Campsites, new apartments, Wareham plant upgrade: Bourne's 2024 sewer costs are coming

BUZZARDS BAY – Bourne will carry into the new year challenges to the municipal sewer system's operations and finances as the no longer one-man sewer division evolves with more employees and new leadership.

Officials have touted sewers and expedited permits for projects in the town’s designated growth-incentive zone as Main Street economic engines, but finances, bills to be paid and the need for policies governing wider sewer department spending continue to command attention.

Bourne, for starters, owes Wareham $7 million as its share of a recent $36 million upgrade of the neighboring town’s Agawam River sewage treatment plant.

Sewer commissioners have not yet addressed payment options, one being that the entire town pays the $7 million, not just the 1,000 Buzzards Bay waste-system rate payers.

“The (system) users alone can’t be expected to pay for that Wareham work,” commission member Peter Meier said in early December. “The waste is shipped to Wareham from Buzzards Bay, but the overall issue involves the town’s best long-term interest.”

The Bourne-Wareham sewer connection is part of an inter-municipal agreement promulgated by state environmental officials in the mid-1980s, partly to clean up Buttermilk Bay. But the Wareham connection is being scrutinized.

Meier says Wareham is closely monitoring new residential development, especially if cranberry companies opt to develop housing on upland surrounding bogs. That, he says, could mean expanding the Wareham treatment plant and thus add to Bourne’s shared costs.

“It’s issues like that … that prompted me to speak out about the possibility of Bourne building its own treatment plant that would cover our current (daily) waste allocation to Wareham,” Meier said. “We could conceivably tie in (Bourne) Scenic Park and possibly MassMaritime (Academy) as customers.”

New treatment plant needs new electronics

Commissioners are also considering an electronic re-ordering of the treatment plant off the Buzzards Bay Bypass, which shuts down occasionally without warning. Troubleshooting determined electronic equipment was outdated upon delivery and installed nonetheless.

There has been no decision about who will pay to replace the faulty parts. It might be the town or Kubota the parts manufacturer. Town Administrator Marlene McCollem on Dec. 19 said the sewer budget includes $90,000 for replacement parts. Or, she added, parts may be funded via capital spending.

The facility was constructed to help attract major new business beyond the pit-stop variety along Main Street, which did not occur; partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plant was touted as an overall economic game-changer. But it needs customers to function at operational capacity. The new 100-unit Calamar Apartments will help on that front.

Scenic Park sewer tie-in, waste allocation approved

The Bourne Recreation Authority’s Scenic Park along the canal on federally owned land, meanwhile, has secured sewer commission approval to tie 91 camping sites west of the Bourne Bridge to the village waste system.

The sewer board on Dec. 19 also approved an 8,900 gallons-per-day waste allocation for months when the park operates.

The authority has updated the local Corps of Engineers office about its capital project.

“They’ve been aware of our efforts,” authority General Manager Barry Johnson noted in December. “The connection point is within the sewer district. The next step is to discuss the village tie-in at 370 Main St. with the Corps Real Estate office in Concord to review what they require.”

Sewer enterprise fund needs policy benchmarks

The sewer board, meanwhile, is considering ways to set aside $174,000 to maintain the village system, which has had pipes in the ground for nearly four decades, and avoid transmission system distress.

Board member Mary Jane Mastrangelo said on Dec. 19 the system, carried in enterprise fund accounting separate from the town budget, now has enough users to actively consider “set-aside revenue. We’d want to do maintenance sooner rather than later,” she said.

The Queen Sewell treatment plant is now operated by a sub-contractor. When the town might assume that role, McCollem said, remains “a huge discussion in the future. My recommendation today is to stay with the contract operator.”

Sewer Chair Jared MacDonald on Dec. 19 said the sewer enterprise fund needs an overall policy that would set guidelines for using retained earnings, capital spending, a minimum amount of reserves to be maintained, a working total for replacement parts to be kept on hand, ways to supplement annual usage rates and creating a capital stabilization account.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Is a sewage treatment plant in Bourne's future?