At its May 12 meeting, the Municipal Alliance for Adaptive Management’s Executive Board authorized expending $45,000 on an innovative pilot project to retrofit a handful of septic systems in the Great Bay watershed to study the feasibility of implementing a more comprehensive program to reduce nitrogen levels.
The Conservation Law Foundation brought forth the pilot project to the Executive Board for its consideration. The $45,000 authorized for the project was set aside from the cities of Rochester, Dover, and Portsmouth as part of its 2021 settlement agreement with the CLF to fund a small pilot project to evaluate innovative approaches to reducing nonpoint and stormwater pollution. The project will be managed by a stakeholder committee convened by the CLF’s Great Bay-Piscataqua Waterkeeper.
According to the draft proposal submitted to MAAM’s Executive Board, the nitrogen concentration in a typical septic system effluent is many times higher than in wastewater treatment facilities.
“Given that there are tens of thousands of septic systems in the Great Bay watershed communities, the collective impact of better technology and more stringent regulations could be substantial,” the proposal states. “The outcome of this pilot project could help municipalities better evaluate whether septic system retrofit technology could be used at scale to reduce nonpoint nitrogen loads in the Great Bay estuary, and how the cost and feasibility compares on a per-pound basis of nitrogen reduction.”
The study seeks to learn: how many homeowners would be willing to install for the device to reduce nitrogen loads; how much they would be willing to spend to purchase it and pay for maintenance upkeep; how much oversight is necessary to ensure the products are working as designed; and what is the average cost per pound of nitrogen reduced from septic system retrofit technologies.
The Municipal Alliance for Adaptive Management is a collaboration of communities and stakeholders within the Great Bay, working to create a framework to improve water quality and reduce total nitrogen in the Great Bay estuary. It was founded by the cities of Rochester, Dover and Portsmouth, and its membership includes Newington, Exeter, Rollinsford and Milton. The Municipal Alliance is open to all communities in the Great Bay watershed.
Original source can be found here.
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