The state’s ability to develop housing depends on access to adequate resources to support it, especially water and wastewater. The diverse landscape of water and wastewater systems and technologies as well as the environmental conditions across the state must all be considered as we shape our housing plan. Factors include infrastructure issues and the availability of enough water from large public water supply systems, including the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) that supplies 61 communities and around 3 million people, and small public systems as well private wells and septic systems. Housing policies must account for these diverse conditions, needs, and limitations.
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) is a Massachusetts public authority that provides wholesale water and sewer services to over 3.1 million people in 61 municipalities in the Metropolitan Boston area and west of Boston. The MWRA operates regional drinking water transmission mains that deliver water to cities and towns, who operate the local distribution systems that carry water to customers. Similarly, for wastewater local sewer districts collect wastewater from properties and discharge it to MWRA interceptors that carry it to the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Facility.
Existing publicly available planning documents from the MWRA indicate that the system is some available capacity to serve new users in existing member communities. The MWRA has no available capacity in the sewer system for new communities. For municipalities served by MWRA water and/or sewer, new development can be accommodated if local collection systems are upgraded to reduce existing inflow and infiltration of groundwater and stormwater. Local distribution/collection systems may need upgrades to accommodate new development. Connection costs and upgrades needed principally for the new development are often paid for by developers or state grants, so even the extension of local collection/distribution systems may not have much of a fiscal impact on the locality. New development also broadens the base of ratepayers so that administrative and overhead costs can be spread out over more customers.
For municipalities with local or regional water and wastewater systems, the challenges are more diverse. These systems rely on local wells and/or reservoirs for their water supply; and wastewater treatment facilities that discharge treated effluent to the ground or rivers. While many water suppliers and wastewater plants have adequate supply, others are facing practical or regulatory limits on the amount of water that is available or sewage that can be treated. Climate change and pollution (especially PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals”) could reduce the total water supply available to local systems. Conservation and efficiency programs—such as peak season reduction, graywater reuse, infiltration reduction, and illicit discharge detection—have the potential to further reduce per-customer demand so that new growth can be accommodated without increasing in total demand. As in MWRA municipalities, connection costs and necessary upgrades are generally paid for by developers.
Developments beyond the reach of a public water or sewer system must generally provide their own supply or wastewater treatment. For individual homes, and small developments, this generally takes the form of a private well and septic system. Properly designed septic systems can effectively dispose of wastewater while protecting humans and the environment from the bacteria and pathogens contained in wastewater. Septic systems are effective where the soil conditions are conducive to subsurface disposal and the cost of collecting and conveying wastewater to centralized treatment facilities is expensive. Septic systems are regulated by Title V, but municipalities regularly adopt local septic regulations that are stricter than the state. Some further regulation may be needed to account for specific local conditions while others are less tied to scientific findings and may be put in place to discourage or disable development. Larger developments must be licensed as public water suppliers, and if the system is expected to produce more than 10,000 gallons of sewage per day, the wastewater disposal system is subject to more stringent and expensive design and operational standards, resulting in a substantial increase in construction and operating costs.
Across the Commonwealth there are diverse challenges with water and wastewater capacity that intensify depending on location. For example, the permeable soils throughout the Cape make on-site septic systems highly effective. However, even correctly functioning Title 5 systems are not designed to remove nitrogen. Nitrogen is a major source of pollution in the Cape’s coastal embayment's, and the Massachusetts Estuaries Project (MEP) has identified wastewater as the primary culprit. To ensure the continued health and enjoyment of the water resources that are so critical to the character of Cape Cod, more aggressive wastewater management is needed to reduce the amount of nitrogen being delivered to estuaries and restore water quality. Nitrogen removal can be improved through a variety of technologies. One possible solution is cluster or satellite systems at the neighborhood or village level, and centralized wastewater treatment facilities. New housing co-located with cluster or satellite systems can help share the cost of those systems while enabling housing growth.