Falmouth seeks DEP modification to raise treated discharge while pursuing outfall; environmental groups urge offsets and monitoring

Amy Lowell, Wastewater Superintendent for the Town of Falmouth, updated the Water Quality Management Committee on the town’s application to modify its groundwater discharge permit to accept additional treated wastewater flow for the Great Pond Phase 1 sewer project.

Lowell told the committee that the town has an existing groundwater discharge permit and "we are proposing to discharge an additional 200,000 gallons per day of flow from the Great Pond Phase 1 Sewer Project, to the existing open sand beds 14 and 15. Those beds have the capacity to handle that additional flow within their existing footprint." She emphasized the application proposes increased flow to existing disposal beds without expanding their physical footprint and that the application follows a hydrogeologic report and subsequent modeling requested by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The DEP has requested additional modeling of groundwater mounding and potential wetland interactions since the Maui court decision on groundwater discharge and wetlands protections…