TRURO — Installing a cesspool has been illegal in Massachusetts since 1978. They are considered “failed” septic systems. But people on the Outer Cape have kept on living with them because they were “grandfathered.” Upgrades have come slowly, with more effective Title 5 systems being installed when houses changed hands.
But as the ill effects of cesspools — nitrogen pollution causing algal blooms that threaten wetlands, ponds, and the drinking water supply — have become more evident, towns have begun taking action. In the spring of 2021, the Truro Board of Health became the first on the Outer Cape to require the removal of all cesspools. That was supposed to have happened by Dec. 31, 2023.
The town sent letters to the owners of 181 properties still using cesspools in June 2021, telling them about the new requirements and deadline. Townspeople have made good progress over the intervening two and half years, according to Health and Conservation Agent Emily Beebe, who called the effort a success. “We’re more than halfway there,” she said.
While there are still 83 cesspools in the ground in Truro, most of their owners have taken steps toward removing them and installing compliant systems. Those people, according to Beebe, will be granted extensions to complete their system upgrades without fines or penalties.
In eight cases, however, property owners have presented no proof of any effort to remove their cesspools.
Beebe told the Independent that her department is working with town counsel to file criminal complaints against those eight property owners in the coming weeks. “At this point,” she said, “we will take those folks to housing court.”
Removing a cesspool can be difficult. The property owner must first hire an engineer to design a new septic system, and that step alone can take five to six months, Beebe said. Then, the owner must get a permit to install the system, complete the installation, and have the cesspool itself removed.
Completing an upgrade is also expensive. Beebe said the cost of removing a cesspool varies based on its construction, placement, and whether the pipes connecting the structure to the house also need to be replaced. She estimated the cost of installing a Title 5 system at about $5,300 per bedroom, plus an additional $4,000 to $5,000 for engineering.
Nick Brown, a Truro real estate broker, told the Independent that it would make sense that upgrading the septic system would increase the value of a home. But it’s tough, he added, to pinpoint which upgrades matter “in a market that’s increased 20 to 30 percent in the last year.”
Lower-income year-round households can qualify to offset some of the costs with grants from The Resource Inc., a nonprofit that, thanks to a regional community development block grant, can provide housing rehabilitation funds to Truro homeowners for the upgrades.
All homeowners, regardless of income level, can also apply for 4-percent-interest loans on upgrades through the Cape Cod AquiFund, a program offered by the Barnstable County Dept. of Health and Environment.
As for why the town is allowing extensions for most of the people who did not meet the Dec. 31 deadline, Beebe said her department was taking into account factors like the lack of availability of engineers and the slow pace of permitting.
According to Beebe, the owners of 50 of the 83 cesspools that remain have hired engineers to design upgraded systems but have not submitted plans yet. They have until May 1 to get those plans in, then until July 1 to get their permit applications submitted. Once a permit is granted, owners will have nine months to complete their upgrades.
The owners of another 14 cesspools have received permits and just need to install their upgraded systems. Their deadline has been extended to Sept. 1.
An additional 11 property owners have something called administrative consent orders — meaning official permission — that allow them to delay their cesspool removals. These are mostly people, Beebe said, who live near the Provincetown town line and whose properties may be included in a future extension of Provincetown’s municipal sewer system.
“The board felt that it would be important to give them the opportunity to wait until a feasibility study has been concluded,” Beebe said. Having a house on a municipal sewer system, she added, would be even more beneficial for pollution control than having its owner install a Title 5 system.
As for the eight property owners who will be the subject of criminal complaints, Beebe said that her department has spoken to about half of them since the first letter was sent out in 2021, but the others “have not reached out to us at all.” Resolving these complaints will be the responsibility of town counsel and lawyers representing those property owners, Beebe said.
Removing cesspools is a priority in Truro, said Beebe, because of the damage they can do to the town’s wetlands and drinking water. As reported in the Independent in May 2022, a cesspool can emit as much as eight times the volume of nitrates as a Title 5 system.
Nitrates and other nutrients, such as phosphates, can wreak havoc on Truro’s delicate wetlands like the Pamet River and its kettle ponds, Beebe said. An increase in nutrients can trigger algal blooms, which can poison a water source, deprive a water body of oxygen, trigger fish kills, and boost mosquito populations.
High nutrient levels also pose a risk to the town’s drinking water, which comes from thin lenses of groundwater. Without speedy cesspool upgrades, Beebe said, the town risks exposing its water to dangerous levels of pollution.
There’s another cost of not making the upgrades. Property owners who fail to comply with these deadlines face fines starting at $100 per day and increasing to $300 by the third day, with a penalty of $300 for each day after that.
“It gets very expensive very quickly,” Beebe said.
