The Town of Southborough wastewater committee focused on locating a feasible treatment and leaching site and refining financing tools for a sewer/district concept along Route 9. Members reviewed an 11-foot printed Route 9 map and an Al-created spreadsheet of parcels and agreed to expand the dataset and run GIS queries to prioritize parcels that could realistically connect.

Site candidates discussed included EMC/Dell-owned land, an MBTA parcel that previously drew developer interest, Deerfoot Road properties and land described as the Bartolini (Parleini) parcel. One committee member said some EMC/Dell parcels may be negotiable and could include bargaining chips such as road takeovers or easement transfers. The committee emphasized the need for permission to conduct soil/perk testing on candidate parcels as an immediate next step.

Technical sizing: Engineers on the committee shared a scaling example from a nearby Madison Place project: about 1 acre of leaching area supported ~27,900 gpd. Using that example, committee members estimated roughly 10 acres for a 300,000-gpd target under favorable soils; in poorer soils the requirement could rise toward ~30 acres. One member warned, ‘‘you really probably throw out the site’’ if many parcels show low percolation rates.

Financing and process notes: The committee reviewed the state betterment guidance and discussed staging betterment work once a site, system design and timeline are sufficiently developed. Members also noted developer mitigation contributions (cited: an example of $1.7 million in off-site infrastructure from a nearby project) and saw opportunities to combine town funds, potential state grants and developer contributions. The committee agreed to:
- Expand the parcel spreadsheet with parcel numbers, ownership, acreage and estimated development/tax revenue value;
- Run GIS color-coding to identify a priority district (likely focused on commercial/industrial parcels along Route 9 rather than broad residential zones);
- Seek permissions and conduct perk/soil testing on candidate parcels during the near term;
- Track tasks in a OneDrive repository with a read-only public reference to avoid open-meeting law issues.

The committee set the next meeting for Jan. 15 and adjourned after approving minutes and routine closing motions.