Bourne's $9.7 million sewage treatment plant still plagued with problems

BUZZARDS BAY — The Bourne Sewer Commission and its contractors are still struggling to come up with answers about what's wrong with the two-year-old, $9.7 million sewage treatment plant that keeps going offline.

At a Sept. 26 board meeting, engineers for Weston & Sampson, which designed the plant, told the sewer commission that the facility would operate for a few days or just a few hours and then shut down. The firm, along with Kubota, which provided manufactured equipment, is troubleshooting problems this fall.

“We have a problem with an installation that has not worked well since day one,” commission Chair Jared MacDonald told representatives of both firms at the meeting.

“We have to find the root of the problems and figure out how to resolve this. We have some upcoming capital-spending discussions about replacing equipment that was outdated before it was installed.”

Board member Mary Jane Mastrangelo remains troubled about the facility’s equipment.

“Why should we (the town) purchase a duplicate logic system that doesn’t work?” she said. “This is a really serious problem, and I need to have some answers about what the ‘specs’ were.”

Bourne wastewater: New Buzzards Bay sewage plant ready for summer volume

The treatment facility was approved and constructed on the premise it would be a catalyst in part to long-sought Main Street area re-development.

Scenic Park waste tie-in idea may be outside sewer zone

The Army Corps of Engineers has concluded that a long-proposed sewer connection with 91 units at the Bourne Scenic Park campground can be considered an improvement under the terms of Bourne Recreation Authority's long-term lease of the federal land north of the canal.

Authority members and staff on Sept. 13 met with Corps Canal Manager John MacPherson and Canal Park Ranger Joseph Mazzola to discuss applying for a village sewer connection.

McPherson, according to authority Chairman Greg Folino in a Sept. 23 email to Town Administrator Marlene McCollem, said the Corps's review determined the proposal is “consistent with and meets the terms and regulations of the authority’s lease with the federal agency.”

In a Sept. 24 interview, Authority General Manager Barry Johnson said the Corps' determination does not mean Corps approval of a sewer-system connection.

“That has to come from the Corps Real Estate Division in Concord,” he said.

Questions have arisen, however, about whether the tract where a park tie-in to the town sewer system falls within the parameters of a 1984 inter-municipal agreement (IMA) for sewage treatment in Wareham.

Mastrangelo said the village system has enough sewage capacity to accommodate the park sites, but there remains the issue of whether the commission has the authority to grant the sewer link.

“I don’t think we can approve this (request) without making sure we’re not violating some agreement or contract with Wareham based on something in 1984.”

Bourne Sewer Commission cracks down on restaurant

The commission gave Benny Chu, the owner of the Way-Ho restaurant, 300 Main St., Buzzards Bay, until Nov. 15 to fix the restaurant's problems with its grease traps.

Bourne wastewater: Grease clogs, computer glitches and odors test 2-year-old Buzzards Bay sewer system

The commission has been at odds with Chu for a long time.

The restaurant’s food license and operations had been placed at risk following inspections by the town Health Department and Engineering Office.

Representatives of the health, engineering, public works and plumbing offices have been engaged with Way-Ho issues that have been particularly vexing because grease problems could threaten operations at the new village treatment plant,

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MacDonald said 92% of the tract falls outside the 1984 mapping parameters, and the connection issue needs to be “vetted out” with Wareham sewer commissioners, possibly this fall.

MacDonald agrees. “This issue needs clarity in the very near future. We need to understand if this conforms with IMA guidelines,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Bourne's two-year-old sewage treatment plant vexes town officials