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Wastewater Master Planning Committee

Minutes

Committees: Wastewater Master Planning Committee

Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan (CWMP)

Recommended Plan - Phase II, July 2011

• Cover, Table of Contents, Executive Summary (PDF, 5.5 MB)
• Section 1 and 2 (PDF, 1.2 MB)
• Section 3 (PDF, 234 kb)
• Section 4 (PDF, 6.2 MB)
• Section 5 (PDF, 3.3 MB)
• Section 6 and Appendix B-E (PDF, 3.4 MB)
• Appendix A only (PDF 15.6 MB)
• Full Document (PDF, 20 MB)

Please note: These are large files and may take time to download.

2010 Annual Report

The Wastewater Master Planning Committee has been charged with developing a Wastewater Management Plan for Hingham and, in 2004, Town Meeting allocated $400,000 for this purpose. Development of a plan has not been a simple process, due to the numerous issues and government authorities associated with wastewater generation and disposal. However, the Committee is please to report this year that the Waste Water Management Plan was finalized and approved by the Committee after a final Public Hearing held on April 22, 2010. This process has been an unusually successful collaborative effort between the Sewer Commission, Board of Selectmen, Board of Health, Conservation Commission, Planning Board and Water Supply Committee, accompanied by significant from the Advisory Committee and the public. The Committee would also like to thank Community Planning Director Katy Lacy for her significant assistance to the Committee and commend her for her substantial contributions to the final Plan.

The concluding Wastewater Management Plan development work of the Committee focused on refining two elements of the Plan that will provide both immediate and lasting value to Hingham.

The first element is a Policy section that will provide guidance to all Hingham development boards and committees when making decisions that affect wastewater generation and disposal in Town. To quote Section 6 of the Final Report, "[The plan] outlines the jurisdictional responsibilities involved in implementing wastewater-related policies, describes a set of core wastewater principles and provides a number of targeted recommendations that may assist town officials and the general public in framing, evaluating and reaching such decisions in the future." This Section will help decision-makers and Hingham residents organize future evaluations of wastewater related projects as well as leverage the considerable amount of technical and analytical information contained in the Plan.

The second element that Committee focused on was a further extrapolation of the Recommended Alternative of the Plan. To quote the Plan again: "The recommended plan consists of installing a centralized wastewater collection system in the Industrial Study Area…with the primary intent of including all industrial and commercially zoned land in this portion of south Hingham….[the] industrial zoned area in the southwest corner of Hingham located adjacent to Weymouth and Rockland along Route 3."
This alternative will provide a foundation for accelerating the development of local business and industrial enterprises that will make a significant contribution to the tax and employment base of the town, and do so with minimal negative environmental impact. Town Meeting in 2010 passed Articles 31 and 32 that established the Industrial/Office Park Sewer District as a first step in achieving this goal. Further work is currently underway to plan in greater detail the implementation of wastewater system improvements in the new district.

The remainder of Hingham that is not in the current or proposed sewer districts will continue to be served by on-site sewage disposal systems with an enhanced management program. However, the plan is not intended to limit the opportunity for implementing other wastewater management alternatives in identified study areas if new, more cost- effective technologies emerge over time, and neighborhood and town interest is sufficient to pursue them.

Although the Master Plan has been finalized, the Committee will continue to operate at least through 2011/2012 in the event that consultation from a broad, representative base of town committees is required in the initial implementation phases of the new Industrial/Office Park Sewer District.