Saugus to begin next phase of sewerage project in April

SAUGUS ? The town is about to undergo the eighth of a nine-phase sewerage upgrade it undertook after being cited by the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection for sewage overflows.This time, the project will involve Route 1 and surrounding areas from the Lynn Fells Parkway to the Lynnfield line. Areas of north Saugus will be affected as well. It is slated to begin this April and run through October, and work will be done only from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.Seven phases of the project, which affects nine out of the town’s 27 sewerage areas, have been completed. The final phase will be done in 2016, according to Brendan O’Regan, the town’s director of public works.The project was made necessary after the state cited the town for sewage overflows in which ground water and other waste filled the system and caused water to bubble over or overflow. The reason, said O’Regan, was that some of the pipes were cracked, causing seepage.The town will use a $1.7 million loan from the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust to fund the project, and CDM Smith of Cambridge, a water treatment and reuse system, is the contractor.According to O’Regan, the town will be in compliance with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection’s administrative consent order to repair the sewerage lines. The town expects to reduce the amount of water that enters the sewerage pipes, because, according to O’Regan, water leaks into the pipes even on dry days. This causes issues for residents because it affects their plumbing when the systems become backed up, he said.”We want sewage to be the only thing that goes into the pipes,” O’Regan said.