EPA support flows into Lynn sewer

LYNN – Federal environmental officials want the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission to act on a stormwater overflow relief plan that has commissioners disagreeing over its cost and necessity.Commission officials sent a copy of the proposed $106 million storm sewer overflow (CSO) plan to the Environmental Protection Agency after federal officials sent the commission a January letter warning “… LWSC?s continued CSO discharges are a violation of the federal Clean Water Act and the Massachusetts Water Quality Standards.”?Given the ongoing CSO discharges and flooding from sewer backups in low-lying areas of Lynn, the agencies believe that beginning review of the update to the CSO plan now will expedite its eventual approval and implementation,” the letter stated.The commission is scheduled to meet March 9 to discuss project construction planning and funding schedules for the project, said LWSC Executive Director Daniel O?Neill.Those topics have split the commission with commissioners Peter Capano and David Ellis advocating for a plan to eliminate West Lynn flooding while commissioners William Trahant Sr. and Walter Proodian urge caution in balancing cost with reducing partially-treated sewage discharges into the ocean.Commission Chairman Wayne Lozzi said the $106 million plan must be weighed against the prospect of saddling Lynn ratepayers with double-digit rate hikes.?As an official, I do have to be concerned about the cost. We have to take a reasonable, level-headed approach,” Lozzi said.O?Neill pointed out that a 2000 agreement between the LWSC and environmental agencies set the stage for a 2004 proposal outlining ways to reduce incidents of stormwater carrying partially-treated sewage into the ocean.The commission forwarded that plan to federal officials but it lay dormant until July 2011 when the commission approved spending $277,000 to update it. O?Neill in that same year proposed completing a 40-year-old water main project designed around three local drainage systems.O?Neill last year said the plan could reduce West Lynn flooding and ease sewage overflows into the ocean if the LWSC laid a pipe linking the systems to Lynn Harbor, near Blossom Street extension.The price tag for the new pipe is about $5-6 million, said O?Neill, but Capano and Ellis have Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy on their side with their call to take comprehensive steps to eliminate West Lynn flooding.The EPA letter urged commission officials to “proceed expeditiously” with planning and building a CSO project, but Lozzi stressed commissioners have the final say on proceeding with a plan.?It?s up to the board to decide what is next,” he said.