massive waste of precious dollars, be they from property taxes or sewer fees.

Consequently, the Board of Selectmen of Orleans has now asked all Cape Cod towns to join it in asking the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an objective "peer review" of the science behind the findings and recommendations of the Massachusetts Estuaries Project (MEP) commissioned by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and put forward by the DEP as the baseline of what is required of each town to make its waters healthy. Read the letter: Orleans selectmen letter for peer review.pdf

It is an amazing fact that this methodology, which may lead to expenditures of as much as ten billion dollars for Cape towns, has never been independently peer reviewed. The DEP so far has refused to allow that, but that position cannot stand. The towns and their taxpayers who will be responsible for paying the bills have a right to demand validation of what they are being told is what needs to be done.

So far, seven or eight of the 15 Cape towns have agreed to join with Orleans. Responses from others are being awaited, including Chatham.

Chatham Concerned Taxpayers has urged the Chatham selectmen to join with Orleans and the other towns. Click here to read our letter: CCT ChSel July 6 2010.pdf here

Chatham alone among Cape towns has embarked on a centralized sewer system plan developed by its Town Manager for all watersheds said to be contributing septic nitrogen to coastal waters. This was done without questioning the state numbers, without testing the state's conclusions first in at least one seemingly troubled area ("hot spot"), without evaluating alternative, modern technology that removes septic and groundwater nitrogen cheaper, faster and better, and without obtaining a town meeting vote on the Town Manager's plan, which could cost property taxpayers close to if not more than half a billion dollars, depressing all other spending for operations and capital projects for decades. " How could this have happened?", one might well ask.

Nonetheless, it is not too late for the Chatham selectmen to join in the request for a peer review. The best way to assure taxpayers that town officials aren't wasting their money is to get an objective review of the science behind the state's numbers.

Since the Town Manager's plan is to pipe all contributing watersheds in one coordinated effort (110 miles of sewer piping) over 20 years, it could be 25 years, according to Stearns & Wheler and DEP, before improvement, if any, would be seen.

Rather than spend half a billion dollars first and then find out the massive spending has done nothing to improve bay waters, it is, to say the least, prudent to get an objective review of the basis for the whole plan.

While the National Academy of Sciences is conducting the peer review, the town can conduct an objective evaluation of modern technology and systems that are now available that can remove nitrogen from septic systems and groundwater far more efficiently, far less expensively and with far quicker results (some immediate) than the centralized system the Town Manager has chosen. If the NAS confirms the MEP/DEP science, then a plan, taking into account all available technology options, including these modern, less expensive ones, can be voted on by a fully informed town meeting and implemented. And results will be known a lot sooner than 25 years from now.