Spencer Halts New Connections to Town Sewer

SPENCER — The town’s Sewer Commissioners voted recently to place a moratorium on any new connections to the town’s sewer system unless the project produces less sewage output than a four-bedroom house.

The town, like many others, has been treating more sewage than both the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency allow, which is why commissioners felt they had to prevent more connections, commission chairman Francis “Frank” X. White explained.

White said that while other town leaders are pushing for growth and development, waste generated from new businesses burdens the already over-burdened wastewater treatment plant.

“It’s, ‘Bring business, bring business’,” he said. “But we cannot increase flow.”

White said commissioners already told the developers proposing a 32-unit senior housing project at the former Lake Street School that they’re not interested in taking on the 3,600 gallons a day of sewage they expect will be produced.

“We don’t really want the project,” he said, adding that facilities like the one proposed can pose another problem with an increase in materials like wipes and incontinence products that clog pumps after being flushed down the toilet.

Voters approved borrowing $1.86 million to begin the design phase of rehabilitating the wastewater treatment plant on West Main Street, but the project won’t be completed for a few years and even then, White said, the amount of sewage that can be treated won’t be increased.

The improvements are meant to address chemicals used in the treatment process, he said. In order to have room to accept more sewage, the town could line pipes and make other improvements, but that would be costly, White said.

Part of the problem is something referred to as I and I, inflow and infiltration, White explained. That increases the amount of sewage that is treated when groundwater or liquids from cracked pipes find their way into the system. Lining pipes would resolve some of that, White said, but the best solution would be finding property in a low-lying area and building a brand new plant with a much larger capacity.

With the low water table in the last few months, the number of gallons processed is down, but governmental agencies average the numbers over a year and

Spencer ends up over by an average of 180,000 gallons a day, White said.

News of the moratorium left Ralph Hicks, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, feeling conflicted. He said during the commissioners virtual meeting that he understood the “serious situation” at hand, but also worried that projects including rehabilitation of the Sugden Block on Main Street could “go bust” as a result.

The town sold that building and it’s being renovated to include several apartments.

Hicks said he’d rather see businesses that produce less flow than a four-bedroom home because businesses won’t add to the number of pupils in the school system; another expense for the town.

White said the moratorium won’t affect a brewery that plans to move to town next year and a CVS store, which is in the fledgling stages, and likely wouldn’t produce more sewage than a four-bedroom home, but he hasn’t seen all the particulars.

Selectman Gary Woodbury said he’s not against development but felt commissioners couldn’t continue to accept more projects.

Town Administrator Thomas Gregory said the moratorium could make it hard to entice developers to town if sewer connections aren’t available.

“It’s a struggle to try to attract commercial development to the town given this restriction,” Gregory said. “But the constraints (of the wastewater treatment plant) are real and as a town, how do we reconcile both?”

Reprinted with permission from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Written by Kim Ring. n