Sewer overhauls may swell bills

By Caroline Louise Cole, Globe Correspondent, 12/2/2001

esidential sewer bills in communities along the Merrimack River could jump as much as $150 a year in the near future as local officials begin to implement major system overhauls to comply with the federal Clean Water Act.

The multimillion-dollar construction projects, which could take up to 20 years to complete, are necessary to protect the Merrimack both as a viable drinking water source and as a recreational attraction, according to Michael Wagner, a spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the Clean Water program.

''This program is aimed at mitigating a serious health threat that happens when high volumes of storm water cause untreated sewage to overflow directly into the river,'' Wagner said.

He said the five sewage treatment plants on the Merrimack between Manchester, N.H., and Haverhill treat both storm water runoff and sewage. In many communities both types of waste water are collected and delivered to the plant in combined underground sewer systems.

When it rains or when snow is melting, the volume of storm water is so great that waste-water treatment plants are overwhelmed and pass sewage directly into the river, Wagner said.

''We're concerned about the pathogens, the bacteria, and viruses that are found in sewage which are now introduced into the river in concentrations high enough to be a health concern for anyone who drinks the water, swims, or fishes in it,'' Wagner said.

Wagner noted that the Merrimack is the major source of drinking water for many of the same communities that depend on it to flush sewage plant discharges out to the ocean. Andover, Lawrence, Lowell, and Tewksbury in Massachusetts and Nashua and Salem in New Hampshire depend on it as a drinking water source, for example.

The five regional waste-water treatment facilities under orders to separate their storm water and sewage systems are in Lowell, North Andover, and Haverhill in Massachusetts and Manchester and Nashua in New Hampshire. They serve the 12 other communities of Andover, Chelmsford, Dracut, Groveland, Methuen, North Andover, Tewksbury, and Tyngsborough in Massachusetts and Bedford, Goffstown, Hudson, Londonderry, Merrimack, and Salem in New Hampshire.

The system overhauls could cost as much as $100 million to $200 million each, said Ralph Goodno, executive director of the Merrimack River Watershed Council, which is working with the communities to help them comply with federal standards.

''We have made great strides in cleaning up the Merrimack, but most days the river is still not safe to swim in,'' he said.

Over the course of one year some 1.6 billion gallons of untreated waste water end up in the river, he said.

Manchester and Nashua have begun their sewer separation programs. Nashua has spent more than $14.5 million to date to separate 6.57 miles of a total of 110 miles of sewer lines. The EPA has given Nashua's regional plant until Dec. 31, 2019, to complete its sewer separation project.

Nashua doubled its sewer rate in 1997, giving the average residential property a $300 annual bill, according to Rick Seymour, Nashua's waste-water superintendent. Seymour expects Nashua's sewer bill could rise as much as $150 on average within the next five years to pay for system upgrades.

Haverhill, Lowell, and North Andover are currently in negotiations with the EPA over their programs.

''We are looking at spending $2.3 million to design a bypass system, but because there are no state or federal funds available for this initial work, it is going to have to be funded by the ratepayers,'' said Bill Pauk, superintendent of Haverhill's waste-water treatment program, which also serves neighboring Groveland.

Under the new system, storm-water runoff and waste water would be collected in separate pipes that would still run to the plant. However, the storm water, because of reduced concentrations of pathogens, would get less costly treatment before being discharged into the river.

Pauk estimated that this initial project of $15 million to upgrade Haverhill's waste-water treatment plant would add 45 cents to the current $2.10 rate in increments over the next five years. That means that by 2006 the average residential sewer bill, currently $210, would increase to approximately $255. That does not include the cost of adding a separate system of pipes for storm water.

Goodno said waste-water officials have known for 30 years that the day would come when the federal government would require them to separate their storm-water systems from waste-water sewers.

''This is actually part of the Clean Water Act when it was first passed by Congress in the early '70s,'' Goodno said. ''The regulatory agencies have held off implementing the rules because of its sizable cost.''

However, he said some individual taxpayer suits in other parts of the country have forced the EPA to take a more aggressive posture on the combined sewer overflow problem nationally.

To help five regional waste-water facilities comply with the regulations and to lower costs, Goodno's group has invited their directors to work with his organization in a newly formed Merrimack Combined Sewer Overflow Coalition.

Toward this end, each regional agency has pledged $210,000 to fund a study by the Army Corps of Engineers to determine what further steps must be taken to clean up the river, Goodno said. This study recently received a $1 million matching grant from Congress, he said.

Caroline Louise Cole can be reached by e-mail at cole@globe.com.

This story ran on page 1 of the Boston Globe's North Weekly section on 12/2/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.