The Manchester Board of Health is exploring a drinking water protection regulation that, if adopted, would bring new requirements for groundwater testing and monitoring for construction projects.
In the last two weeks the Manchester Select Board has been presented with two big moves by the Board of Health (BOH). The first was the BOH’s formalization of an agreement that gives the BOH increased autonomy so that it can operate directly with the state’s public health offices and hire a full-time health agent to oversee Manchester’s Health Dept. staff.
BOH Co-chair Paula Polo-Filias said her board needs more autonomy, especially when dealing with public health issues and administration of the town’s health department.
The Select Board agreed, and gave the BOH authority to hire its staff directly and seek out its own consultants and legal counsel, among other things. It can also work more easily with the state’s Dept. of Public Health, which it coordinates with when enforcing state laws on public health.
The second move presented itself at the July 5 Select Board meeting, when BOH Co-chair Peter Colarusso shared the high points of a draft “Drinking Water Protection Regulation” that, if adopted, would fundamentally alter land use in Manchester.
Colarusso’s presentation was part of an update by the MBTS Water Resources Protection Task Force, where he serves at the BOH representative. The task force members had reviewed and helped shape the regulation.
The idea, said Colarusso, is to give the Board of Health an added layer in reviewing construction projects to protect Manchester’s drinking water from contamination. It would require “a hydrogeological investigation to assess the impact of any proposed sewage or wastewater discharge on all potentially impacted groundwater sources of potable water” and would apply to construction anywhere within the town’s water protection zones (currently about 40 percent of MBTS’ footprint), as well as those within 400ft of any “actual or potential future sources of potable water” which includes ponds, vernal pools, streams, wetlands and aquifers contributing to those water supplies “now and into the future.”
It’s not clear how this could be determined or how extensive an impact study would be required. The Zoning Bylaw has already established a “Water Protection Overlay District,” which requires a special permitting process under the Planning Board, and it’s not at all clear how these review processes could be reconciled.
The proposed regulation has been in the works at the BOH since last year, and it was drafted by Dan Hill, an attorney for the Manchester Essex Conservation Trust (MECT) and sent in October to BOH members by MECT Executive Director Patrice Murphy, according to Colarusso.
The regulation covers large construction projects like those with an onsite sewage wastewater treatment plant (greater than 10,000 gallons/day) or large buildings or homes with large onsite septic systems (2,000+ gallons/day). It requires a public health impact review process, including a hydrological engineering analysis, a certificate of compliance, and an operations permit. It is not clear if development projects that would connect to the town sewer system would need to comply.
But there are more modest triggers, such as projects that disturb or remove more than 350 cubic yards of material, which is akin to digging a basement for a 60-ft by 15-ft structure or an average size swimming pool. The regulation is also triggered by projects that add 2,000-sf of impervious surface, which would be easily hit by when building a 1,200-ft home and driveway.
Select Board member Ann Harrison wondered if the regulation amounted to a zoning bylaw, which must be passed by a 2/3 majority of Town Meeting voters. She also asked about the Manchester Affordable Housing Trust (MAHT)’s plan to renovate 84 existing low-income housing units at Newport Park, The Plains, and Loading Place Road and then add approximately 90 more units on those sights and at a fourth site on Pleasant Street that is currently used by the MBTS DPW. All four sites are in the water district, and the MAHT and Manchester Housing Authority are poised to issue an RFP seeking developers.
“I would like to understand the implication of these regulations on that work which I think is strongly in the interest of the town,” Harrison said.
Other planned projects that would be impacted include a new Police and Fire Dept. public safety building, a new senior citizens center, and possibly a new DPW facility.
What wasn’t mentioned is the construction of a new corporate biomedical campus in the Limited Commercial District by Danvers-based Cell Signaling, which closed just last week on the purchase of 50 acres of land formerly owned by the Manchester Athletic Club. The company is expected to present designs for an office and laboratory campus later this year.
The Select Board told Colarusso that the BOH will have to return and present its full proposal before proceeding with anything. The regulation will be visited at the BOH’s meeting Thursday, July 21 where the Select Board’s feedback will be discussed.
