Select Board approves wastewater flow limits to secure SRF funding

The Dennis Select Board voted to approve a wastewater flow‑management document that staff said is required to secure favorable SRF financing for the town’s wastewater project.

Chair opened the discussion by saying the board is approving a short land‑use white paper that sets allowable wastewater flow rates used to demonstrate compliance with state requirements and to qualify for SRF funding. He read the rounded flow allocations the board approved for the plan: Bass River 49,000 gallons per day; Chase Garden Creek 5,000 gpd; direct discharge 260,000 gpd; Herring River 43,000 gpd; Susewert Harbor 2,000 gpd; Swan River 900,000 gpd; total roughly 2,000,000 gpd. The chair said adopting the flow plan now preserves a funding advantage that could save the town on borrowing costs tied to SRF rates.

Mike Batten, Public Works, told the board the regulation ‘‘is codifying the goals and conclusions from the comprehensive wastewater master plan’’ and is the final local step required before submission to DEP and other state reviewers. Batten said the technical slides shown during earlier presentations contain projected growth scenarios prepared by a prior planner and are illustrative only: ‘‘Those percentages and those numbers, those are not part of these regulations at all,’’ he said, adding the point was to show how gallons‑per‑day thresholds would be set.

Residents pressed the board for clearer outreach after one attendee said a 960‑page plan suggested some parts of town would ‘‘never get sewer.’’ The chair and staff repeatedly distinguished between the codified flow limits being adopted tonight and separate land‑use or growth projections shown on presentation slides. The board also discussed how the water district’s capacity and a new groundwater discharge permit from DEP factor into future limits.

The board moved and approved the flow‑management plan by voice vote; staff said the local action will advance the town’s SRF application and is intended to help the town meet a state‑required reduction target. Several officials and residents asked for continued public briefings and an opportunity to revisit population and occupancy projections later in the planning process.

Next steps as described at the meeting include submission of the locally adopted controls to DEP for further review and coordination with the water district on future flow measurements. Staff cautioned that the flow figures are rounded estimates and described them as plus‑or‑minus values provided to demonstrate compliance for funding purposes.