Chatham, Brewster Earn Wastewater Planning Grants

Brewster and Chatham are among eight Cape Cod towns receiving state water quality grants designed to boost wastewater planning efforts. Each town received just over $133,000 in Natural Resource Nitrogen Sensitive Area grant funds from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection last month.

 The grant program aims to help towns reduce nitrogen pollution, chiefly from wastewater, which harms coastal waterways. State officials created the grant program to help towns comply with the state’s updated Title 5 and watershed permitting regulations, which took effect in 2023. Under the rules, 31 watersheds on Cape Cod were designed as nitrogen sensitive areas.

 In Chatham, the $133,500 will be used to support the ongoing wastewater management plan, helping pay for consultant support with the Pleasant Bay watershed permit and supporting data, and for fine-tuning nitrogen loading and wastewater flow analyses to keep the wastewater plan on track. The funds will also support community update meetings and updated scheduling, phasing and cost estimates for future work on the plan, Natural Resources Director Greg Berman said. 

 While the whole wastewater plan costs hundreds of millions of dollars over decades, the grant is still significant because it supports efficient planning, cost management and regulatory compliance, he said. 

 “It helps ensure that the town is using the best available data to guide decisions, maintain compliance with MassDEP’s permitting requirements, and engage the community on this significant infrastructure effort,” Berman said. “Every grant the town secures helps reduce the direct financial burden on taxpayers while advancing Chatham’s long-term goal of reducing nitrogen pollution and protecting its coastal and freshwater resources.”

 While Brewster shares the Pleasant Bay watershed with Orleans, Harwich and Chatham, the town’s grant of $133,605 will focus on the Herring River watershed, shared mostly with Harwich. The grant focuses on studying the best ways of reducing the nitrogen entering that waterway from properties in Brewster.

 “That includes analysis of wastewater feasibility for the Pond Property for the Sea Camps and a whole next round of analysis around our solutions and obligations in the Herring River watershed,” Town Manager Peter Lombardi told the select board recently. In this part of Brewster, the town is responsible only for removing nitrogen from new development after 2004, as well as the estimated 35 remaining buildable lots in the area, including the planned housing development at the Sea Camps Pond Property.

 Meeting that target likely will require a neighborhood sewer system to be built on the Pond Property, but could also include the restoration of a cranberry bog at Hinckley’s Pond, a small number of individual septic system upgrades, or a nitrogen “trade” with Harwich.

 Lombardi said he’s pleased that the town received the grant and said the planning effort is underway.

 “It’s a quick turn-around. They have to complete their work by the end of June,” he said. June 30 is the end of the grant award period.

In a news release announcing the grants, Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper said the goal is to help communities find practical solutions to their wastewater challenges.

 “Clean water is essential for public health, our coastal economy, and the natural beauty that defines Cape Cod,” she said. “This funding will help communities take meaningful action to address nitrogen pollution while promoting long-term environmental health.”

 “The health of Cape Cod’s waters is directly tied to the well-being of its residents, its economy, and its unique environmental heritage,” MassDEP Commissioner Bonnie Heiple added.

 Also receiving grants as part of the $825,000 program were Barnstable, Dennis, Falmouth, Mashpee, Wellfleet and Yarmouth.