Courtesy: Massachusetts National Guard
BOURNE – The four towns on the Upper Cape are coming together to secure grant funding from the state to study the capacity of the water treatment plant at Joint Base Cape Cod.
Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth and Mashpee town managers are working on a grant proposal to investigate if the plant would be able to expand usage to save costs and improve local waterways.
“I think that it would supplement existing plans that each of the towns have to reduce their nitrogen impact on their local waterways,” said Andrew Gottlieb, the Board of Selectmen Chair in Mashpee.
The town of Mashpee’s nitrogen mitigation and wastewater plan includes possibly using the plant at the base as a potential treatment solution for the Quashnet and Childs River portions of town.
Gottlieb believes Falmouth is looking at using the base plant for some of their eastern watersheds.
“I think it’s part of the solution for each one of us. In and of itself it’s not the entire solution,” he said. “But it may be the most cost effective treatment option we could pursue.”
The funding that the towns are looking to obtain is from the Efficiency and Regionalization Grant program through the state Community Compact Cabinet.
“We’re using that program and saying that we think this look at the base is an appropriate and useful application of the money they are making available,” Gottlieb said. “There have been ongoing discussions for a while between representatives of the four towns and the base about what the potential is here.”
Gottlieb said if they are fortunate enough to get the Baker administration’s support, it will help jump start the project from something conceptual to something more concrete.
The towns believe the proposal would also benefit the base.
“The base is looking for ways to streamline its operation and lower its operating cost and there is an opportunity for their interest to be similar to that of the four towns,” Gottlieb said.
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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