On Wednesday May 23, 2007 a letter to the editor appeared in the Woburn Times Chronicle written by Thom Phillips of Woburn. In the letter Mr. Phillips goes into detail in describing the effects of the sewer surcharging problem in Woburn.
He points out correctly that during peak rain periods the manhole covers near Horn Pond are lifted by the pressure of the heavy flows of water and that the spill over of the mix of raw sewerage and storm water flows into the pond which is a source of Woburn's drinking water.
There is an incorrect assertion however as to who is responsible for these events. Mr. Phillips rightly points out that this line is the trunk line that connects Burlington to the MWRA treatment plant in Boston. However he is incorrect when he states that "it is their flow that over taxing Woburn's sewer capacity."
The problem of course starts at the beginning of the sewer line not at the end. The communities closer to Boston and Boston itself are different than Burlington and Woburn because in many cases they have a single system instead of a dual system in dealing with storm water.
A dual system means that storm water and sanitary sewer are carried in away in two separate systems. In the more urban and older communities this type of system is cost prohibitive to install. Prior to the early 1980's the problem of an overtaxed sewer system was pretty simple.
The method was to simply open the gates and let all the sewerage and storm water flow into Boston Harbor.
This became a problem when Quincy sued and won a decision in court to prevent that solution from constantly polluting their beaches. The result partly was the creation of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the accompanying massive spending on upgrading the Nut and Deer Island treatment plants.
This seemed to have alleviated the problem for a period of time. For a decent period during the 1990's surcharging seemed to be a thing of the past. The new facilities coupled with very aggressive inflow and infiltration programs seemed to get the problem under control.
Inflow is the illegal tie ins of storm water systems into the sanitary sewer and infiltration is ground water flowing into the system via leaking pipes or manholes in flooded areas.
Burlington spent a lot of time and effort in this area because of imposed restrictions by the authorities. No expansion could take place of new sewer consumption unless the developer did a 10 to 1 removal of I&I in exchange for sewer capacity.
The problem of course is that the new sewer users you put on line were permanent sources of discharge while the infiltration you took out might not be a permanent solution. Mother nature constantly assaults the sewer system with such things as frost heaves and erosion which can penetrate the integrity of the system.
During this period Burlington's peak flow has actually declined because of these efforts. The ominous development here is that the surcharging of the downstream lines occurs at lower levels of Burlington's discharge. This can only be a result of the combination of three things. The communities closer to the treatment plants are not doing enough inflow and Infiltration removal, we are getting more annual rain fall and we have seen a great deal of growth in newer sewer discharge.
As far as I know the rain fall stats of late have not been unusually large so it must be the other items that are to blame. The real culprit of course is development. Burlington and Woburn have been Hell bent on new construction for the past five years with out any consideration what so ever for the sewer issue.
Part of this of course has been the chapter 40B non sense but equally as large has been the race for more tax revenue. Both Burlington and Woburn have pursued the extra money from the hotel tax as an example. This has turned out to be a Fools paradise since Burlington doubled the number of rooms available in town but only succeeded in reducing both the hotel tax income as well as reducing the property values of all the hotels.
Both communities are now pursuing a similar strategy in the retail areas. One segment of the commercial market that has retained its over all value during the commercial decline was the retail sector. What has followed is zoning changes to retail that have exceeded all the retail space approved over the past 25 years. In addition to the space is approval of "amenities" necessary to make the retail space work. Those amenities are restaurants and liquor licenses. Restaurants are huge producers of sewerage.
It is to early make any value judgements as to the extent this will alleviate the residential tax burden but one thing we can say for sure. Over the past three years residential property taxes have increased over 50% because of spending as well as the shift of the property values. Residential values have sky rocketed while commercial values have fallen. Will more commercial building add to the tax base or will more building simply lower existing commercial values and leave us with more pressure on the existing infrastructure?
Only time will tell but one thing is for sure. The completion of the Cummingsville connector, touted as the solution to the sewer capacity problem has been erroneous. I am afraid that as time passes along, surcharging is going to become more and more prevalent and will become a fact of life unless the residents demand a solution.
