Select Board adopts one‑year sewer moratorium to inventory allocation, study capacity

The Westborough Select Board on April 9 adopted a temporary one‑year sewer moratorium regulation to pause most new sewer connections, system expansions and increases in permitted flow while town staff and consultants complete an inventory and analysis of the town’s sewer allocation.

The regulation, moved and seconded by members of the board, is intended to “buy us some time,” Chris Pant, the town’s director of public works, said during a detailed presentation to the board. “We are proposing a year duration,” Pant said, noting the moratorium is temporary and can be lifted sooner if the analysis warrants it.

DPW and engineering staff summarized work already done and the technical questions the moratorium is intended to resolve. Westborough sends treated wastewater to a regional plant whose permit caps Westborough’s average daily discharge at 2.89 million gallons per day (MGD). Staff presented ten‑year measured flows showing average daily flow around 2.27 MGD in 2023. Pant and town engineer Lisa Lane cautioned that the key concern is not current measured flow but the town’s legally allocated but unused commitments — the volume the town has promised to individual properties and projects over time.

The moratorium will halt most new allocations while the town completes a June draft memo that staff say will present a consolidated table of current allocations by category (residential, commercial and other), current measured use, and projected demand. That table, staff said, will allow the town to determine whether it has unencumbered capacity or must pursue options such as reducing infiltration/inflow, renegotiating previously allocated amounts, or requesting additional capacity through the regional permitting process.

The draft regulation includes a short list of exceptions. Pant said exemptions were crafted to protect public health and previously committed projects: failing single‑family septic systems may connect for health reasons; property owners with prior allocations and payments may be able to use that allocation; and certain minor changes of use within an existing allocation would not be blocked. But staff and town counsel stressed that qualifying for an exception will not guarantee an approval if overall system availability is judged insufficient.

Board members pressed staff about near‑term impacts on projects now in the planning process, most notably a large mixed‑use redevelopment at Westborough Plaza presented earlier in the meeting. “If everyone used what they were committed to, we could be over our limit,” Pant said, emphasizing the need to reconcile allocated versus used flow in the inventory.

Board members acknowledged the regulation is disruptive for developers and homeowners but said it was necessary to protect the town’s long‑term priorities. “We have to get our ducks in a row here and figure this out for the future of the town,” a board member said during debate. The board approved the moratorium (motion and vote recorded on the record); publication in a local newspaper will follow to trigger the effective date, and staff said they expect to circulate the draft allocation table in June.

Next steps: DPW will finish the allocation memo and circulate it to staff and boards; the sewer moratorium will remain in effect while the town evaluates options including infiltration/inflow reductions, targeted recovery of unused allocations and, if needed, a formal capacity request under the CWMP process.