Letter: Support the lot-by-lot analysis for Plum Island


Friday, October 3, 2003


To the Editor: I am writing to ask Newburyport voters to vote yes on the lot-by-lot question that will be on the ballot for the Newburyport city election.

On Nov. 4, voters throughout the city will vote on the following ballot question: "Shall the City of Newburyport conduct a lot-by-lot analysis like that performed by the Barnstable County Department of Health in Provincetown, Massachusetts, to determine which properties are already or could become compliant with Title V in the Newburyport portion of the proposed Plum Island Service Area?"

What the lot-by-lot analysis will do is identify which houses have working septic systems, which ones are failing and if they are failing give a plan on how they could be fixed. If the lot-by-lot analysis identifies 90 percent of the houses on Plum Island with compliant septic systems, the rationale for spending $35 million on a Big-Dig in Newburyport Harbor goes away. There are 400 homes in Newburyport on Plum Island. The cost of the lot-by-lot analysis in Provincetown in 1999 was $40,000 for 1200 residences. That's a pittance compared to $35 million for building 20 miles of pipes and borrowing $50 million for a new sewage treatment plant.

According to EPA records, the Newburyport Sewage Treatment Plant exceeded maximum permissible flow by a half-million gallons a day during 2001. The Sewage Treatment Plant is 40 years old. The current plan advocated by the mayor is to force all the homeowners on Plum Island to connect to public sewer, including families that have spent $10,000 to $30,000 to upgrade their septic systems.

Few people know that the Superintendent of the Newburyport Sewage System recalibrated the meter measuring average flow shortly after the sewage treatment plant violated the Environmental Protection Agency's maximum flow. Without public comment, the sewer department altered the meter to show that a half-million gallons a day less sewage flows through the treatment plant than before.

Why did the superintendent alter the meter without informing the public? According to the sewer department, the accuracy of the meter flow is a "technical" issue. Therefore the public does not have to be informed.

Even more curious is that the news media never reported on this change. The press in Newburyport has not asked the hard questions: Why wasn't the meter recalibrated in the early 1990s? Is it just a coincidence the meter was changed when concerns about maximum capacity at the Sewage Treatment Plant were raised by opponents of the Plum Island Project? Where are the consultant reports and independent studies to justify a change of this magnitude?

My real estate taxes went up $1,500 last year. Taxpayers haven't even begun paying for the $34 million high school bond issue. I will have to move to another community with lower taxes if the city government decides to build a new Sewage Treatment Plant.

Before embarking on risky and costly capital improvements, voters need to be informed. The lot-by-lot analysis will provide the city information to make a decision based on real data.

Here are ways you can learn more about the affect on our tax bill of overloading the sewage treatment plant:


On Oct. 9, George Heufelder, Director of the Barnstable County Department of Health and the Environment will speak on the lot-by-study study performed in Provincetown. The talk will be held at the Newburyport High School Auditorium from 7-8:30 p.m.

On Oct. 20, the Salisbury Board of Selectmen will hold a hearing on overflow and the bacteria coliform count from the Newburyport Sewage Treatment Plant. Guest Speaker is Newburyport Sewer Commissioner George Succi. The hearing will be held at the Hilton Senior Center in Salisbury (behind the fire station .2 miles north of Dunkin' Donuts on Route 1) from 7-9:30 p.m.

Call at-Large candidates for City Council who have studied this issue:
Chip Wyser, former chair of the Sewer Commission, 465-0095 (www.chipwyser.com); Dave Erekson, chair of the Water Commission, 462-7327; Councilor-elect Audrey McCarthy, 465-0032;

Council-elect Tom O'Brien, 465-0314; and Sheila Mullins, 462-8954 (sheila@jmaltd.com).

Jeff Robertson

Low Street

Newburyport


 

 
 
(This article replicated online with permission of the Merrimack River Current.)
 
 
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