envirolinks

LINKS TO BOSTON DEER ISLAND OUTFALL MATERIAL

The Outfall Tunnel

While people on Cape Cod Massachusetts are being held to the fire by regulators restricting the use of their properties and imposing severe restrictions to reduce the nitrogen entering buzzards bay, just north of the Cape, the brand new Outfall dumps nitrogen equivalent to several million single family homes (with properly designed simple septic systems) into open water in Massachusetts Bay

NITROGEN ISSUES

View map showing where the heaviest agricultural nitrogen fertilizer use occurs in Connecticut (South East)

Go to Penn State Agriculture to confirm that golf courses and lawns could be responsible for up to 30% of the nutrient load in urban areas. This would translate into twenty (20) times more than the nutrient loads from properly designed septic systems. Requesting that homeowners reduce the application of fertilizers by a few spoonfuls to their lawns would be a real contribution whereas, the action by the Connecticut Department of Public Health, chasing owners off their small lots on existing infrastructure will certainly add to our pollution problems.

For an inventory of known and potential contaminant sources within a well head protection area in Wyoming click here

This link illustrates how a slight soil modification at a rapid infiltration basin reduced nitrogen by 48% as investigated and reported by the State of Wisconsin, Department of Natural Resources. This study shows that the flow of 9.5 gallons per square foot per day into a 30 x 50 foot basin (equivalent to using a 1,500 sf land area to infiltrate the water from forty seven (47) 3 Bedroom Homes) would remove nearly 50% of the nitrogen. To apply to the small Connecticut House Lot this would result in a 63% reduction(**) of Nitrogen between the Septic Tank and the ground infiltration. This removal rate is four times higher (OOPS - make this 6 times based on actual performance) than that at the brand new Deer Island wastewater treatment plant which dumps partially treated sewage in incredible volumes equal to a couple of million (2,000,000) three bedroom homes in an area 1 1/2 miles long by a few hundred feet wide (one (1) three bedroom home per one (1) square foot of subsurface real estate). When the BIOREN/Living Filter system is used, the water quality is further enhanced by its many additional treatment features.
(**) A Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services 1993 study confirm these results. For excerpts please go to Florida 1993 HRS study entitled Onsite Sewage Disposal System Research in Florida.

The contention by the Connecticut Department of Public Health that a small building lot (5,000 to 7,000 sf) which meets soil and setback criteria would not support on-site wastewater treatment for a few hundred gallons of effluent per day is false and contrary to the facts.

There are already strong zoning laws on the books which would not support dividing land into parcels of such small size and thus there is no need for the state to regulate property size.

There are some small building lots throughout Connecticut for which the owners have been paying property taxes for years. They should have an absolute right to utilize that property.

Every existing home in Connecticut that have on-site sewage systems will be affected by the DPH nitrogen issue. If the owner desires to add a deck, room or bedroom to the house a recent addition to the public health code (19-13-B100a) requires that it is demonstrated that a code complying area exists on the property to install a new septic system. If the nitrogen pollution criteria analysis become law, this may by itself stop you from doing any alterations to your home which would change the exterior footprint or convert uninsulated spaces to year around use.

The sudden concern for nitrogen pollution arise from the development of an efficient wastewater treatment product which occupies much less space on a building lot. The DPH cites municipalities and the Connecticut DEP having identified groundwater pollution problems in densely developed residential areas in the state. The most prominent may be Old Saybrook which is located on the Long Island Sound.

The pollution from ammonia, nitrogen and bacteria/viruses on small lots can be attributed to many sources; House pets like dogs and cats who drop their nitrogen rich wastes on top of the ground where it easily flows into open water bodies or simply percolates into the groundwater, canadian geese, seagulls and other birds which congregate in the coastal communities and do nitrogen-bomb fly-byes, the abundance of air- dropped fertilizer supports the growth of other nitrogen converting smaller animals, nitrogen fertilizer placed on lawns, higher density of automobile nitrogen converters from closely spaced housing in addition to high traffic expressways nearby and vehicles heading for the beach, failed septic system which overflow onto the surface of the ground and into little ditches and divots and into DEP sampling cups, the use of poorly designed septic systems using sub-standard components which dump raw septic effluent directly into the ground adds to the mix.

Nitrogen is not a pollutant.
The biomass in densely developed coastal areas is naturally higher which results in higher seafood yields along with some adverse effects.
A properly functioning septic system, and its surrounding bacterial mix, will renovate effluent to a much higher quality than common sewage treatment plants.
The concentration of nitrogen from, densely clustered, properly designed septic systems, will be much less than from central sewage treatment plants.

At Beach Pond in Voluntown, Connecticut, the deposition of nitrogen from the atmosphere is greater than the mean concentration (0.24 ppm) in the lake , indicating that the persistence of nitrogen in the lake is limited. Nitrous Oxide Emissions from energy use increased 29% from 1990 to 1998 while per capita protein intake increased 3.7% which would convert to an increase of approximately 3.7% of NOx from human sewage in wastewater. The CT DPH would be wise to spend their energy and capital on reducing the Nitrogen in the atmosphere which is a verifiable source of nitrogen added to the waters of the state. There is no proof that nitrogen in sewage impacts open waters (especially in the quantities that are used in DPH calculations) any significant distance from the source.

The method of placing galleries and infiltration chambers directly at the ground water level to deliver storm run-off from roads, parking lots, roofs, chemically treated lawns, containing nitrogen from atmospheric deposition and fertilizer from lawns along with animal waste and a host of chemicals including MTBE**** (recently discovered to be a carcinogen), is surely a real threat to the environment, human and animal health.
*** It is reported that New Hampshire may have 66,000 wells contaminated with MTBE and the figure for Maine is also in the thousands. How about Connecticut and Massachusetts, both practice dumping untreated storm run-off into plastic and other chambers placed near the ground water table.

The full utilization of small lots on existing infrastructure will greatly reduce pollution of the environment. Connecticut standards for separation distance to potable well and water supplies are totally adequate in protecting wells from nitrogen overload.

STOP THE CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH FROM REDUCING THE VALUE OF YOUR PROPERTY BY CALLING YOUR LOCAL ELECTED OFFICIALS, STATE SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE.

THE DPH CIRCULAR LETTER CONTAINING THE RECOMMENDATIONS TO LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS IS LABELED DEH CIRCULAR LETTER 2000-01, DATED JANUARY 13, 2000, AND IS FROM FRANK A. SCHAUB, (Now RETIRED), TO REACH BOB SCULLY the current SUPERVISING SANITARY ENGINEER, ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING SECTION (TEL # (860) 509-9296

SPRAWL HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED TO BE DESTRUCTIVE FOR NEW JERSEY.
HOW ABOUT CONNECTICUT?

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Links to Long Island Sound Information

After you have viewed the information at above linked pages you may want to check further by using the FAST Web Search Engine below. It is very comprehensive and yields quick results. If you use keywords such as, "outfall pipe", "deer island", "boston sewage treatment", "nitrogen", "nitrate", "nitrite" it should point you to additional information. If you'd like to return to our site simply press the "back button" or enter the url "www.formcell.com".

For Connecticut properties, the State Public Health Code, Design Manual and other useful information can be found at
Download or view Connecticut Public Health Code 2000

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NITROGEN
(NOT A POLLUTANT)
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