EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (Without Figures) rev - Town of Falmouth

As with any treatment system applied to many individual properties, if the technology was
applied at every property in the planning area, there would be significant monitoring and
operational requirements and significant uncertainty of its true performance (daily composite
monitoring of these systems would be impractical). If the technology did not perform well, or if
additional pollutants needed to be removed in the future (phosphorus, pharmaceuticals, organic
carbon, or more nitrogen), there would be a great expense to modify the systems or replace them
with a conventional sewer. Also, these systems do not perform well at houses with seasonal use
because they rely on a biological process that must be maintained year-round. They would not
perform well if they were “started up” in June as summer residents or renters occupy their houses
for just a few months in the year.
Due to this drawback, proponents of this technology propose creating cluster/decentralized
WWTF in the planning area. If these systems were sized at flows of 15,000 gallons per day,
approximately 120 WWTF would need to be sited, operated, and maintained to handle the
projected 1.8 million gallons per day wastewater flow from the southern portion of the Planning
Area (the peninsulas south of Route 28). Most people do not want to have a WWTF in their
neighborhood, especially in such a densely developed area, and the success of siting this many
WWTF is very unlikely. Scaling up the flow to allow one WWTF for each peninsula (at 360,000
gallons per day each) would require siting a large WWTF in the vicinity of each of these densely
developed peninsulas, which would be extraordinarily difficult. Also, operation and maintenance
of this number of WWTF would be illogical and expensive for the Town Wastewater
Department. These are the reasons why the Nitrex® system and other I/A systems were not
recommended for more detailed evaluation.
ES.5 SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED PLAN
The recommended plan is a comprehensive strategy for wastewater and nitrogen management for
a 20-year period with a 40-year perspective on the ultimate build-out for the Town and the need
to meet the nitrogen TMDLs in cooperation with the neighboring towns that share these
watersheds. The 20-year period is 2015 to 2035, which is the estimated time period for
implementation of sewer extensions to the Phase 1 and 2 Areas (south of Route 28). The nonwastewater
nitrogen management solutions are also recommended for implementation during
Town of Falmouth, MA ES-22
Draft Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan and
Draft Environmental Impact Report
7104510.6