Wastewater Cost Reductions: 2010 Archives

ELAINE GIBBS WILL TELL YOU WHAT YOU HAVEN'T BEEN TOLD.

THIS IS YOUR MONEY. YOU CAN DO THE JOB FOR FAR LESS.

DO THE JOB FOR FAR LESS.pdf

There is a catch: You are the ones who have to pay for their “Grand Plan” with your property taxes. The Grand Plan will cost half a billion dollars ($500,000,000) at least, but since it will be payable over 50 years your kids and grandkids will have to kick in, too. This is the most expensive project in the history of the town.

You deserve to know the facts and to have the chance to vote on the plan. But you may not know the facts till it’s too late and you may never get the chance to vote on it.

Chatham Concerned Taxpayers (CCT) has repeatedly urged town officials to evaluate alternatives that can clean the nitrogen from our coastal waters for 25% to 50% less cost, but their attitude was, “No, thanks. We aren’t interested in checking out savings for taxpayers. We deserve the best, we can afford it. It’s the Chatham way. Go away.” No to savings of $100-$250 million?

Town officials apparently have decided not to put their Grand Plan to a town meeting vote or to let taxpayers know about the availability of less expensive alternatives or even how much they will have to pay for their Grand Plan. Therefore, as a start, CCT has done the calculations presented in the table below (numbers rounded to zero) so you can determine what your costs will be if town officials go forward with their Grand Plan. (Supporting data is elswhere on this website.)

Just find your assessment value in the left column and read across. Why 20 years? Optimists that we are, we all think we’ll live that long. We once again ask town officials to publish their detailed taxpayer cost estimates since the only information about the cost of the Grand Plan the public has seen is Dr. Robert Duncanson’s assertion printed in the Cape Cod Times of December 7, 2009 that the average property owner would only pay $3,500 over 20 years for the sewer at an average yearly cost of $175. That isn’t possible. The town’s estimate of the average charge for a property owner to connect to the sewer system is $6,500, so Dr. Duncanson’s $3,500 doesn’t even pay for that, let alone cover even a nickel of the property tax bill for the half billion dollar sewer. CCT believes the estimates set forth below are, if anything, understated.

WE MUST ACT NOW BECAUSE TOWN OFFICIALS ARE PLANNING TO EXECUTE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS AND START DIGGING ANY DAY NOW BEFORE YOU KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING. ALL OF THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON UNDER THE RADAR.

If you want town officials to seriously evaluate far less expensive ways to clean Chatham’s waters, WE MUST ACT NOW. Mashpee is currently evaluating a low cost alternative that it hopes will save it $300 million over the $550 million cost estimate for a Chatham-type centralized sewer. Falmouth is checking out less expensive alternatives, so is Orleans and Dennis plans to, also.

Chatham is the only Cape town not bothering to look at saving huge taxpayer dollars with alternative strategies but is rushing ahead with a hugely expensive conventional centralized sewer that is likely to be obsolete before it is finished, taking into account the explosion of “green” technology that is taking place.

There is no need for rushing ahead. There are no timetables, there are no deadlines. We should solve the excess nitrogen problem the most cost effective way possible.

Environmental organizations and EPA support and prefer alternatives such as decentralized low cost sewer systems because they are environmentally friendly as well as less expensive.

We should demand that town officials stop now and not proceed with implementation of their Grand Plan. They should carefully evaluate less costly options for integration into the final plan and you have learned what all your costs for your property will be for the different options. You should demand a town meeting vote on the plan, alternatives and taxpayer costs.

THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE. WE MUST ACT NOW.

COME TO OUR EMERGENCY TAXPAYER PLANNING MEETING FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 2010 AT THE COMMUNITY CENTER STARTING AT 8:30 A.M. TO LEARN FACTS ABOUT THE SEWER YOU HAVEN’T BEEN TOLD AND WHAT THE ACTION PLAN WILL BE TO STOP THIS DENIAL OF YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE ON THIS MONUMENTAL PROJECT.

BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS. GET OUR SEWER NEWS IN THIS WEEK’S CHRONICLE.

Elaine Gibbs, homeowner and registered voter became incensed at the rude behavior of Chatham town officials towards CCT challenging them to tell taxpayers the truth about their HALF BILLION DOLLAR sewer plans. She devoted a week around the clock to finding out what is really about to happen if town officials succeed in starting construction of their huge, expensive sewer plan in the next few days. They will be in effect committing taxpayers to HALF A BILLION DOLLARS AND MORE in property taxes for which taxpayers have not voted.

Download a copy of Elaine's extraordinary memo to the selectmen demanding answers.

It is MUST READING. TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO GET THEIR COPY HERE. READ IT ONLIINE BY CLICKING THE LINK BELOW TO OPEN OR RIGHT CLICK ON "SAVE TARGET AS" AND DOWNLOAD YOUR OWN COPY TO THE FOLDER YOU SELECT.

Elaine will be telling the story at our Friday emergency taxpayer planning meeting at the Community Centee at 8:30 a.m..

WastewaterEG.pdf

We can't let them keep this story under the radar any longer. We'll be the losers if we do.

Why does Chatham always seem to find the most expensive way to do things? In this case, it's HALF A BILLION DOLLARS OR MORE, not just an overbuilt $10 million community center or a $17 million town hall annex for a handful of police and planning and permitting people. This is HUGE money. The job can be done for less, but town officials aren't interested. But taxpayers are very interested.

We'll discuss how we can slow things down and get cheaper solutions looked at.

It'll probably take a special town meeting to do it.

Chatham Concerned Taxpayers since last spring has been asking town officials to provide taxpayers with some real estimates of their costs for so-called Phase 1 of the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan (CWMP). Town officials have decided upon a big city centralized sewer system, which will extend to about two-thirds of Chatham's properties. The quoted cost estimate (now three years old) has been $240 million, which is a staggering sum. But the real amount is going to be a lot more because the construction period will be 20 years, costs will rise and interest will have to be paid on the money borrowed.

Taxpayer Cost of the Centralized Sewer System Proposed by Town Officials. Despite CCTs requests, the only estimate given out by any town official for Phase 1 was by Dr. Robert Duncanson. As reported in the Cape Cod Times of December 7, 2009, in an interview with a reporter Duncanson claimed that the average homeowner would only pay $3,500 over 20 years, or an average of $175 per year. Since the average cost for an individual property owner's connection to the sewer is estimated by town officials as $6,500, Dr. Duncanson's $3,500 does not even cover that cost let alone pay any part of the property tax cost of the centralized sewer system itself..

Therefore, CCT decided to do its best to inform taxpayers what kind of costs they might face. Working with na Excel spreadsheet program, using publicly available information and normal engineering estimating practices, the table which appears below was developed to show approximate costs for properties of different valuation, depending on whether they would be sewered in Phase 1 or not.

As we see it, the total cost of the town officials' plan could be in the range of $490 million up to $750 million. The table below uses $500 billion to calculate taxpayer costs, which almost certainly understates what the taxpayer costs will ultimately be.

The main capital costs of the system will be on the property tax and payable by all properties, sewered or not. Those sewered will individually pay a connection charge and monthly maintenance fees. These costs are factored in along with interest (best available from the state) and 3% inflation. The $10 million net benefit from the USDA loan/grant program ($10 million) is credited to the overall cost. Numbers are rounded to zero for easier reading. The spreadsheet which generated the chart can be accessed by clicking on the link at the end of this item.

Click on the table below to get a bigger picture.

To view the back-up spreadsheet, click link below:

100118 ChathPropTaxpCost Analysis chart backup online.xls

Why talk about a sewer at all? There is only one reason for discussing such a system at all: It is believed that by removing "excess nitrogen" from Chatham's embayments the waters will be healthier. Assuming that's so, CCT raised a simple, straightforward question, "Isn't there a way to do that for a lot less money than what town officials are proposing?"

Better, cheaper alternatives. It didn't take long for CCT to discover indeed there was. Low cost neighborhood or cluster sewer systems which can perform the required nitrogen removal task at far less cost. They can be installed jn a much shorter time frame, will cause far less disruption to the community's way of life and are much friendlier to the environment. They will show positive results sooner, no waiting for more than 20 years to see if the centralized sewer system actually does the job.

CCT presented an informational forum on these alternatives in September and petitioned the selectmen (September 22, 2009) to undertake an evaluation process of these alternatives that have the potential of saving taxpayers 25% to 50% of the cost of the centralized sewer system town officials were proposing to build. That could be $100 million to $250 million. The selectmen refused. CCT argued that they had a fiduciary obligation to taxpayers to look into possible savings of this magnitude. Still they refused. The selectmen said alternatives had been considered four or so years back and none of them worked. CCT's investigation showed that the town had never considered an alternative system that could do the job of removing nitrogen as well as any modern large sewer treatment plant at far less cost. Still, the selectmen refused.

There must be a town meeting to vote on the entire CWMP. The third request CCT made to town officials was to put the CWMP to a town meeting for a vote of approval or disapproval before launching any implementation of their hugely expensive project. Shockingly, it appears as if they have no intention of doing so. CCT has learned that the treatment plant upgrade they are planning to do immediately will enlarge it to its 20-year capacity, making it impossible to incorporate any far less expensive alternatives into the nitrogen removal solution. Taxpayers would in effect be forced to vote for all the additional monies ($180 to $200 million) to spread sewer piping throughout the town to provide the large quantities of wastewater the enlarged plant needs to operate. No taxpayer who voted for the treatment plant enlargement on May 11, 2009 in Article 14 of the Warrant had any idea he was in effect being committed to paying for a half billion to a billion dollar project, because he wasn't told that would be the effect of his vote.