The Ogunquit Sewer District has sustained sometimes intense incoming flack from some members of the community over its future plans for a new wastewater treatment plant, but Tuesday night, one of its trustees pushed back in a big way.
Bill Sawyer, the chair of the Sewer District’s board of trustees, responded during a Select Board meeting to a June 27 letter the Roby’s Pond Association had written to selectmen.
He said the board of trustees “takes exception to this letter” because “numerous facts are misrepresented,” and he objected to the letter’s assertion that ”[t]he district almost purchased a totally inappropriate 10-acre parcel of land in the middle of our established neighborhood for a future plant location.”
On the contrary, Sawyer asserted, when the Sewer District became aware the parcel was for sale, it designated the land its No. 1 option on of a list of 15 to 20 properties already identified in 2014 by its engineering firm “for an eventual wastewater treatment plant relocation due to sea level rise concerns in the next 25 to 50 years.”
He said both the property list and the WWTF relocation study have been posted on the Ogunquit Sewer District’s website since 2014, as has a 2012 study, from which Sawyer read, in part, for emphasis: “If the facility becomes inundated, or needs to be shut down for lack of power, the beach will be closed.”
In its public presentation of the 2012 study, the district states that its wastewater treatment plant already has experienced storm-caused flooding, such as during the 2007 Patriots Day storm. The study also predicts that the WWTF faces risks from sea level rise, storm surge and coastal flooding.
The 2012 study predicts a sea level rise of 1 foot by 2050 and 3.2 feet by 2100. During a 100-year storm, the study says current storm-surge flooding could be up to 8.5 feet; by year 2050, the storm surge could be 9.5-foot feet; and by year 2100, a 100-year storm could produce a storm surge of almost 12 feet.
Adding to future possible complications is the treatment plant’s location within both a coastal sand dune system and a coastal barrier resource system ― a habitat for endangered species subject to federal oversight.
“So we’re talking about serious stuff here,” Sawyer said.
In its letter, the Roby’s Pond Association requested that town leaders “take a more active role in the decision making process for the town of Ogunquit’s wastewater management planning,” which “should include spearheading a comprehensive plan which prioritizes the needs of our town, not the Sewer Department’s, nor that of engineering consultants who answer to a quasi-corporate entity.”
The association also requested “the establishment of a special commission to address all options for both sewer and septic long-term planning.”
To demonstrate the Sewer Department’s transparency, Sawyer detailed the sequence of events related to its inquiry into the Roby’s Pond property. The Sewer District approached the seller to confirm the property was for sale and discussed a purchase price. It then put down a $1,000 deposit to hold the land for future consideration, “having told the property owner that we would not proceed with any purchase until we conducted an informational meeting with the public,” he said.
The Sewer District set May 24 to hold an informational meeting with residents about the possible land purchase, Sawyer said. However, before that, on May 12, the property owner informed trustees she no longer wanted to sell the land to them.
Several Roby’s Pond Association members attended a trustee’s meeting four days later, Sawyer said, when they learned the particulars of the preliminary process to purchase the Roby’s Pond land. However, later that evening before selectmen, the board of trustees were surprised to hear that the same members decried “the lack of transparency of the Sewer District and called a member of the Select Board ‘a liar’ when he claimed to know nothing about the situation,” Sawyer said.
On Tuesday, Sawyer read to selectmen the conclusion of the Roby’s Pond Association letter: “We all need a Sewer District with a transparent and fiscally responsible operating plan before the next unfortunate neighborhood is targeted.”
“At the least this is mean-spirited,” Sawyer told selectmen. “For me, personally, this is very disturbing.”
While acknowledging that the Sewer District is not “part of the town of Ogunquit structure,” Sawyer said, “We consider ourselves excellent neighbors and 100 percent committed to protecting the environment of the town and its natural resources while also providing excellent services to our customers at a fair price.”
He concluded: “We have no history of being a renegade organization and frankly resent any insinuation that we are. We, the trustees of the Ogunquit Sewer District, have a fiduciary responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the wastewater treatment functions in Ogunquit, and we do not intend to relinquish this to the Select Board ― and certainly not to any group of citizens.”
Selectman John Daley admitted to not knowing much about the Sewer District, a lacking which, he surmised, was one of the reasons for “this predicament.” It is not a “well-followed … commission,” he said.
A member of the Roby’s Pond Association spoke in response to Sawyer, asserting that “there’s definitely a disconnect. … Something went very wrong, I feel, with the Roby’s Pond land.” She reiterated a call issued in the letter for the establishment of “a group that will report to the Select Board and keep the communication open so that we are well-aware.”
At the same time, however, the association member did acknowledge that the Sewer District “has been good to work with, and I have no complaints. Bill [Sawyer] has been responsive to our questions.”
However, she still wanted to ensure that abutters to any future proposed WWTF project would be “well-aware” of Sewer District plans. “I would just hate anybody going through what we went through,” she said. “It was rough.”
On Tuesday, Sawyer strode to the podium once more.
“People can say that sea level rise is not a real issue,” he said, “and we can all stick our heads in the sand and say, ‘Nah, it’s not going to happen, sea level change, environmental stuff. None of it. It’s all crap.’ But we’re taking it seriously, and the first effort we need to do to prepare for that, is to acquire a piece of land. And that’s what we’re intending to do.”