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septic

NITROGEN REMOVAL

State Finalizes New Watershed and Septic Tank Regulations

A tax credit for septic system overhauls could be expanded

By Elias Schisgall Jun 28, 2023

The Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection released final regulations last week that give Cape Cod communities two years to opt in to a “watershed permit” to combat nitrogen pollution from wastewater.

The regulations — part of an ongoing battle to reverse pervasive nitrogen pollution in Cape Cod’s waters — identify about 30 “nitrogen sensitive areas.” Local governments whose jurisdictions contain a nitrogen sensitive area have two years to secure a watershed permit, which lasts 20 years and allows municipalities to undertake a range of methods to reduce nitrogen pollution, including sewer systems, alternative septic systems, and nitrogen removal through aquaculture.

If a town does not secure a watershed permit after two years, individual homeowners would have to upgrade septic systems with “enhanced nitrogen reducing treatment technology” within five years.

This could, in theory, allow towns to forego applying for watershed permits and instead pass the problem along to homeowners. An individual septic tank upgrade can cost $20,000 to $40,000.

But state Sen. Julian Cyr said that the requirement on individual homeowners would likely not come to pass. “Most homeowners are probably not going to face this, because the municipalities are going to comply and have those watershed permits,” said Cyr.

Legislators are also poised to expand a tax credit for homeowners who live in the state to design and install new septic systems on their properties.

The credit is currently worth $6,000 over four years. In her first budget, Gov. Maura Healey proposed doubling the credit, giving homeowners $12,000 over three years. The state Senate’s proposed budget would triple the credit to $18,000, in an initiative spearheaded by Cyr.

The tax credit applies only to the primary residence of homeowners, excluding the many second homes on Cape Cod. Phineas Baxandall, policy director at the Mass. Budget and Policy Center, said this requirement was “advantageous” because “you’re ensuring that more of the money goes to those who might have problems with paying for the septic system.”

The House and Senate are currently in negotiations to reconcile their proposed budgets to send to Gov. Healey’s desk.

The nitrogen sensitive areas subject to the new DEP regulation are largely concentrated on the southern coast of Cape Cod and drain into Nantucket Sound. The Wellfleet Harbor Embayment System, however, will also be subject to the regulations once the Environmental Protection Agency finalizes its draft finding of acceptable nitrogen loading.

Besides that watershed, which covers most of Wellfleet and touches parts of South Truro and North Eastham, no other watersheds on the Outer Cape will be subject to the regulations, according to DEP spokesperson Fabienne Alexis.

Wellfleet already submitted a watershed permit application for its Targeted Watershed Management Plan last August. The $106.6-million plan includes constructing sewers in downtown Wellfleet, restoring salt marshes at Mayo Creek and Herring River, and switching private homes over to Innovative and Alternative (I/A) septic systems, which are far better at filtering nitrogen than typical Title 5 systems.

Though the plan was submitted in August, DEP postponed approving it until the new state regulations were finalized, according to Curt Felix, a former member of the Wellfleet Clean Water Advisory Committee.

Nonetheless, Felix and John Cumbler, who also served on the committee, said they were confident the state would approve the plan. Wellfleet has worked with the DEP for six or seven years to make the plan consistent with the state’s desires, Felix said.

If Wellfleet’s watershed permit is approved, homeowners will not be required by the state to replace or upgrade their septic systems within seven years under the new regulations. But Wellfleet’s plan will almost certainly entail many homeowners obtaining I/A septic systems, albeit over a longer period of time.

“My feeling is that, over 20 years, we need to get most homeowners who are outside of the sewer district onto the enhanced I/A system,” Cumbler said.

Though many homeowners will be eligible for the soon-to-be expanded tax credit, installing or upgrading a septic tank could still be costly. The “$64,000 question,” Felix said in November and again this week, is how to pay for these upgrades — something he said the town is still figuring out how to do.

Though Cyr noted the litany of funding sources for septic upgrades, including the tax credit and the Cape and Islands Water Protection Fund, he said it was inevitable that “taxpayers and homeowners are going to have to chip in something for this.

“It’s regrettable,” Cyr added. “We could’ve gotten 90 percent of this paid for by the federal government a couple of decades ago, but that’s not the world we’re living in.”

EROSION

Hidden Septic Tank Lands on Wellfleet Beach

As shorelines retreat, a collective effort will be needed to clean up the coast

By Michaela Chesin Apr 13, 2022

WELLFLEET — On beaches along this eroding coastline, it’s common to stumble upon strange artifacts, from PVC pipes to electrical wires to concrete rubble. The most recent discovery: a broken septic tank, its contents — so old as to no longer be dangerous — spilled on the surrounding sand.

Melinda Krasting was surprised to get a call from Wellfleet Health and Conservation Agent Hillary Greenberg-Lemos on April 1 about her oceanside property off Cliff Road — the spot where she used to have a house. Following high winds, an old septic tank buried on the property and not recorded on site plans had fallen from the dune between White Crest Beach and Lecount Hollow.

After a windstorm, a septic tank went over the edge between White Crest Beach and Lecount Hollow on Friday, April 1. (Photo courtesy Hillary Greenberg-Lemos)

Sewage spills contain bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause serious illnesses such as hepatitis and gastroenteritis. Such spills are rare here because records on septic systems are kept by home owners and towns, and, in the case of properties within its boundaries, by the Cape Cod National Seashore. Typically, their locations are known. And when a house is demolished or moved, the tanks are removed or pumped dry and filled with clean sand, according to Greenberg-Lemos.

Krasting bought her house off Cliff Road in 1998 and moved it away from the ocean twice as the backshore dune eroded, each time taking the tanks she knew existed. The tank that fell onto the beach predates Krasting’s ownership of the property, she said, though she is now arranging for its removal. But she worries that the National Seashore is unprepared for circumstances like these.

Greenberg-Lemos confirmed that this septic tank was not something Krasting could have known about. “It wasn’t shown on any previous plans we have on file,” Greenberg-Lemos said. “We believe that it’s really old. There was no odor associated with the material. The tank is less hazardous because it’s been sitting there for so, so long.”

Eleven days after it fell, the septic tank still sat on the beach. As of Tuesday morning, April 12, Krasting had received estimates from three excavation companies. One company was not equipped to remove it. The waste management company Clean Harbors wanted to build a sand ramp to remove the tank and waste for $75,000, Krasting said.

“I don’t think they understood how old the material was,” Krasting said. She chose Winkler Construction & Crane Co., based in Truro, to do the job for an estimated $10,000, she said.

This is not the first erosion-related problem Krasting has faced. After having moved her former house twice, by 2013, there was no more space to move it further. The house was condemned, and she sold it to her neighbor, Robert Boehringer, for one dollar.

Krasting then moved to Truro but negotiated with the Seashore to keep a wooden deck on the last remnants of her property. “It was heaven,” she said. “For the last nine years I’ve been spending time on the deck almost every day.” But January’s storms destroyed the deck and made the roads to her land inaccessible. She hasn’t visited since.

To carry out the cleanup, Krasting has had to obtain permits from the Seashore. That process typically takes a week, unless there’s an immediate threat, said Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom. A process is followed, he said, to be sure the debris is removed “in the least impactful way.”

A special-use permit is required to bring the needed heavy equipment onto the beach and “a bird monitor, because the plovers are out,” Greenberg-Lemos said. The town may also need to issue a permit for use of a town landing, she added. By Tuesday, the Seashore was ready to issue the special-use permit but was waiting on documentation from the contractor.

A second old septic tank, also not shown on site plans, was recently discovered higher up on the dune. It will be removed, also by Winkler and at Krasting’s expense, at the same time as the fallen one, Greenberg-Lemos said. “Once it falls, it’s way more difficult to remove,” she noted.

To Krasting, the fallen septic tank is a harbinger of larger problems to come. “It’s scary to think what could happen as more areas erode,” she said. “Think of what could be uncovered at the old Air Force base.”

Greenberg-Lemos said another incident where cleanup required the Seashore’s approval happened a little farther up the coast when an asphalt driveway landed on the beach.

More unknown septic tanks or other objects may be exposed by erosion. The coastal bank near Krasting’s property has sometimes eroded by as much as 15 feet in a year, said Gordon Peabody, director of Safe Harbor Environmental Services in Wellfleet. But addressing related problems is not easy, Peabody said; it “often requires a jurisdictional lasagna of local, state and federal authorities.”

While a septic tank over the edge has gotten our attention in the last week, Center for Coastal Studies Marine Debris and Plastics Program Manager Laura Ludwig says it’s not her biggest concern. What she is more worried about is “the untold number of wires, cables, PVC pipes, polypropylene tubing, and plastic trash that have been exposed as a result of the sloughing cliffs.”

That’s because those objects become more hazardous the longer they sit, undergoing UV degradation and breaking down into microplastics that are harmful to aquatic life and humans.

While the Center for Coastal Studies has deployed numerous volunteers on an intensive clean-up program, “We still can’t handle it,” Ludwig said. “The Park can’t handle it either. It’s going to be an ongoing effort to try and resolve this.”

Over the last few months, the endangered Ballston Beach house, this old septic tank, and the thousands of pieces of plastic found on the shorelines are “all pointing to the same questions,” Ludwig said. “Whose beach is it? Who cares about it? What can we all do about it?”

MODERN LIVING

Truro Adopts New Water Protection Rules

About 200 home owners will need to replace their cesspools

By Paul Benson May 26, 2021

TRURO — The board of health approved a series of updated regulations on May 18 governing cesspools, septic systems, and well-water testing. The most significant change is that all cesspools are now deemed to be “failed” systems. All of them must be replaced with modern septic systems by the end of 2023.

CIVICS

Wellfleet OK’s Water Main and Firefighters

Officials hit a home run at first-ever outdoor town meeting

By K.C. Myers Sep 17, 2020

WELLFLEET — Standing on the pitcher’s mound at the Wellfleet Elementary School ballfield, Moderator Dan Silverman pitched a no-hitter on Sept. 12, with voters approving all the articles that came before them at the town’s pandemic-inspired outdoor annual town meeting.

The crisp and sunny weather may have helped bring out 200 voters, double the reduced-because-of-Covid-19 quorum of 100. Many voters looked like they were in a witness protection program, with hats, sunglasses, and masks. But they sat far apart and got the business of town government done in just under four hours.

The sound system worked well, and voters were able to stay in their seats to ask questions by beckoning “microphone wranglers,” posted throughout the outfield with microphones on selfie sticks.

All the articles on the warrant were adopted, with the exception of those that were indefinitely postponed for various reasons, including the fact that four did not survive a Proposition 2½ override ballot on Sept. 8. Those were: a new police cruiser for $50,000; a fire command vehicle for $55,000; a public works backhoe for $168,000; and a new transfer station guard shack and canopy for $55,000.

Voters hold up their cards at Wellfleet’s outdoor town meeting. (Photo K.C. Myers)

Six budget overrides were approved both at the ballot and at town meeting. The most costly was for borrowing up to $3.8 million to replace a water main for the town’s secondary public water source. Jim Hood, chair of the water commissioners, said the town hopes to receive “a substantial portion” of the cost in grants.

The water main upgrade is to fulfill the state requirement for a secondary or backup system should the first fail. Wellfleet’s primary water source, the Boy Scout Camp wellfield near the Council on Aging, pumps more than enough water for the town’s current peak use: 100,000 gallons daily. Current peak daily use is just over 63,000 gallons. But the secondary water source on Gristmill Way uses a four-inch main that can handle only 40,000 gallons a day.

By replacing that with an eight-inch pipe, the neighborhoods of Old Hay Road, part of Route 6, and Briar Lane would also get access to town water. This could add 80 customers in all to the municipal system, including some on Briar Lane that do have water quality problems, Hood said. And since the water system is funded by user fees, additional hookups help spread the cost.

Lastly, an additional 9,000 gallons a day will be needed if the town is able to construct a proposed 46-unit affordable housing complex on Lawrence Road. Though this is within the capacity of the primary system, it would further tax the secondary system.

Select board member Helen Miranda Wilson said she didn’t like that proponents were unnecessarily tying the affordable housing project to the water main or that they were “recruiting” users to help pay for the water system.

“Hooking up people who don’t need water is environmentally a very bad idea,” Wilson said. “Groundwater is our most precious resource.”

Kathleen Bacon, a former select board member, said town meeting voters were actually sitting on top of the proposed affordable housing complex’s septic system. Tying the water to the housing project is a way to secure a state grant for the water expansion, she added. The necessary override for the project passed at the Sept. 8 election, 501 to 239.

Town meeting voters also agreed to hire two new firefighter-paramedics, which will allow the fire dept. to have three people on each shift for 24-hour coverage, said Fire Chief Richard Pauley. The $148,000 for salary and benefits is a permanent tax increase and will cost the owner of a $538,524 home $35.12 a year. It passed at the ballot, 460 to 280.

Voters also approved $110,000 to engineer a sprinkler system at the Wellfleet Elementary School. Somehow, Pauley explained, sprinklers were not included in a major school renovation in the early 1990s, although legally required. “Someone waived that requirement and it should not have been done,” Pauley said.

There was some debate about two petitioned articles, one a ban on the sale of single-use plastic water bottles, and the other a nonbinding referendum to change the state seal, which features a Native American image topped by a colonial swordsman’s disembodied arm.

Justina Carlson and Mike DeVasto, both select board members, said the ban on water bottles, which will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2021, encourages the use of carbonated beverages and Gatorade. People with jobs outside or on the water need to stay hydrated and may not be prepared for this ban.

“I think behavior shouldn’t be legislated,” said Carlson.

Carlson also argued against a petition to change the state seal. Though her own great-great-grandmother was “a full-blooded Cherokee Indian,” she said, she was not in favor of the “erasure of history.”

ENVIRONMENT

Between Septic and Groundwater, Inches Count

Higher standards mean small additions can require big effort

By Ed Maroney Jun 11, 2020

EASTHAM — Stephen and Mimi Henning own a small house off Steele Road on about a third of an acre. Built in 1935, it has two bedrooms and a bathroom, a living room, kitchen, and a little screened porch. They want to add a three-season room.

That addition brought them to the board of health on May 28, where they learned that their septic system needs to do a better job with wastewater.

Noting that Eastham has “neighborhoods with lots of small properties,” chair Joanna Buffington explained the septic system problem: “Even with all the improvements in Title 5, we continue to see deterioration of our groundwater and estuaries, so we have been looking to do the best we can on these small properties.” Her sense, she said, was that the Hennings’ plan looked reasonable. “But there’s an opportunity to upgrade the septic system for better nitrogen control, especially with that close groundwater distance.”

“You’re saying we need a new septic system to do this project?” asked Mimi Henning.

Not quite, Buffington indicated. What’s needed, she said, is an upgrade to add a nitrogen-reduction component.

“I don’t really understand,” Henning said. “We have almost a third of an acre. It’s not really a small lot.”

“By today’s standards, this couldn’t be built on at all,” Buffington said, adding that lots like the Hennings’ are grandfathered in and, by current standards, overbuilt.

With Title 5 systems, though bacteria is removed through filtration between the leaching facility and groundwater, nitrogen, phosphorus, household hazardous wastes, and viruses are not attenuated and may pose a threat to nearby wells and waterways. (Illustration Mass.gov)

Jane Crowley, the town’s director of health and environment, noted that the bottom of the leach field on the plan showed 48 inches to observed groundwater. “That’s not much distance,” she said. “There’s not a lot of opportunity for the soil as a treatment mechanism to denitrify and decontaminate the effluent before it hits groundwater.”

The bottom line, she said, “is that the standard for construction is very different than it was under the [previous] code. This board now reviews the adequacy of the system.”

Mimi Henning, who said the property is being hooked up to town water, said she was “having a little problem with spending $15,000 to replace the septic system. That’s half of what we’re doing for this addition.”

“We’re not talking about replacing your whole system,” health board member Francie Williamson said. “We’re telling you that there are now things you can add to your system to make it more functional.”

“Adding footage to a home in an environmentally sensitive area surrounded by houses using wells” triggers the board’s review, said Buffington. “That’s our task, trying to protect groundwater.”

Stephen Henning asked for greater clarity regarding what the board wanted. Crowley suggested hiring an engineer to do borings to evaluate the location of maximum high groundwater, which would then reveal “opportunities to add components, which may or may not be feasible in your case.” The options might include secondary treatment or the addition of innovative/alternative technology, a new leach area, or a completely new system combining those elements.

“It really is your job to craft a proposal for the board’s consideration,” she said. From the board’s point of view, the existing system is “not the most desirable for the request today.”

“We’ll do some homework and get some better information and a proposal and come back,” Stephen Henning said. The board took no action, other than agreeing to continue the hearing at a later date.

currents

This Week in Eastham

By The Independent Jun 11, 2020

Meetings Ahead

Go to eastham-ma.gov/calendar-by-event-type/16 and click on a particular meeting to read its agenda. That document will provide information about how to view and take part remotely.

Thursday, June 11

Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m.

Saturday, June 13

Library Board of Trustees, 9 a.m.

Monday, June 15

Elementary School Committee, 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday, June 17

Planning Board, 5 p.m.

Conversation Starters

Upgrade for Seashore Septic

A design bid invitation is out for improvements to the septic system that services the Salt Pond Visitor Center at the Cape Cod National Seashore, the town’s director of health and environment reported.

“This is a milestone,” Jane Crowley told the board of health last month. “We’ve been working with them and hoping for that.”

The upgrade will provide “secondary and almost tertiary treatment,” she said, “really improving the effluent discharge before it gets into the groundwater. They hope to have the project in construction phase in the fall.”

Meanwhile, plans to address stormwater runoff from a Route 6 outfall and an area behind the elementary school are moving forward to the 10-percent design phase, with plans for a public meeting in the next few months.

“We’re looking at green infrastructure for both systems,” Crowley said. “We hope to implement this within the calendar year.”

Revenue Report Is Positive

During the pandemic, town employees “have been working the whole time,” Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe told the select board last month. “They’ve been doing inspections, handing out permits, doing everything you’d normally do, except for a couple of items.”

The result was an “excellent” revenue report for April, said Beebe, who also thanked “everyone for paying taxes. Tax revenues are where they should be.”

And Speaking of Revenue…

It’s time to secure a beach sticker. Go to eastham-ma.gov/home/news/beach-sticker-information-2020 for details and forms.

Don’t look for beach floats in the water this month. The popular platforms could be back later this summer if social distancing seems to be working.

Taps Tribute

The annual Memorial Day march of Eastham Elementary School fifth graders to Evergreen Cemetery couldn’t happen this year, but that didn’t stop class members Daniel Handville and Mason Smith from playing “Taps” on the Windmill Green under the direction of music teacher Chuck Hollander-Essig. Their tribute can be viewed on the town’s Facebook page. —Ed Maroney

Kindness, Recognized

Eastham resident and Nauset Regional High School sophomore Wyatt Falk received an award from Sharing Kindness. This local nonprofit raises suicide awareness and provides grief support especially for youth. It was founded in honor of Jeremy Walters, 16, of Orleans, who died by suicide in 2016 while a student at Nauset.

This year, Sharing Kindness recognizes students who have been observed throughout the year performing acts of kindness, generosity, and support to others, without seeking attention for their actions, according to Lisa Goodrich of Sharing Kindness. Each student so recognized receives $500.

Falk was nominated by his teacher, Addison Weeks, who wrote: “Wyatt has an upbeat and enthusiastic personality. His eagerness to work with any of his peers is heartwarming to witness.”

Hundreds Have Voted Already

Town Clerk Cindy Nicholson told the select board on June 8 that the town has sent out more than 4,000 applications and more than 850 ballots for the June 23 town election. At that point 272 ballots had been returned.

Early voting is being encouraged so that fewer people will come to town hall on June 23 to vote in person from noon to 6 p.m. On Monday, Nicholson told the select board that there will be sneeze guards and facial shields between ballot boxes. The town will reduce staffing on Election Day and have masks and hand sanitizer available outside the building.

When voters arrive, Nicholson said, they’ll be shown how to enter the building. She’s considering allowing a maximum of six at a time inside.

Also Monday, the board set Sept. 21 as the date for the annual town meeting and welcomed Rich Bienvenue, the new finance director and assistant town administrator.

They’ll Serve Again

The select board reappointed a number of committee members on June 8, including Carolyn McPherson to the affordable housing trust; Joanna Buffington, Denise Kopasz, and Dave Hobbs to the board of assessors; Sylvia Sullivan to the board of cemetery commissioners; Adele Blong to the board of health, Beverly Hobbs and Kopasz to the cable television license renewal advisory committee; and Karen Strauss and Charles Wagner to the conservation commission.

Also, Richard Ramon and Lucile Cashin to the council on aging board of directors; Brian LaValley to the cultural council; Thomas Gardner to the finance committee; Henry Lind and Janet Benjamins to the forest advisory committee; Kate Berg, Dilys Smith, and Felice Coral to the human services advisory committee; Frances Lewis and Buffington to the open space committee; and Robert Bruns to the zoning board of appeals. —Ryan Fitzgerald