WELLFLEET — As the town struggles to meet state requirements to reduce nitrogen pollution in Wellfleet Harbor — which comes principally from the town’s thousands of septic systems — residents and elected officials are discussing how to organize the expenses of that effort.
A citizens’ petition that has been certified for the Oct. 22 fall town meeting aims to address the costs of future upgrades by creating a new “public utility” in Wellfleet to provide water, septic, and sewer services to residents.
The purpose of the utility, according to the petition, would be to “ensure that the costs to any residents are equitable” regardless of whether people use a sewer connection or individual home system for septic treatment.
The select board discussed that petition on Sept. 2 and also referred to another proposal with similar goals being drafted by select board member Josh Yeston.
The petition’s author is Curt Felix, a member of the board of water commissioners and a write-in candidate for select board in 2023.
Water resources consultant Scott Horsley told the Independent that while he was unaware of any town on Cape Cod that manages septic upgrades in the ways being proposed, the “hybrid approach” embedded in the town’s new watershed management plan meant the proposals have some logic.
Both the new sewer system and a program of septic upgrades are going to have to be managed by town officials somehow, Horsley said.
The Petitioned Article
Felix told the Independent that his plan aims to ensure that individual residents are paying a fair share in any town-wide solution to reduce nitrogen runoff. The proposed utility would be overseen by a “dedicated water and wastewater commission,” according to the petition.
Though Wellfleet has a board of water commissioners, Felix said the town lacks separate infrastructure and oversight for wastewater management. Forming a commission for that purpose is “a pretty common thing across the Commonwealth,” he said.
While many towns, including Harwich and Provincetown, have water and wastewater commissions, the novelty of Felix’s proposal is to give Wellfleet’s commission the added responsibility of managing, upgrading, and paying the costs for home septic systems.
As Felix envisions it, the utility would subsidize or distribute costs so that homeowners who must upgrade their septic systems would pay “the equivalent of an annual sewer charge” and sewer connection fee, he said.
“Homeowners anywhere in Wellfleet should be treated the same,” Felix said, whether they get access to new sewer lines or not. He said a public utility should install and own new septic equipment in the same way it installs and owns a sewer. The town could gradually pay off the debts incurred over decades, he said.
His petition proposes funding the utility with user fees, connection and permit fees, a wastewater enterprise fund, and tax revenue from the town’s operating budget. A public commission could “take advantage of grants and low-cost, low-interest financing,” Felix said, including the State Revolving Fund.
Felix’s petition was signed by 12 other residents, including former select board member Kathleen Bacon, and will appear on the town meeting warrant in October.
The Select Board’s View
The select board discussed Felix’s proposal on Sept. 2 but made no decisions, saying it wanted further input from wastewater consultants Tighe and Bond and Town Administrator Tom Guerino, who wasn’t present.
“I think we all agree on the goals,” said board member Barbara Carboni, “but the question is: ‘Is a utility the only way to do this? Is it the best way to do this?’ ”
Input from consultants was needed to answer those questions, she said.
Chair John Wolf said that Felix’s petitioned article resembled a draft proposal being written by member Josh Yeston for the town to help with septic system upgrades.
Yeston told the Independent that his proposal is preliminary and has not yet been discussed by the board. He gave a copy of it to the Independent but said it would likely not be ready for the fall town meeting warrant.
Like Felix’s petition, Yeston’s draft proposal would direct the town to hire engineers to install and maintain individual septic systems to meet nitrogen reduction targets. It would do so by creating a “decentralized sewer district,” likely overseen by the town’s existing sewer commission and composed of high-priority sites for septic system upgrades, Yeston said. The town appointed the select board as sewer commissioners at the town meeting and annual election last spring.
In the “decentralized sewer district,” septic upgrades would be installed on private lots as if by a “single town-managed utility,” according to Yeston’s draft. The town could bid for required upgrades in bulk and organize their maintenance, Yeston said.
Yeston also said his draft is only a “contingency” in case the town’s sewer plan doesn’t meet the state’s nitrogen reduction goals. He wants more input from the town administrator, town counsel, and consultants to resolve key questions, including who would actually own new septic systems in a “decentralized” district.
The town needs to “wait until we understand the reality of what a sewer solution looks like and work our way back from there,” Yeston said.
Common Aims
Yeston’s proposal aims to “remove the project management engineering burden from the homeowner,” he said, and have the town spread expenses “across the entire tax base in a far more manageable cost structure than being the unlucky winner of the septic lottery.”
Like Felix’s plan, Yeston’s would rely on municipal financing, low-interest loans, and debt-exclusion bonds that have better terms than most homeowners can access themselves.
Felix said he wants the commissioners to be elected or appointed but be distinct from the select board. At town meeting in April, he spoke against having the board members become the town’s sewer commissioners, arguing that “the board of selectmen is not an expert body” and “doesn’t have the time to deal with this issue.”
Yeston said he would defer to town administrators on who should supervise a “decentralized district” but added that “recruiting on the Outer Cape is very challenging.” Creating another department may require more staff, “whereas right now, the sewer commission can be the department entity,” he said.
The proposal to combine sewer and septic authority is “pretty much what we’ve been proposing in the current watershed plan,” Horsley told the Independent on Sept. 2.
“We’re going to need an entity that can manage both the centralized and the decentralized portions of the plan,” he said. That work “would have to be integrated into the town somehow, whether it be part of a particular department or a new commission.”
Public Concerns
The select board submitted the current draft of the targeted watershed management plan to the state Environmental Policy Office in May. The public comment period for the draft opened in July and closed in August.
The state energy and environmental affairs secretary certified the plan last month in a 234-page document that includes 95 comments from the public. Four were from state and local agencies and the rest were from individuals.
Many of the comments raised concerns about the plan’s financial burden on Wellfleet residents — especially homeowners or prospective home buyers who may be required to install new septic systems.
“The negative impacts on the younger generation of domiciled year-round residents are outweighing the benefits of these newly required systems,” wrote Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta in one of the comments.
“The upfront and ongoing costs of IA systems represent a serious burden,” wrote Helen Pontius and Peter Brundage, adding that a “more measured, community-centered solution that protects both our waters and the families who live beside them” is needed.
