The Town of Plymouth has engaged consultant Weston & Sampson to develop a Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan (CWMP) that will gradually begin providing sewers where they are most needed. It has also appointed a Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) to ensure the consultant has the best up-to-date information about Plymouth and to help its residents to understand the need for sanitary sewers and the process to do so.
While the need for safe, healthy waste disposal is obvious, there are other factors involved that suggest Plymouth needs to accelerate the availability of sewage treatment for its residents. I am one of the 5 appointees to the CAC, but I am also involved with the Herring Ponds Watershed Association and its quest to promote water quality.
To understand the positive effect sanitary sewers also have on water quality, we must first understand the nature and source of Plymouth’s freshwater. The second largest sole source aquifer in Massachusetts, the Plymouth-Carver Sole Source Aquifer, covers 140 square miles under Plymouth and the towns of Carver, Kingston, Wareham, Plympton, Middleborough, and Bourne. The aquifer contains over 500 billion gallons of water, and serves as a critical water source for residential, commercial, and agricultural uses in the area.
Most important, this aquifer is interconnected with groundwater and rainwater (by which it is recharged) to with most of Plymouth’s 400 freshwater ponds. Pollutants are freely interchanged among water types. If we pollute one, the others will eventually become polluted leading to toxic cyanobacteria blooms in our ponds that lead to reduced pond usage and lower property values.
There are more serious consequences if we consider what will happen if the aquifer itself is polluted. It is the source of our drinking water. It would be considered polluted if it contained only 6 parts per trillion of PFAs, the “forever chemicals.” The cost of drilling through bedrock to find the next, much deeper source will be prohibitive. Consider that it costs Plymouth millions of dollars to drill a well in the readily available aquifer.
It will be expensive to sewer the homes needed in Plymouth. We hope to join to find the best way to make this happen. Grants and low-interest loans will help. Staggering hookups will help and will allow Plymouth to plan to amass some of the needed funds.
We are fortunate in Plymouth to have our 400 ponds. We need to be responsible in protecting them and our drinking water beneath them. Imagine life without clean water.
– Don Williams
Williams is a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee