A town wastewater study committee briefed the Southborough Conservation Commission May 1 on early-stage work to assess whether a new wastewater treatment system could support commercial development along Route 9 and where treated effluent might be disposed of, including possible reuse to irrigate the town-owned Southborough Golf Course.

Study scope and rationale: Committee member Al Hamilton said the committee's motivation is fiscal: expanding taxable nonresidential assessment along Route 9 could rebalance the town's residential-to-commercial tax share (currently about 83.7% residential). The committee has conducted three studies in two years, surveyed developer interest, consulted the DEP, met with operators and engineers, and is pursuing a technical "one-stop" grant to advance engineering work.

Ground discharge and golf course reuse: Hamilton said surface-water discharge faces increasingly strict federal Clean Water Act permitting and that ground discharge (subsurface disposal similar to a large leach field) is likely the only practical option. He estimated disposal would require roughly one acre per 50,000 gallons per day and that a town-scale disposal field for a 0.5'1.0 million gallon-per-day plant would need on the order of 10'10 acres. One concept under study is piping treated effluent to the golf course for irrigation and subsurface drip irrigation to provide year-round disposal while replacing potable water for irrigation.

Conservation restriction and stakeholder consultation: The committee noted the golf course conservation restriction (with the Sudbury Valley Trustees and the Conservation Commission as grantees) allows irrigation of the course. The committee asked the commission to engage SVT early so grantees understand the concept; the commission agreed and asked staff to invite SVT to the May 22 meeting for an initial discussion. Commission members flagged that any siting would require robust soils testing, potential winter testing windows and careful coordination with the golf-course operator and stewardship groups.

Next steps: The study committee will pursue a one-stop grant for technical design work, continue site analysis for both a plant and disposal areas (including the Route 9 median area and other parcels), and follow up with SVT and the golf course operator. Hamilton emphasized the work is preliminary and that any plant siting, piping and irrigation design would require multiple studies, permits and stakeholder agreements before construction.