By Beth David, Editor
Woodard and Curran has completed Phase II of the inflow/infiltration study on Acushnet’s water and sewer lines. The Selectboard heard from W&C’s Carol Harris at its meeting on 1/8/19.
The I/I study identifies how much and where the town’s water and sewer system is being infiltrated by ground water. The infiltration of ground water from rain and sump pumps costs the town money if the additional water goes through the sewer system; and pollutes local waterways and marshes if the pipes are draining into local waters.
Acushnet buys its water from New Bedford and has its sewer treated in New Bedford, so the less that goes in, the lower the costs to the town.
Ms. Harris told the board that Phase I was completed in 2016, and consisted of an assessment of the sewer system and further inspection of specific areas, including flow isolation, access hole inspections and inspections using cameras (CCTV). Phase one assessed the flow in all 43,332 linear feet (LF) of sewer pipe; inspected with CCTV 10,068 LF of pipe; inspection of 34 of the 220 access holes.
Phase II, completed in 2018, included inspection of 49 access holes; another 8,202 of CCTV inspection of pipe.
Both phases of the study found a variety of defects that were corrected, saving the tow approximately $23,600 for a six month period.
Future investigations will include identifying and reducing I/I and reducing operating costs; and inspecting an additional 8,500 LF of pipe and 45-50 access holes per year.
Department of Public Works Director Dan Menard told the board that the town still had a problem with residents pumping water from basements into the catch basins on the street.
Ms. Harris said that Mr. Menard had been very productive in fixing the problems that the studies found in the system. There is still significant work to do.
Selectboard member Roger Cabral asked why the town could not allow residents to tie into a sewer main that runs to the schools. He said that when he was on the building committee, they decided to make sure the line could accommodate the extra homes tying in, but now he was being told that it was not possible.
Mr. Menard and another representative from W&C told Mr. Cabral that the problem was the kind of pumps that each home would require. They said the line could not handle it.
Another option would be to replace the town’s pumping station in that area so residents could use traditional pumps.
The board and W&C representative discussed a variety of options.
Mr. Cabral asked if they could tie in at least some of the homes.
Some homes might be able to tie in with a gravity system, some might be able to use traditional pumps.
The board asked W&C to evaluate the line and the homes and advise them on the possibilities to try to give homeowners a chance to tie in.
•••
Support local journalism, donate to the Neighb News at: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=Y6V5ARRYH689G
Click here to download the entire 1/17/19 issue: 01-17-19 LadderTruck
