Millis faces sewer, staffing and PFAS costs as DPW urges two new general‑fund hires

The Town of Millis Department of Public Works told the Finance Committee on March 12 that three separate budget pressures — sewer capacity limits under a new MassDEP permitting approach, construction of a PFAS treatment plant, and persistent cost transfers from enterprise funds into the general fund — are driving a request to reallocate labor costs and add staff.

At the meeting Jim McKay, speaking for the DPW, said Millis has secured grant and below‑interest loan funding for a new PFAS treatment plant at Well No. 3, but the project — a roughly $7.1 million capital program — and the town’s sewer permitting status will keep pressure on operating budgets. McKay said the town has applied for and expects an EPA grant of about $3.5 million, a MassDEP SRF loan of about $3.6 million and a recent $100,000 state appropriation for construction; construction work was scheduled to start the week after the committee meeting.

Why it matters: DPW officials said the town’s sewer discharge permit situation has become a direct constraint on future development and on operating costs. Millis must now file its own sewer permit with MassDEP rather than rely on the Charles River Pollution Control District’s consolidated filing, McKay said; the new permit requires the…