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02/19/2019 11:00 PMOld Saybrook, having updated roughly 1,100 septic systems over the Decentralized Wastewater Management Project’s two phases, has ended construction on Phase 2, and now finds itself facing the project’s most challenging problem from a familiar place: in talks with the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) to determine how to proceed from here.
The Decentralized Wastewater Management Project was undertaken to meet the state’s mandate to clean up widespread septic insufficiencies in several neighborhoods. Through the project, the town acts as designer and contractor to complete septic system replacements for residents, with whom it shares costs.
The official ending date of Phase 2 was Dec. 31, 2018. While construction has been completed, work remains; remediation projects addressing residents’ lawns and other issues resulting from the construction work are planned for the spring.
In addition, 66 septic systems are holdouts: for various reasons, these properties were not able to be upgraded with conventional septic systems. They remain on hold until the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) and DEEP can determine the best option for them as well as properties in the five most sensitive areas in the Wastewater Management District (WWMD): Plum Bank, Great Hammock Beach, Saybrook Manor, Indiantown, and Chalker Beach, which were saved for the end of the project.
More than a year ago, the town hired the engineering firm Wright-Pierce to study options for addressing these five areas, all of which abut Long Island Sound. The firm’s draft study is now being reviewed by DEEP.
The study looks at three options, said Stephen Mongillo, the WWMD program manager.
“What would be the cost of continuing with on-site upgrades? So that’s one option,” Mongillo explained. “The other thing to look at is what if we put in a community system and disperse the water into the ground? What would be the cost of that? And the third option is a community system where we pipe it to surface water—discharge to the river, for instance.”
The study “looks at the relative cost and issues for those three things,” Mongillo continued. “Because those were ideas that were floated initially, but everybody had questions about whether they were cost effective, whether they were environmentally solid.”
The parties will meet in the near future to hammer out the options. But it won’t be simple.
The Challenges Ahead
Waterfront properties present tremendous challenges. These are particularly low-lying areas, prone to flooding from storms and extreme tides. In many cases, the water table is very high, making it difficult, if not impossible, to install subsurface septic systems without contaminating groundwater. Houses tend to be situated close to each other, reducing available land for leaching fields.
These factors make conventional septic systems unsuitable.
Advanced treatment (AT) septic systems have been thought to be an option for these properties, but they present a different set of challenges. AT systems tend to be costly, relying on more expensive and delicate equipment than a traditional system.
“It’s having kind of like a miniature wastewater treatment facility on your property,” said Carlos Esguerra, a DEEP sanitarian engineer who has been working closely with the town.
“Sea level rise is a major factor,” especially in these areas, said Mongillo. A major risk is “water coming up into expensive mechanical systems.”
DEEP has authorized AT systems for larger developments, such as condominiums, Esguerra said, but “we have no regulatory process right now for authorizing AT units for individual homes.”
Before his involvement in the project, DEEP “tried to work with the town, tried to delegate to the town authority to regulate the AT unit,” Esguerra said.
This would mean that after installing the system, the town would take on the responsibility of monitoring and testing the wastewater to ensure that nitrogen and bacteria were within the allowable limits.
Esguerra’s understanding is that “we couldn’t reach agreement to monitor the system…That was the sticking point.”
The town, for its part, is feeling stuck.
“We’re at a point where we have a court order that says you have to do advance treatment and yet there’s nothing approved,” said Mongillo. “So we’re in talks with [DEEP] to determine what our options are.”
DEEP says it’s more than willing to work with the town, but the situation is complicated and requires careful planning. As for the 66 remaining properties, Esguerra said, “those are waterfront lots. Right now the fact that they are water-proximity lots [means] they would have to have an AT system which we cannot authorize. The town actually requested DEEP to allow them to update those lots with a conventional septic system. Our response to that request was yes, we can definitely work with the town to come up with a way that we can address those outlying lots with conventional methods.
“However,” he continued, “we need to have a plan for the five remaining areas. That has to be sort of like concurrent, or we would have to agree with the town as to how we are going to address wastewater management needs within the five areas.”
The town has proposed upgrading the 66 lots and figuring out the remaining areas in the future, Esguerra said, adding, “That’s not really acceptable for the state…Those five remaining areas, which are the most difficult areas within the district, are from an environmental point of view the ones that are having the greatest impact. These areas are really low lying, they have septic systems that are right now leaching in groundwater. You have bacteria loadings, you have high nitrogen loadings, and for us to kick the can down the road is not an acceptable outcome.”
The five remaining areas are especially flood prone, Esguerra said.
“During a high tide, you can actually see the catch basins with water up to the top. These are areas that, during storms, they flood. So the town did a cost-effect analysis for continuing the current program: waterfront lots that are in areas that are vulnerable to flooding and sea level rise. And they did the assessment. And this is all captured in the draft report we currently have,” he continued, referring to the Wright-Pierce report.
“It’s really not in the town’s best interest at this point from a cost-effective point of view to continue pursuing the AT option for those five remaining areas,” Esgueera said. “Essentially you would have a miniature wastewater treatment plant at your property with sensitive equipment, with electrical components, and you’re in an area that is prone to flooding. The long-term concern with that type of system is you invest a pretty significant amount of money to get those systems in the ground, but based on sea level rise projections—30, 40, 50 years down the road—it is very likely that those areas are going to be more impacted by climate change impacts—sea level rise and those concerns.”
The upgrades to homeowners’ septic systems in the WWMD have been heavily subsidized.
“The state is providing right now a 25 percent grant...and the town is providing a 25 percent subsidy to those homeowners,” Esguerra said, “so it’s really not cost effective to be putting this kind of money in areas that are going to be affected by flood waters more frequently.
“We’re trying to steer away from the AT systems because of that reason,” he said. “It’s 740 homes that are currently within the most vulnerable areas in Old Saybrook.”
“That’s part of the point of this report is to find those solutions,” DEEP Communications Director Chris Collibee said. DEEP “will work with the town, the homeowners, to find the best solution. We understand the frustration but we also have to be cognizant of making sure that this is done in the best possible manner, not just for today, but for the future as well. We don’t want homeowners to have to go through this again in another 10, 20, 30 years. I know it seems slow, but we have to move with due diligence to make sure that this is done properly.”
Once the Quinn-Pierce report is finalized, it will go back to the WPCA. If approved, the report will be referred to the BOS and released to the public, Mongillo said.