A new committee, the Water Quality Management Committee (WQMC),
authorized by Town Meeting and appointed by the Board of Selectmen, is
now in place, charged, among other duties, with advising the Board of
Selectmen on the implementation of these recommendations and on
preparation of a draft Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan for the
Town to be submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental
Protection. This Committee has become increasingly aware of a shift in
direction at the Federal and state regulatory level, away from a simple,
one-size-fits-all sewering solution, and toward a more complex outlook.
Plan Inclusions
These agencies are now looking for Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plans to include:
- Infrastructure investments that maximize environmental and community benefits, such as energy saving, and job creation.
-
Science based adaptive management - monitoring and learning from the
results of demonstration projects, as well as studying changes that are
due to the impacts of global warming and sea level rise.
-
Integration of pilot project findings. As pilot projects progress, the
results regarding performance, cost, homeowner acceptability, etc.
should serve to continually modify the assumptions around long term
future plans.
- Management measures for non-traditional
technologies. If the alternatives are to become permanent parts of the
Town's plan, regulators need to know how they will be managed and
monitored in the long term.
- Identifying high priority areas
for sewering solutions. An area where the least cost investment in
sewering infrastructure can produce the greatest reduction in nitrogen
to an affected water body should be part of the Town's draft
Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan.
The Committee
feels that this direction is very much in line with what people of the
Town of Falmouth have come to support over the past 5 years. We are
recommending that the Board of Selectmen submit this draft Comprehensive
Wastewater Management Plan that incorporates these elements as well as
the proposals of the Review Committee.