Article 25 (partial): To see if the Town will vote to appropriate a sum of money to fund … Phase 1 of the Teaticket-Acapesket Service Area…
Voted by Town Meeting Members:
YES: 106
NO 79
Motion FAILED having not fulfilled the 2/3rds vote requirement.
OUTFALL PIPE (for details, see prior post “Heights Targeted for Ocean Outfall Pipe”)
The Town’s current modern treatment plant removes nearly 95 percent of the nitrogen while the remaining 5 percent of nitrogen enriched waste-water has been pumped into in-ground leaching beds which has found its way into West Falmouth Harbor resulting in a nitrogen overload situation.
The long-term solution to this problem is an Ocean Outfall Pipe which would take the effluent offshore where it would be defused and diluted and flow out to sea. Any future Outfall Pipe would need to be financed and brought to Town Meeting with its own funding article.
The issue of an Outfall Pipe was discussed for about 10 minutes.
TO WATCH this meeting: Go to YouTube.com and search for “Falmouth Town Meeting April 11, 2023”. The meeting began at 7PM. This Article discussion began at 8:57 PM and lasted about an hour, so scroll to 1:57 hours to begin. A ten-minute discussion about Outfall Pipes started at 9:20 PM, so scroll to 2:20 hours to watch that.
See The Falmouth Enterprise 4/14/23 article “Falmouth Town Meeting Denies Sewering Plan, Funds Treatment Facility Upgrades”
Excerpt: Michael Duffany, Precinct Six, asked how long an ocean outfall pipe will take to permit and construct. The water quality management committee recently voted to pursue an outfall pipe as a long-term, sole-discharge site for all Falmouth’s wastewater, but Article 25 represented a short-term strategy until a pipe can be permitted.
Ms. Lowell said siting an outfall pipe is challenging and not guaranteed. The town needs more data before coming up with a timeline on how long it will take to construct one, he said.