The Lynn Water and Sewer Commission is by no means the Grinch that stole Christmas. But news that $100 million the commission needs to spend over the next decade will double ratepayers’ bills isn’t welcome news.
Sticker shock aside, the mega million investment the commission must make to end combined storm sewer overflows (CSO) is not a surprise. The five commissioners and Commission executives have alternately battled and agreed for the past three years on strategies for reducing or ending the release of partially-treated sewage into the ocean.
Part of East Lynn already has a separate storm drain and sewer network designed to prevent torrential rain from overwhelming the Commercial Street waste treatment plant.
But West Lynn’s worst areas for flooding remain unseparated and complaints about flooded streets and sewage floating in basements have dominated Commission meetings.
Ratepayers aren’t going to be happy about spending $2,000 a year by 2027 for water and sewer even if the expense comes with the satisfaction of knowing they are not polluting the Atlantic Ocean.
Lynn ratepayers and residents in neighboring communities sending sewage to the waste treatment plant receive smaller water and sewer bills than residents in many communities served by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. But paying less than the other guy means nothing if your own bill is poised to skyrocket.
The prospect of rates doubling over the next 10 years gives the commissioners ample reason to appeal to the federal government for rate relief. The risk of incurring federal penalties and fines serves as one of the main motivations for the Commission to undertake separation work.
But what if the feds became a source of support instead of a looming threat in the separation discussion?
President-elect Trump has pledged to rebuild America’s infrastructure and that commitment deserves to be tested with a Commission request for federal help in reducing the financial burden sewer separation places on ratepayers.
Commissioners, City Councilors and Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy should band together with Lynn’s legislative delegation to push for federal relief.
Selling sewer separation as a worthy infrastructure project in economic terms is fairly easy to do. The construction work involved in separation will create jobs and provide business for the contractors hired to do the work.
Lynn neighborhoods and the businesses and residents operating and living in them will be better off without being periodically inundated by sewage-tainted floodwaters.
Commissioners should make sure they top off their New Year’s resolution lists with a request for federal rate relief help.