Overflow crowd nixes septic system hearing
By ANIKA CLARK
aclark@s-t.com
October 20, 2011 12:00 AM

WAREHAM — Hundreds of people flocked to a public hearing on proposed nitrogen regulations Wednesday, leading to the Board of Health meeting's indefinite postponement.

"We clearly have a capacity problem here," Town Counsel Jason Talerman told the crowd, which filled the bottom and upper levels of the Town Hall's second-floor auditorium and spilled out the doors. "We just don't think it's fair to the public and we don't think it's safe to hold a hearing tonight."

On the agenda were proposed regulations developed to "protect and restore the coastal water quality" in town by limiting nitrogen pollution from wastewater.

A draft provided at the meeting said rules would apply to new construction and also to septic systems that don't fully comply with, or would require an upgrade under, the state's environmental code. But Robert Brady, an associate Board of Health member, told The Standard-Times "the plan is to keep it simply new construction at this point."

New construction is defined as a new building requiring an occupancy permit or an action that would increase the "actual or design flow" to any existing or nonconforming septic system. But the draft lists some possibilities for waivers, including if "strict compliance" might cause an "unreasonable economic hardship" to the owner of an owner-occupied, single-family house or if the Board of Health can't find any "reasonable system designs" that would make compliance possible.

Many of the people who turned out Wednesday likely received a postcard in the mail that referenced the meeting, stating a property owner "will have to install costly alternative septic systems" and saying the "cost to upgrade your septic will now be $40,000."

The postcard lists JC Engineering Inc. as the contact, although no one could be immediately reached on the listed contact number Wednesday night.

It's "fair for an engineering firm to say that there will be some potential impacts on some homes," Talerman said. But "I think that there is some misleading information."

The statement that property owners necessarily will need to make the repairs isn't true, he said, in part because of the potential to receive a waiver. And while the postcard quotes a $40,000 upgrade cost, Talerman said, "on average it should be far less."

Regardless, the Board of Health sat before a steaming and noisy crowd, which clamored for the meeting to start and launched into a chorus of boos at the prospect of its postponement. The rescheduled meeting will be held in the high school auditorium sometime in coming weeks, according to Talerman, who said the Fire Department was uncomfortable with the size of the crowd and said it would have prohibited everyone from being able to hear and be heard.