The Rochester Board of Health on December 7 reviewed a draft letter that will request “slowing down” the implementation of proposed new and potentially expensive state septic-system installation regulations.
Town Health Director Karen Walega said the Department of Environmental Protection is proposing to require nitrogen-reduction systems for even existing septic systems. This new regulation, she said, would require costly system upgrades or require the town to apply for a Watershed Area designation permit.
The latter would give the town 20 years to see where the water-polluting nitrogen is coming from, she said. This complicated, equally expensive process would have to succeed at reducing the pollutant.
Otherwise, even the elderly and homeowners on fixed incomes would have to pay up to $50,000 above their other septic-system costs for a new mechanical system including denitrification technology. And that does not include the electricity to run the new fan-based systems, roughly $70 to $80 per month.
The new system has only gotten “provisional” approval from the DEP, Walega said. Yet the DEP is speeding through the new regulation’s approval process; the current implementation target date is January 3, 2023.
The town, explained Walega, needs to request the state slow down with that process until more information can be gathered. “We need to all sit down with the DEP,” she said. “We need to slow this down and everyone have a seat at the table to discuss this.”
Board of Health Chairman David Souza and the other members agreed to have a final draft of its letter to the state ready to be sent by early this week. “There are other systems like it that don’t cost as much and might work more efficiently,” Souza said. “We’ve got to slow them down.”
Walega noted that while the south coast is being targeted in Phase One of the state’s plan, “This is a state-wide problem,” she said. A Conservation Law Foundation lawsuit regarding high nitrogen pollution in the state’s groundwater is a main reason for this action, she added. “But towns have been called to the table for their input. … Rochester has 2,900 homes. How will we finance that many homeowners? Financially, people just can’t do it.”
“I’m all for protecting the environment,” Souza said. “But we have to use common sense.”
Elsewhere on the December 7 agenda, the Board of Health approved a percolation-rate variance to allow the building of a home and farmstand at the 58.5-acre Elliot Farm on Marion Road.
Souza said the soil there is in “beautiful” condition but will need a lot of fill because it is not too far from land that is wet. He and fellow board members said they were very much in favor of seeing this property developed as planned.
Also, the board approved the $6,800 recycling/landfill contract with Tighe and Bond for next year.
The next meeting of the Rochester Board of Health is scheduled for Wednesday, January 4, 2023, at 4:00 pm in the Town Hall Meeting Room, 1 Constitution Way, Rochester.
Rochester Board of Health
By Michael J. DeCicco