Somerset sewer board sets aside up to $100,000 for emergency repair, plans December talks on paying for plant upgrade

SOMERSET Somerset's Board of Water and Sewer Commissioners voted Wednesday to spend up to $100,000 from the sewer department's budgeted contingency money on an emergency sewer repair, and agreed to seek a meeting with the Board of Selectmen in December on how the town will pay for the overhaul of its sewer treatment plant, a project the town's engineers estimate at $76.3 million.

The decisions came at the board's Oct. 28 meeting at the Water Department office on County Street. Chairman Steven Cadorette and Vice Chairman Robert E. Lima were the only commissioners at the table, and each roll call was 2-0. The board's third member, Clerk Joseph Bednarik, was not at the table and did not vote.

What the emergency repair costs

The repair is on a sewer line "just south of the fire and police complex," a department official told the board in asking for the money, and bills for emergency excavation, vacuum truck work, camera inspection of the pipe and a new manhole have started to arrive. The sewer department has no excavation line in its budget, he said, and the contingency line is meant for unforeseen work like this. The bills already run to "tens of thousands," he said, and the total should reach $40,000 to $50,000 once a new manhole is set and the main is inspected by camera.

Lima, who made the motion, first put the figure at more than $50,000, then raised it to "up to the $100,000" so the work could be finished, and moved that "it's now $100,000 towards the emergency sewer repairs at that location near Prospect Street." He said the town would then "go after the company that caused the problem." The department official said the town is working with its own insurer and with the company, which he said is self-insured, to recover what it can. No one named the company at the meeting.

Paying for the plant

Cadorette said he asked for the joint meeting item because talks in September with a lawyer from KP Law had laid out two tracks: how to buy the work (design-bid-build or design-build) and how to pay for it. "I think that we should really consider meeting with the Board of Selectmen about the financing piece," he said, so the town can learn "what financing options would be available." He said the selectmen "know what they've got on the town side and how this debt would fit in with the overall town debt."

Lima agreed and said the town's treasurer-collector or finance director, and whoever handles the town's bonding, should take part. Cadorette said a planned meeting with a senator had been pushed to November. Lima said that meeting is set for Nov. 18 and suggested the first or second week of December for the joint session. The commissioners agreed to meet the senator first, and department staff will check the selectmen's December meeting dates with the town administrator. Cadorette said he believed the joint session would have to be held in open session because it is not a negotiation.

Later, during the engineers' progress report, the board heard that the next steps are to meet the selectmen and the senator, then work with the engineers on asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a time extension. That request would "lay the roadmap out in front of the EPA," the department official said, showing "here's where the money's coming from, here's the project moving forward."

What the upgrade is

The Water Pollution Control Facility on Walker Street treats Somerset's wastewater and discharges to the Taunton River. Its federal discharge permit, effective June 2024, sets a new limit on nitrogen of 175 pounds a day, averaged from May to October, and requires the town to comply by June 2030, according to a July 2026 planning report by the town's engineers, Wright-Pierce.

The report puts construction at about $59.3 million in March 2026 prices and the total project at about $76.3 million, above a $75 million budget the town had set. To get close to that figure, the engineers scaled back the work and moved disinfection upgrades, office space, the plant water system and other items to a later date "once funding becomes available." The plan includes a new influent pump station, new screens and grit equipment, conversion of the aeration tanks for nitrogen removal, a new blower and electrical building where the composting building stands, new sludge dewatering equipment and new electrical service and backup generators.

The report lists possible money sources: congressionally directed spending, the federal WIFIA loan program, the state's Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a state energy grant, sewer user fees, municipal or green bonds, and a water infrastructure surcharge on real estate, whose proceeds only Town Meeting could vote to spend. A memo in the report says the sewer board would still have to decide whether "a single, larger increase in the sewer user rates" tied to one large project would be feasible. The report's schedule calls for preliminary design from October 2026 to September 2027, bids sought starting in November 2028 and construction from May 2029 to May 2032, and says a two-year extension of the nitrogen deadline will likely have to be requested from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The board chose to upgrade the plant after deciding Dec. 17, 2025, to turn down an offer to send Somerset's sewage under the river to Fall River for treatment, the report says, finding regionalization "significantly more expensive."

Sewer bill relief

The board cut four sewer bills by a combined $3,531.57, covering 360,000 gallons. Two were for water used to fill swimming pools. On that request form, a commissioner read aloud, the owner certifies it is a first and only request, understands it is a "one-time lifetime abatement" and that the home is owner-occupied. The other two followed leaks that a plumber repaired, with water meter data showing use back to normal. One homeowner told the board her bill was about $5,000, and the board abated $2,560.38 of it, leaving a balance she will still owe. Two other abatement requests were not ready and were passed over.

What happens next

The board tabled a Wright-Pierce task order for a drought resiliency and water efficiency grant application. The town applied for the same grant last year and did not get it, the department official said. The board also held over a proposal from the firm Roux for odor control engineering at the Cherry Street pump station, where he said the department has received odor complaints, until its next meeting, which it tentatively set for Thursday, Nov. 12, since Nov. 11 is Veterans Day. Department staff also said the design of a project on the plant's two clarifiers is complete and the job will go out to bid once the town's lawyers say which state bidding law applies.

The commissioners meet at the Water Department, 3249 County St. The Water Pollution Control Facility can be reached at 508-646-2838.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.