Select Board appoints student to Wastewater Study Committee as panel advances site and financing review

The Town of Southborough Select Board on Tuesday appointed Joseph "Joey" Truman, a civil engineering student at UMass and recipient of a Southborough scholarship, to the town's Wastewater Study Committee and received an update on early site-identification and financing work.

The board voted to appoint Truman for a term to expire June 30, 2026. Chair Al told Truman he must be sworn in at the Town Clerk's office before formally serving and noted the committee has meetings scheduled soon, including one with state representatives.

Select Board members and committee volunteers described the committee's immediate priorities as identifying potential locations for a small wastewater treatment plant and disposal areas, pursuing state grant support for site assessment and meeting with state agencies to explore financing. Committee members said it will likely need between 1.5 and 3 acres for a treatment plant and an additional 5 to 15 acres for effluent disposal or irrigation, depending on the technology chosen.

The committee has applied for a one-stop grant of $400,000 to support site assessment; the grant would be 75% state-funded with a 25% town match, staff said. The board also reported outreach to state Senator Jamie Eldridge to set up discussions with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the Clean Water Trust to better understand funding and connection options.

Committee volunteers said they have not abandoned the option of connecting to MWRA but are also planning for a local system if a regional connection proves impractical. Select Board member Al said a special financing mechanism called a District Improvement Financing (DIF) overlay could be established and that new growth within an overlay district could be used to seed payments toward system costs.

Members discussed several town-owned properties as preliminary candidate sites: a portion of the municipal golf course (where conservation restrictions and deed language will need legal review), a parcel adjacent to the DPW facility near the recycling area that could be reconfigured to hold a small plant, and a strip of land between lanes of I-495 that might offer substantial buffer from residences but would require coordination with MassDOT and pumping costs because of elevation.

Committee members stressed that a wastewater treatment plant produces odors and that siting the plant advantageously requires buffer distances or mitigation measures. The board said legal and technical questions remain about conservation restrictions and whether treated effluent irrigation or disposal on certain parcels would be allowed.

The board directed staff to continue the grant application and to set up meetings with state agencies to explore financing and connection options. Al said establishing an overlay district could be a multi-step process but could start before a system is built to capture new-growth revenue.

Ending: The Wastewater Study Committee begins technical site assessments and funding discussions; the board appointed Truman and asked staff to report back on grant status and next steps.