Date: Fri 06-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewer-Main-Street-drilling

Full Text:

Hearing Set On Sewer Drilling Plan For Main Street

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) has scheduled a public hearing

Thursday, September 12, on its plans to use directional drilling to install

sewer lines along a section of Main Street.

The hearing is slated for 7:30 pm in the Town Hall South conference room at 3

Main Street.

The WPCA wants to install sewers along the curbline on the east side of Main

Street from Schoolhouse Hill Road to Glover Avenue using the directional

drilling technique.

WPCA members opted to pursue directional drilling after plans to use

conventional open pit trenching met with strong public objections across a

two-year period.

In directional drilling, a bore hole is drilled between an entry pit and an

exit pit and seamless, flexible plastic sewer pipe is installed inside that

bore hole. Several sets of entry and exit pits will be needed to install sewer

lines between Schoolhouse Hill Road and Glover Avenue. The technique minimizes

the level of destruction that comes with conventional sewer trenching.

The WPCA's eventual decision to use directional drilling amounts to a

compromise intended to satisfy several groups of people that were unhappy with

various proposed locations for the sewer line.

Initially, the WPCA intended to install a sewer line beneath Main Street.

But after learning of the technical, regulatory and cost hurdles which that

approach faced, WPCA members decided to install the lines beneath the back

yards of houses along the east side of Main Street.

But a group of residents said they didn't want to forfeit certain uses of

their back yards because the yards contained sewer easements.

In a compromise, the WPCA then opted to install the sewers in front of the

houses, between the houses and the street.

But people who wanted to preserve the stately maple trees tha line the street

and registered their vocal opposition.

Then, many affected residents began a new push to install the sewer line

beneath the center of the street.

In another compromise, the WPCA proposed using the directional drilling

technique to install sewer lines along the curbline of Main Street to minimize

the level of damage done to tree roots.

In order to install the directionally-drilled sewer lines, the town will have

to dig large pits where the flexible sewer pipe will be inserted and extracted

from the bore holes.

As part of the sewer installation project, the town will obtain both temporary

and permanent sewer easements from some property owners.

The temporary easements allow the town to build the sewer line. The permanent

easements give the town the right to go onto properties to maintain the

sewers.

The town typically has purchased such easements from property owners for

nominal sums.

In cases where property owners have refused to sign easements, the town has

pursued condemnation proceedings in which a judge condemns a piece of property

private so that sewers can be installed and maintained there.

The directional drilling along Main Street is expected to cost less than $1

million.

The town is under a pollution abatement order from the state to rectify

longstanding groundwater pollution problems in the borough, Taunton Pond

North, and Sandy Hook Center caused by failing septic systems. In 1992, voters

approved spending up to $34.3 million to build a sewer system to correct the

pollution problems.