Having had time to digest Albin Johnson’s objections to Marion’s septic bylaw requiring an upgrade to denitrification technology in any new construction, Marion Board of Health Chairman Dr. Ed Hoffer had his say when the board met on December 28 at the Town House.
“There is no justification for us narrowing or making our regulations any less rigorous than they are,” said Hoffer, referencing reports that show approximately 750 homeowners connected to the town’s sewer system and approximately 1,200 residences with septic systems.
Hoffer said he had spent “quite a bit of time on this.”
Starting with the Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan that Weston & Sampson engineer Kent Nichols provided the town over a series of meetings, culminating in a public hearing last year at the Music Hall, Hoffer took stance opposite to Johnson’s.
“(Weston & Sampson) do advocate increasing the sewerage, but it would be cost-prohibitive to go to the whole town. … As highlighted by one of our board of (Water/Sewer commissioners), ‘six of the 11 needs areas be considered for sewer extension, the remaining candidates for advanced, on-site treatment’ … what we are already doing,” said Hoffer.
Having distributed packets to the board with information from Weston & Sampson’s study, Hoffer called Nichols’ report “a generally accepted engineering project” and cited major septic as 85% the cause of Nitrogen in Marion’s harbor.
Hoffer addressed Johnson’s question as to why things didn’t get better with the sewer extension when, Hoffer contended, that it did improve. He cited information in the Weston & Sampson report that stated that the amount of Nitrogen entering the harbor decreased after the sewer extension project of 2006 and 2007.
Hoffer told the board that he looked at several different areas where Nitrogen comes from, and while a Wareham study said Nitrogen was found on farms and golf courses, it also identified wastewater as the primary source.
“To me there’s no question that septic systems are the culprit,” said Hoffer. “We are not going to be able to just pretend that (the new bylaw) doesn’t work. The state is breathing down our necks, and if anything … we’re going to have to get a little more rigorous in the years to come – but not until pushed.”
Hoffer contended that homeowners with septic systems “have a bargain.” He stated that a connection to the town sewer system costs over $11,000 for a three-bedroom house. Hoffer said his house, which serves two people, costs $1,750 per year in sewer fees, and he considers his usage “minimal” because the water being used outside the house is coming entirely from wells.
“So people who can pay electric bills and monitoring are getting off a lot easier than people on sewer,” he said. “I rest my case. I’m open to rebuttals, but I think that there’s no question that Nitrogen’s a problem, Nitrogen is mostly from septic systems, and sooner or later we’re going to be pushed into everybody who isn’t on town sewer is going to have to upgrade.”
Johnson believes that the bylaw hinged its report on a faulty narrative regarding Nitrogen around the town’s Wastewater Treatment Plant at Benson Brook.
“I’ll have to go over this, but my only response at this point in time is the same as the answer Karen Walega gave,” said Johnson, recommending the town put off denitrification upgrades until the state makes them mandatory. “One of the reasons I got into this before was watching these groups do their studies. None of these studies are groundwater studies, they’re all … non-point-source, pollution resource studies. All the groundwater studies that we’ve had done, especially around the sewer-treatment plant, didn’t come up with anything.”
Hoffer referenced a discussion with Christine Leblanc from East Coast Engineering and noted it would cost the board, including travel, over $500 to host Leblanc for discussion at a Board of Health meeting. Hoffer reported from his exchange with Leblance that the four test wells around the station have “absolutely nothing” to do with the septic situation in Marion.
Johnson held to his opinion.
“We’re at the tail end of the water table, and it’s coming from Rochester, Lakeville, what have you,” said Johnson, who argued that one of the reasons the state did not attempt to enforce denitrification septic upgrades as it has on Cape Cod is because “they’re pushing a product that sounds good at the top, but they haven’t provided any backfill as far as maintenance and upkeep and monitoring for this.”
Johnson compared the situation to electric vehicles. “They’re going to take out all the (gas-powered) cars and make you buy an electric car, and you’ve got no place to fill it up,” he said. “The government giveth and the government taketh away.”
Seeing the opposing arguments exhausted, Dr. John Howard spoke.
“It’s two against one. You’re in the minority; you’re in a loyal minority,” he told Johnson.
Howard said he had his Title 5 system pumped out at the cost of $300 and concluded, “I’m running a sewer-treatment plant at a low cost, let’s put it that way.”
Johnson and Hoffer agreed to continue the situation, but the board emerged from the meat of the discussion with two members in favor of keeping the denitrification bylaw authored by former board member Dot Brown in place.
Brown issued her resignation last year after Hoffer and Howard voted to grant a homeowner a variance from the bylaw based on its upland location.
Johnson is a founding member of the board.
The next meeting of the Marion Board of Health is scheduled for Thursday, January 11, at 4:30 pm in the conference room at the Town House annex building accessible from Main Street.
Marion Board of Health
By Mick Colageo