Gloucester Daily Times, August 31, 2006

Sewer issue bedevils Annisquam Woods project

By Richard Gaines
Gloucester Daily Times

The lead attorney for builder Michael Carrigan's Annisquam Woods was doing her best to move the focus of concern off the sewer system that would serve the 30-home subdivision in the Annisquam highlands.

"We believe the sewer issue is over," Michele Harrison advised the Planning Board on Monday night. "It doesn't need to come up again. I believe we can take that off the table."

But the organized cooperative of opponents to Annisquam Woods - through the lawyer and engineer they've retained - had plenty of concerns about the dependability, maintenance and cost of the oversized septic tank effluent pump, or STEP, system Carrigan intends to install.

The system would handle waste from the three clusters of homes on a wild, wet and hilly site beyond the ends of the last country lanes north of Bennett Street, south of Dogtown.

Planning Board members also had questions about the sewer system.

"It's a unique design," said Chairman Paul Lundberg of the technology that was engineered to hold the liquid waste from the homes for delayed pumping into the municipal system when the flow from the 1,200 homes already using the technology allows.

"It's a large amount concentrated in one place," Lundberg said.

The holding tank - more than 20 times larger than the STEP tanks already causing problems, such as flodded junction boxes, electrical issues and faulty alarms, up and down the northern reach of Washington Street - would be buried on the 31-acre parcel Atlanta-based David Tufts has put in Carrigan's hands for development.

Hays Engineering's Peter Ogren, who designed the system, said the single, large concrete holding tank selected for the project is better than the small fiberglass tanks installed in the yards of individual homeowners served by the STEP system.

"It's better with one (tank)," Ogren said. "One mistake we think was too many tanks."

The board's Jen Fahey and Mary Black wondered about the condo association's ability to manage and pay for maintenance of the system.

The questions seemed to exasperate Harrison. She insisted the sewer questions should be deferred until it is determined whether the municipal STEP system has the capacity to take in the flow from Annisquam Woods.

The city has ordered Carrigan to hire an engineering firm to study the capacity issue.

The sewer task force organized by Mayor John Bell in 2004 recommended against allowing new construction to feed into the STEP system because of concerns about its capacity.

"This system was ... not designed for an infinite capacity (or) to meet the future needs of undeveloped land areas," the Engineering Department wrote last August in the task force report.

Carrigan scoffed at that. He said he was certain the system has ample capacity.

"I don't go into a project without doing research," he told the Times. "I know more about the STEP technology than most people."

If Carrigan is correct, his system can operate routinely, but if there are capacity limits, he would be required to hold the waste until "off-peak" hours, when the flow declines from the existing user-homes.

The sewer issue is one of myriad concerns the board and Annisquam Woods' opponents have that will be explored over the coming months.

Frederick Geisel, a civil engineer working for the organization of mostly Annisquam and Bay View residents opposed to the Carrigan-Tufts project, said the problems are mostly with the site itself and access to it.

He said that to construct Annisquam Woods as designed would require immense amounts of fill and permission to construct a road that slopes at 12 percent. The city typically wants slopes of no more than 8 percent.

Geisel said "the sewer issue is an issue of importance."

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