Pleasant Bay Alliance Spares Brewster From Sweating New Title 5 Regs

By: Bronwen Walsh

Topics: Wastewater treatment , Brewster , Title V

BREWSTER – The town is 100 percent compliant with its Title 5 nitrogen removal goals set forth in the Pleasant Bay Resource Management Plan.

That was the good news Carole Ridley, Pleasant Bay Alliance coordinator, delivered to a joint hearing of the select board and board of health Monday.

Formed in 1987, the alliance includes the towns of Orleans, Chatham, Harwich and Brewster. The alliance's 2023 report identifies major changes from the targeted watershed management plan.

Pleasant Bay is one of four Brewster watersheds – along with Swan Pond, Bass River and Herring River – impacted by the state's new Title 5 regulations that took effect last month.

In Pleasant Bay, close to 18,000 Kg of nitrogen needs to be removed systemwide, and Brewster represents 13 percent of that overall load removal, Ridley said.

"You've met your five-year target...of the 20-year permit," she said. "So far, Brewster's right on track with what had been proposed in the permit. You are 100-percent on-target."

Big-picture, 4,500 Kg per year are already being removed, or about 28 percent of the way to the 20-year removal goal, Ridley said. "We're very close to being on track to the five-year target."

Issued in 2018, the Pleasant Bay Watershed Permit is a 20-year renewable permit, structured in five-year increments, that sets forth each member town's nitrogen removal responsibilities.

"Brewster is pretty uniquely situated regarding the practical implications of these regulations...due to a lot of forward-thinking folks who came before us," Town Manager Peter Lombardi told the joint hearing.

"Our residents are not going to be forced to upgrade their Title 5 systems based on these new state regulations," Lombardi said. "We are going to be able to decide what that looks like, and how it's applied and when it's applied."

In essence, the town's "land use protection and planning has simplified the work that this town will have to do to comply with these regulations," said Mark Nelson, Horsley Whitten principal and Water Resources Task Force consultant.

The state considers Pleasant Bay as a statewide model for watershed permitting, Nelson said.

"Overall...we're in a good place...where we are able to respond strategically...and leave some bandwidth to meet Brewster's ongoing pond water qualities," said Ned Chatelain, the select board chairman and Brewster's representative on the Water Resources Task Force.

David Bennett, who chairs the board of health, said his committee would be taking on some evaluation of I/A (innovative/alternative) septic system technology and its ability to remove excess nitrogen and phosphorus.

Ridley said the alliance's forthcoming year six report will be "an important milestone."

"By no means is Brewster alone in still having to work through issues," she said. "This is something all the towns are dealing with to one degree or another."

"We are six years into a 20-year permit... and the science is still changing," Lombardi added. "It's important that we take 'adaptive' management strategy. We need to set some expectations. It's going to evolve over time."

Ridley concurred, saying, "There's a growing recognition that traditional 'fallback' is an important part of the (wastewater management) strategy going forward."