Wastewater Study Caution

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission released the results of a wastewater management study this week, and with all due respect to the commission and the very good work that it does, this study reads like a thinly disguised promotional advertisement for the engineers, consultants and other empire builders who would build sewer systems from one end of the Island to the other if they could — all in the name of protecting water quality. The report was prepared by consultants at Wright-Pierce and paid for with a combination of grants.

What they don’t tell you of course is that new sewer systems can only come at enormous expense to the taxpayer, and in the end can open the door wide to unchecked development, neither of which are desirable on the Island.

Water quality issues on the Vineyard have been the subject of much study in recent years, including the Massachusetts Estuaries Study, which is still in progress and is aimed at precisely defining nitrogen loading in most ponds and coastal embayments in southeastern Massachusetts using sophisticated computer modeling coupled with an intensive sampling program.

Sadly, the estuaries project, which at the outset was led by some of the brightest minds in marine science, has become bogged down by politics and funding problems and much of its work remains incomplete. On the Vineyard only the Edgartown Great Pond study has been finished, and even that report was disappointing in its lack of creative solutions for a complex problem.

And while it has assembled some useful data on ponds and watersheds, the wastewater study recently completed by the commission makes note of the fact that this data is only preliminary pending the final results of the estuary study. Which will be finished who knows when.

Rather than allowing consultants and engineers to set the next course, the Island would be wise to act boldly to protect the water quality in its ponds by strictly limiting or prohibiting development in sensitive areas. Boards of health have the power to enact building moratoriums when water quality is a concern. And instead of spending money to expand sewer systems where they are not needed, towns would be better off spending that money to buy up unbuilt lots around ponds and coastal areas to keep the land out of development.

That sounds like a much more practical hedge against the future than costly sewage treatment plants.