By PAUL EDWARD PARKER
SWANSEA, R.I., Oct. 25, 2000 (The Providence Journal)—The much anticipated study of whether the town needs sewers arrived last week.
The answer was, basically, yes, though the study suggested several possible solutions short of a full-scale sewage system to handle Swansea's wastewater-management problems.
The study noted that, in many parts of town, soil conditions do not allow septic systems to work properly or the area is so built up that the systems do not work properly. The result of this is the eventual contamination of underground water bodies, from which Swansea draws its drinking water, and of surface bodies, such as the Lees, Coles, Kickemuit and Palmer Rivers.
The study, by Earth Tech, a consulting firm in Concord, Mass., does not pretend to have the answers. Instead, what the town bought for $50,000, was the right set of questions. The study outlines what options the town should evaluate and what information is still needed to decide how to handle wastewater.
Among the options listed in the study is making sure that septic systems work better, perhaps by installing newer, more expensive high- tech systems.
The study also suggests looking at problem areas, such as Smoke Rise Circle and Ocean Grove, to see whether smaller sewage systems just for those areas are a possibility.
The study also suggests seeing whether Swansea can tie into a neighboring town's sewage system or build a regional facility with one or more area communities.
But building a town-wide sewer system, connected to a Swansea sewage treatment plant, remains a possibility.
If that comes to pass, it would mean finding a site in town for building the plant, a facility few would want to have in their back yards.
In 1980, the last time the town looked at the question of sewers, a different consulting firm drew up a list of 10 possible sites for a treatment plant. Several of those were rejected at the time because environmental conditions were not right. Several more were rejected in this latest study because the sites are now developed.
To the sites that remained, Earth Tech has added four new possibilities, based on a map of soil conditions, without much further investigation.
The list of possible sites now includes:
- The Wood Street area, at the site of the Swansea Mall's sewage- treatment plant. The consultant, which designed the mall's plant, said the site could still be used to handle some of the town's waste, in addition to the mall's.
- The former town landfill, on Sears Road, off Route 6.
- A 12-acre site on Vinnicum Road. The site is owned by the town, but the study does not make clear whether this is the land Swansea is developing as a cemetery.
- A 51-acre site, owned by Somerset Power, off Cummings Road near the Rehoboth line.
- Several parcels on Bushee Road, near the Rhode Island line.
- An 8-acre privately owned parcel at the corner of Gardners Neck Road and Route 6. From a map included in the study, the parcel appears to be the fields that are farmed by the family that runs Almeida's Vegetable Patch.
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