Opinion: Marion’s $9.5 million burden going unnoticed by state

To the Editor:

Most residents are aware that our Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) is undergoing what was an estimated $8,000,000, now potentially $9,500,000, of upgrades as a result of a consent order signed with the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection and the settlement of a lawsuit with the Buzzards Bay Coalition.

Marion has approximately 20 acres of lagoons at Benson Brook, two five-acre lagoons and one 10-acre lagoon. They are used to hold treated waste and, at times, untreated waste when there are surges due to major rain events that are beyond the WWTP capacity, or when maintenance shuts down the WWTP.

The EPA, DEP, and Buzzards Bay Coalition claimed that waste water from the lagoons was leaching into the ground water and traveling to Sippican Harbor and Aucoot Cove to become a major source of nitrogen pollution. We disagreed with that premise at the time.

The terms of the consent order require the town to clean out and line five-acre lagoon #1, to clean out and go dry with five-acre lagoon #2, and to pond (the lagoon going dormant) 10-acre lagoon #3. The goal is to optimize the use of lagoon #1 and to use lagoon #2 only infrequently if lagoon #1 hits its capacity limits. By lining and optimizing the use of lagoon #1, the consensus was it would remove a potential source of infiltration into the ground water.

Our contractor now is at the point of removing the sludge at the bottom of lagoon #1 which has built up in the 50 years of its use. This is an expensive process because it is treated as hazardous material. Our contract was based on the need to remove an estimated 350 tons of sludge. Based on the work to date, it now is estimated that there may be 800 to 1,000 tons of sludge. The sludge in the bottom of lagoon # 1 is almost two feet thick, most with a consistency of peanut butter and the very bottom is solid.

This has two implications. First, removing this additional sludge will cost Marion an estimated $1.5 million, pushing the cost of the project to $9.5 million and forcing the town to borrow more money. Our Department of Public Works Superintendent is trying to develop options to mitigate this cost.

Second, you don't have to be a scientist or engineer to conclude that the odds that waste water was making its way through almost two feet of hard sludge (and the hard pan underneath) to pollute the harbor or Aucoot Cove is slim to none. It suggests maybe the whole project was unnecessary.