Wastewater Treatment Facility at Capacity

While the Scandinavian Athletic Club is not backing the town's proposed construction of a wastewater facility, town officials are still hoping to pursue the project.

"We need to educate the public about the proposed treatment facility because the town has to look into the option of building a supplemental plant in our town," said Daniel Morgado after he announced the SAC would not support the project that could be built on town-owned property off Lake St. at the Board of Selectmen's meeting this week. "Right now we are using the Westboro Wastewater Treatment facility, but it is at capacity, so we need to come up with a viable option for any additional flow."

Morgado said if a commercial developer wants to build in town, then he would have to turn them away, which could mean the loss of taxes from potential businesses.

Since the 1980s, the town has had an inter-municipal agreement with Westboro and during the last 30 years, the flow has increased to 60 percent from Shrewsbury, 35 percent has been from Westboro and 5 percent is from Hopkinton, according to Morgado.

"I've been researching other options for the town, and one of the options would be to build a small wastewater facility on the 60 acres of land off Lake Street near the SAC," said Morgado of the property about a mile south of the Glavin Center on Lake St. "When we bought the land, it was earmarked for recreational use."

He said that if they build on that property, the building would not be visible to residents who use it, and more soccer fields would be constructed, so it would still be used for recreation.

"Wastewater treatment plants like this have been built in other parts of the country, but it is new to Massachusetts," Morgado said. "Some of the SAC's concerns include the possible smell and that most people are familiar with wastewater treatment facilities like the large facility in Worcester on Route 20.  The proposed facility is newer technology, the smell would not be an issue, and it wouldn't be visible to the public."

Morgado said the proposed wastewater treatment facility is more like what is currently at Gillette Stadium and at malls that have been built recently. "The public isn't even aware that there is a wastewater facility in those locations," he said. "So now we will have to educate the public about the project, and hopefully we can move forward soon."

The proposed wastewater treatment facility would handle 300,000 to 400,000 gallons a day of sewage and would put clean water back into the ground.

"It's not a radical idea - it's just new to New England," he said. "This would generate the necessary additional capacity."

The town will pay for the proposed facility through the sewer use fee structure, Morgado said.

The town currently budgeted $3,039,820 to pay to the Westboro Wastewater Treatment Facility for the upcoming fiscal year.

"Each year we appropriate funding for operation and maintenance and capital improvements (which would help fund the proposed project)," Morgado said. "This past year we set aside $4,700,777.00."

Currently, Morgado does not have an estimate on how much the proposed facility would cost. "The project is at the conceptual stage focusing on permitting, technologies and the logistics of finding a suitable site," he said.