City Council Hears Updates on Sewage Overflow Issue, Windsor Green Water Rates

FRAMINGHAM - Updates on local sewage overflow challenges and the topic of water usage rates at the Windsor Green condominium complex were given to members of the Framingham City Council during their meeting on Tuesday, August 20.

Officials with the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) provided a review of their efforts to repair a broken pipe that resulted in a sanitary sewer overflow along Main Street by Union Avenue on Tuesday, July 30. Approximately 675,000 gallons of raw waste and sewage went into the Sudbury River as a result of the incident. Exposure to untreated waste in water can result in health risks.

Framingham’s Director of Water and Wastewater Steve Leone explained that the Worcester Road pump station’s pressure pipe has since been repaired following a large group effort; 13 septic trucks and 22 DPW staff members worked overnight after the pipe burst to complete the $110,000 repair. Leone said he and his team are “confident” that they know what caused the pipe to break, as evaluators determined that soil conditions with low pH levels led to corrosion and iron being taken out of the pipe’s cast iron.

Public Works Director for the city Bob Lewis mentioned that the incident has prompted the DPW to rearrange their project priorities in order to get ahead of future water and sewage trouble across the local system, adding that older pipes are a “ticking time bomb underground.”

“We’re dealing with an aging infrastructure here, and it’s happening across the whole Northeast…I just want to emphasize that water and sewer projects are going to be coming fast and furious over the next ten years or so,” Lewis told City Councilors on Tuesday.

Lewis indicated that he does not anticipate any state fines stemming from the July 30 incident.

Meanwhile, Mayor Charlie Sisitsky announced that homeowners at the Windsor Green condominium complex off of Edgell Road are entitled to a reimbursement of about $300,000 on their water bills.

New water meters were installed at Windsor Green over a year ago. Since then, many residents there have reportedly gotten higher water bills than usual, prompting them to seek answers.

Sisitsky told members of the City Council that the general problem with water monitoring and billing has been present for years locally.

Framingham utilizes a tier system for water rates; the more water that’s used during a billing cycle, the higher the charge is. Residential rates are the same as industrial and commercial rates. Sisitsky explained that the then-town’s Board of Selectmen voted to eliminate the multifamily factor—which essentially accounts for multifamily properties when calculating water fees in order to separate them from commercial or industrial sites that may use more water than the average household—back in 2007. However, not all multifamily factors were eliminated, as Sisitsky mentioned that the city has since determined that Windsor Green’s water bills were due for adjustments and residents there were owed credits because of how the factor was applied.

Going forward, Sisitsky said that he and other city officials are looking into a wide range of strategies to ensure that water bills are issued properly. He told the City Council that he would consider both the expansion and contraction of the multifamily factor, altering the tiers for water pricing, changing the number of tiers, raising water rates, and adding a service fee.

“The bottom line is: we still have to generate enough revenue to run the system and someone’s got to pay it,” Sisitsky continued.

“The big question is: how does that responsibility get divided up?”

Sisitsky said a public hearing on the water billing matter will be scheduled. Before then, he added that he and his office will try to have more details on a water billing study for City Councilors to consider at some point in September.