NEWS

MAHACKENO SEPTIC SYSTEM QUESTIONED

By Meg Learson Grosso
Staff Writer
Printed in the The Minuteman

According to a letter sent to Alicia Mozian, Director of Westport's Conservation Department, from Antoanela Daha, a DEP Sanitary Engineer, the F.A.S.T. technology for the 34,000 gallons per day septic system for the proposed 100,000 square-foot building that the YMCA plans to build on the Saugatuck River is yet to be proven.

The Dec. 7 DEP letter, and accompanying back-up date, says that there are six existing F.A.S.T. systems in Connecticut and of these six, four were never issued operating permits, that they have been operating for years, without one.

The Y has received a permit to build from the DEP. (tentative ruling)

Two of the existing septic systems, one at the Gunnery School and a smaller system at a marina, were given operating permits, but the state is recommending that the Gunnery be issued. "A Notice of Violation" of its permit. The second smaller 10,000 gallon per day system at Between the Bridges marina has seemingly met its requirements for discharge of nitrogen and bacterial matter, but there are two time periods when it reported no data for months at a time and all reporting seems to have stopped last May.

As Daha said in her letter to Mozian, "The other (four) facilities have not been issued permits, for various reasons. The date we have on these systems is unofficial and incomplete since they are under no obligation to submit data".

"They are under no obligation to submit data" is bourne out by the fact that two F.A.S.T. septic systems seem not to have submitted any data on their discharges at all. One is a Wal-Mart in Old Saybrook Plaza and the second facility, called Chestelm, was given a permit to build in January of 2003.

When Bill Hogan, Engineer of Water Pollution Control Facilities at the DEP, was asked how the state DEP could issue a building permit for another F.A.S.T. system (the Westport/Weston YMCA), when the systems that already exist have not been proven to work, he said, "We do not have the staffing resources to do the job that you expect us to do (in checking permit violations)."

"By law, we cannot refuse an applicant a permit, just because we do not have an inspector," Hogan said. He pointed out that the state must monitor 80 large municipal sewage treatments plants, such as Westport's or Norwalk's, and another 20 to 30 more large sewage treatment plants that service factories, or places such as Heritage Village. "How many inspectors for all those? One," Hogan asked and answered.

He said that smaller systems, such as the one that the YMCA is proposing, technically have no inspector.

That, according to Richard Harris, of Harbor Watch/River Watch in Westport, is precisely the problem. "The main thing is the void that exists," said Harris. "One side thinks the other is doing it (monitoring large septic systems). The town thinks the DEP is doing it" and the DEP simply doesn't have the manpower, he said.

Harris told the Minuteman in a phone conversation that the DEP is very good about monitoring chemical spills, oil tanks, and wetlands next to Long Island Sound, "but sewage management is left to the towns and F.A.S.T. systems are on the bottom of the list."

"The DEP seems to have reporting on the honor system. If you want to report, fine, but they can't make you," said Harris.

Harris said that the new town ordinance regarding big Private Onsite Wastewater Disposal systems "doesn't really answer the problem because if there's a problem, you'll have trouble proving it… If you have a fishkill down stream, and if I were the Y, I would say, 'You have to prove it.' The only way to prove it is to have testing every other week of ammonia and nitrogen into Lee's Pond."

"You would have to set up stations upstream of Lee's Pond, and one at Poplar Plains Brook, and one at the dam - at least three or four sites, because weather, storms, cold, hot, all have an impact," said Harris, adding, "For the town to do that, year after year, and keep up that discipline - I don't think so." Harris said that before the Conservation Commission approves the Y's application to build at Mahackeno, Lee's Pond, the area of the Saugatuck River next to the YMCA's proposed facility, should first be analyzed thoroughly to see what the conditions are now. "This is good science," he said. He would like to see analysis done, not three times a year, four or five months apart, as the Y has done, but a bare minimum of 10 to 12 times a year in all seasons, after a thunderstorm, and in all weather.

"We know the pond is under stress just by looking at it," said Harris, who pointed out that it has excessive plant life, or eutrophication, which will cause excess nitrogen when it dies off.

"We know the bacterial levels now and know the bacterial levels are above the state's criteria for a Class B river (one that is fishable and swimmable)," said Harris.

Only when it is proven that the river is capable of taking any more effluent, should the town issue a permit, he added.

Then, Harris added, the town is going to have to appoint someone to go to the Y's septic system (and other large systems that might be built in its wake) and check every two weeks on the results of up to 30 different chemical and nutrient tests.

"It's a big job and I don't see that the town is relishing that idea. It would require budget outlays and expertise, so it's extensive and time-consuming," said Harris.

Harris further pointed out that the effluent from the Mahackeno site would not come out of a single pipe as it does with large municipal treatment plants, making those easy to monitor. Instead, the effluent, discharged into the ground, is invisible, and requires extensive monitoring.

"The town has the ability to step in, but they don't have a system in place to decide when to do so and how to measure when or it to do so."

Harris further noted that if the town allows one such large septic system, then there will be more, because the next applicant will say "You did it for them."

"I think the town should put in a moratorium until we have some proven examples of what works. The direction should come from the state, but I don't see it coming."

What Harris said he found "very strange" was that: "In all the testimony (before the Conservation Commission), I have never seen anyone from F.A.S.T. come down and talk about this… This is obviously a big one for them and I don't understand why they don't defend it."

A representative from F.A.S.T. did go to the DEP hearing in Hartford last fall, which Harris did not attend. However, Harris pointed out, "They certainly have no one at the town level."

At the end of the last Conservation Commission meeting, the Minuteman asked Pete Romano from Land Tech Consultants, the engineering firm hired by the YMCA, why no one from F.A.S.T. appeared in Westport.

The engineer answered that the F.A.S.T. representative simply said he wasn't coming.

F.A.S.T. refers to Fixed-Film Activated Sludge Treatment, a technology sold by Smith & Loveless that uses microbes to turn sewage into sludge.

Harris also noted that the Family Y has said that their septic system will be monitored by "a state-certified wastewater system operator." However, Harris says that the person has yet to be named and was not part of the design process.

A Y supporter said at the last Conservation Commission meeting that the Gunnery School was unable to meet discharge standards because the roof drains were connected to the sewer system, but Harris said to a reporter, "If that's so, why where they not disconnected in the last three years?" The Gunnery's permit was issued in August of 2002, four and a half years ago.

Harris noted that the same supporter said that a shopping center was putting Clorox in the drains, causing another F.A.S.T. system to fail, but "After five years, why? You'd think after five years any conscientious person would see that it's not done."

The extensive and expensive monitoring and maintenance that the F.A.S.T. septic systems would require was addressed by the Westport resident and attorney Candice Savin when she spoke to the Conservation Commission last week.

Savin pointed out that Stearns & Wheler, the engineering firm hired by the town, recommends sampling at least two times per week, as well as frequent cleaning of the septic tank, maintenance of the emergency generator, and maintenance of back-up systems and alarms.

Savin also pointed out that "The Y has not presented the Commission with any kind of a maintenance plan or operating manual. When asked by the Commission to produce such a plan, the Y declined. In fact, Mike Bartos, told the Commission that the Y would not create such an operating manual until after they had received DEP approval."

Savin said that it is impossible for the Commission to fairly evaluate the system without knowing how the Y plans to keep it safe, or even knowing if they can do so.

Savin further noted that one of the keys to maintaining the F.A.S.T. system is to control what goes into it. "That is a tall order to fill," she said, noting that while the Y may be able to control what its employees put into it, "they cannot control their members and random actors."

Savin spoke of the high costs of such a system: routine costs such as laboratory analysis, sludge removal, maintenance, the costs of instruments and alarms, and then extraordinary costs such as as might happen in an emergency. Savin pointed out that the Y as claiming that it could not afford to maintain the downtown plant and that it could not afford the funds asked for in the town ordinance.

"What will happen if the Y overextends itself on this project and needs to cut costs, and the proper maintenance of the F.A.S.T. system is a casualty?" she asked, saying that the Y was not an exemplary custodian of the facilities it now had.

Savin ended by quoting an engineer hire by the town, Gary Duffel, who said, "The best of plans can be ruined by inattention to detail," as she then asked the Commissioners to deny the Y's application.