The Yarmouth Select Board and the Barnstable County Commissioners are calling on the state to abandon a plan to reduce funds available to towns for wastewater projects.
The Department of Environmental Protection is proposing a $50 million cap per town on money from the state's Clean Water State Revolving Fund, created to pay for sewer installation and other coastal protection efforts. The state is also considering the elimination of guaranteed multi-year funding, so that towns would have to reapply for financing each year.
Yarmouth Select Board Member Mark Forest, who also represents the town on the Cape Cod Water Protection Board and serves as a Barnstable County Commissioner, says the change in policy would be difficult for towns that have committed to long-term wastewater projects.
At a Yarmouth Select Board Meeting on Feb. 25, Forest said Yarmouth hopes to access more than $200 million for its extensive sewer project that is now in its first phase.
"Our hope is to be able to apply on many more occasions for funds under the state revolving fund program. Our hope is that we will not be capped at fifty million and that we will have the ability to carry over funds in subsequent years," Forest said.
Forest said the proposed changes affect every town on Cape Cod that hopes to access state funds for wastewater treatment programs. Several others have also written letters opposing the changes.
In its first application, Yarmouth applied for state funds of more than $35 million for its sewer project. It was awarded $20 million, but town officials planned to seek the remainder in a later appropriation. With the proposed change to the funding program, that would not be possible.
Select Board member Tracy Post agreed with Forest.
"They're changing the rules in the middle. They're pulling the carpet out from underneath us is what they're doing. We sell to the public one thing and now they're going to change the rules. It's not acceptable," Post said.
In letters to Gov. Maura Healey and DEP, the Yarmouth Select Board says the cap on funds would halt the progress Yarmouth is making to protect drinking water and embayments.
As anyone who has attempted to drive along Route 28 in Yarmouth recently knows, the town is engaged in installing sewers that will feed wastewater to a treatment plant to be constructed off Buck Island Road. The goal is to remove nitrogen that threatens public water supplies and coastal areas.
A day after the Yarmouth Select Board took action, the Barnstable County Commissioners agreed to also write letters urging that the revolving fund program remain as it is.
Andrew Gottlieb, Executive Director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod told the commissioners the planned changes by the state could undermine Cape Cod towns' ability to access 25% principal forgiveness through the Cape & Islands Water Protection Fund.
