Business & Tech

Water, Sewer Impacts of Milford Casino Discussed

Developers of the proposed casino will need to add capacity to existing well fields, and add sewer lines and a pumping station, among other improvements.

The developer of Foxwoods Massachusetts said it will make improvements to existing wells, and the sewer system and treatment plant in Milford, to provide enough water and extend sewer services for the proposed casino.

Tetra Tech, the consultants for the casino developer, said Wednesday there is enough water in Milford to meet the demands of the project, but the system for extracting it from the aquifer needs to be improved. In a separate presentation, Tetra Tech said the sewer treatment plant has the capacity to handle the increased flow from the casino, but the sewer line system will need to be upgraded.

Jack O'Connell, senior vice president for Tata & Howard, the town consultant who reviewed the sewer impacts, said several times that more study is needed to determine whether the expected flow from the casino could be treated adequately by the existing plant. Tighe & Bond, the town's water consultant, said if improvements are made, and water regulatory agencies approve, there appears to be sufficient water for the casino. According to its report, this assumes a 50 percent reduction in the international fire standard for water pressure needed for a four-hour fire. This could be allowed if the facility has an automatic sprinkler system.

Foxwoods Massachusetts would pay for the water and sewer system improvements, and they would have to be completed before the casino could open.

The three-hour meeting on the water and sewer impacts of the proposed development, at Milford High School, ended before residents had a chance to ask questions about the water impacts.The next informational meeting, on July 24, which will address business and economic impacts of the development, will be held an hour earlier to allow people to ask questions about water, said the moderator, the town's casino attorney, Cid Froelich. That meeting will now begin at 6 p.m.

The town has published the consultants' reports on its casino project website. Click on the tabs for both town and Foxwoods impact reports for water and sewer.

Sewer System

The proposed development would require a 1,000-foot extension of sewer line up East Main Street to the site, and the developer is proposing an additional 3,000-foot length to the Holliston line, which would allow homes in that area to connect to the service. The casino consultant said about 60 existing homes could be connected.

The development would also require significant improvements to the existing pumping station on East Main Street, near Fortune Boulevard, as well as a new pumping station near the Holliston line.

The development will add about 291,000 gallons per day to the sewer system, according to the developer. This does not include the amounts from the homes that will connect to the expanded sewer line, or to future development that may be sparked in that area by the proposed access to I-495 for the casino, or the new sewer line on Route 16. That could add another 50,000 gallons a day, according to Tata & Howard, the town's consultant.

In order to connect to the sewer system, under state requirements, the developer will have to remove 4 gallons of non-sewage water that enters the existing system — through leaks in older pipes and other crevices — for every 1 gallon that it introduces from the casino. The casino is proposing to remove 5 gallons, which was the standard applied to the last large development in Milford, Walden Woods. This is one of the reasons why the developer has proposed low-flow fixtures for the Milford schools, and for its own facility.

The developer also proposes to send the casino laundry off-site, and use only recycled water for its landscaping. The town's consultant on sewer has suggested the pool at the casino not be connected to the sewer system, because of its potential impact.

The developer and town's consultant on sewer disagreed about the impact of the Foxwoods employees, and whether the 3,500 people are included in the development's projected flow volume. The developer says they are; the town consultant says it disagrees.

Because the developer proposes to reduce the flow into the treatment plant by 5 gallons for every 1 gallon it produces, the casino development will reduce the overall flow into the Milford sewer system, said Sean Reardon, of Tetra Tech. "The project will not have a negative impact on treatment plant capacity, but instead will provide a significant benefit during periods of peak demand," he wrote.

In his report and his presentation, O'Connell would not say that the treatment plant had the capacity to treat the anticipated flow coming from the development. More study is needed, he said, to determine whether the treatment processes at the plant can handle the flow from the development. He said that would be known within a few weeks. In his report he wrote: "There may be sufficient capacity for Foxwoods Massachusetts to connect to the system, if significant improvements are made to the East Main Street Pump Station, and to pipelines that will carry the wastewater to the [wastewater treatment facility.]"

Water System

The Foxwoods project is planned to be developed in two phases. The initial phase would be 4,250 slot machines, 875 table seats, 500 poker seats, a 350-room hotel and a 1,400-seat ballroom. Once the second phase is added, the development would feature 7,325 gaming seats, 700 hotel rooms and a 2,150-person ballroom.

This would occupy about 1 million square-feet of space.

The town's water consultant, Tighe & Bond, considered the full build-out of the casino, both phases, when determining its impact on water.

According to the town consultant and the developer's reports, the project will require almost 1 billion gallons of water a year, or 271,356 gallons a day. This does not include water for irrigating landscapes. The water consumption estimates are based on the water use at Foxwoods Resort casino in Connecticut.

To provide the water, the developer proposes to increase the ability of the private-owned Milford Water Company to pull more water from its existing wells. The Water Company already is planning to replace the Clarks Island well field, which is above the water surface and now has to be shut down each winter to prevent freezing. 

If a Phase 2 expansion is sought, Foxwoods said it will install new wells or rehab older wells at the Dilla Street and Godfrey Brook sites, to add capacity, according to its report. The additional draw from Clarks Island wells, which sit in Milford Pond, could produce 72 million gallons over the four months it previously was shuttered, according to Tetra Tech.

That alone could cover the first phase of the casino development, the development report stated.

The town's consultant recommended the developer improve the Dilla Street and Godfrey Brook well sites, to add sufficient capacity for the project to 135 percent of its needs, enough to give the town a buffer.

Milford Water Company general manager David Condrey attended the meeting, sitting in the audience. At one point, he was asked by Selectman Dino DeBartolomeis that if all the improvements were made, whether the Water Company would feel comfortable with the proposed water demands for the casino.

Condrey responded by saying the first concern of the company is its existing customers. The company can get some capacity for more water through the existing well fields, he said. But he said he was not sure the development projections would materialize. "There is some room for growth there," he said. "I can't say here, right now, I"m going to gain all of that growth." 

The idea of pulling water from a source in Milford Pond for the development rankled Selectman Bill Buckley, who pointed out that the town had just approved money to dredge the pond, which he said has depths as low as 2 feet.

"I'm a little concerned we're going to draw down on the Milford Pond at the same time that we've just approved funds for dredging," he said. "And approved recreational uses."

In its report, Tighe & Bond applied water use models to the proposed development numbers, and found that the water system pressure remained adequate, above 20 pounds/square inch, under all scenarios except during a four-hour fire emergency.

When the consultant considered the maximum-day demand, projected out to the year 2030, during a fire that would require water for four hours, water pressure fell below 20 psi in neighborhoods around the casino development, and the system also had low pressure readings in neighborhoods around the Congress Street tank, along Sunset Drive, and in the Fortune Boulevard/Caroline Drive/Packard Road areas. [The analysis assumes that the developer gets permission to cut its water flow for fires to 3,000 gallons a minute.]

The developer could replace water mains on East Main Street, and Fortune Boulevard, and clean and reline mains from Fortune Boulevard down to Dilla Street's treatment facility, to alleviate the low pressure, according to Tighe & Bond.


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