The Massachusetts Clean Water Trust’s Board of Trustees approved a loan of more than $7.9 million with an interest rate of 2% to finance improvements to Nahant’s sewer system.
The funds are slated to be applied to two projects: upgrades to the Lowlands Pump Station and repairs to the gravity sewer collection system.
The Lowlands Pump Station receives all of the wastewater from Nahant and pumps it to the Lynn Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant. According to Nahant Finance Director and Accountant Alison Nieto, the upgrades will include comprehensive improvements to the pumping, mechanical, and electrical systems, as well as flood-resiliency upgrades.
The repairs to the gravity sewer collection system are to address “high-priority inflow and infiltration” work.
“The Town will implement gravity sewer rehabilitation measures, including spot repairs, full liner, sealing and grouting joints, cutting and grouting protruding taps, service wye replacement, service replacement, root treatment, and watertight manhole covers in low-lying areas,” Nieto wrote in an email.
The Town approved borrowing of up to $18 million from the state at Town Meeting in 2022, $9.7 million of which was borrowed for the reconstruction of its Lynnway force main.
The gravity sewer collection system project is expected to be completed by the spring, while the Lowlands upgrades are scheduled to break ground shortly afterward in the summer.
Nahant also secured an additional $3,000 from the Clean Water Trust in the form of a School Water Improvement Grant. The grant is planned to be used for the installation of an additional filtered water-bottle filling station and drinking fountain at the Johnson Elementary School. Superintendent of Schools Tony Pierantozzi added that the school is installing in-line filters to all fountains.
“The students and staff in the future will always be drinking filtered water,” Pierantozzi said.
