Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 11/29/2022
HATFIELD – The sewer extension project on Route 5 ran into additional drainage problems that could’ve been very expensive. Fortunately, this month the town received another $1.5 million from MassWorks to finish the line.
“It was a battle to get the initial funding for the $2 million, and for them to come up with the other $1.5 million was extremely generous of them,” said DPW Director Phil Genovese. “They understood that if this piece wasn’t built out the $2 million really was wasted. And the town did contribute $1.6 million.”
Genovese explained that 1,200 feet of sewer pipe is complete on one end of the project, 2,200 feet on the other end, and the additional grant will finish an 1,800 foot section in the middle. No sewerage can be accepted until the middle section is completed. When town and state officials met earlier this year, however, no promises could be made about further assistance.
“We met with representatives from the MassWorks program,” said Town Administrator Marlene Michonski. “They couldn’t make any guarantees [and] we didn’t feel confident at all that there would be any funding.”
Michonski said that bore testings taken before the project was initiated didn’t reveal the drainage problems. The ground beneath the newly laid pipe needs more stability and less water. Genovese said the depth of the trench and the nonporous nature of the soil there contributed to the problem.
“There’s an 1,800-foot stretch that is a very high groundwater table and the soil won’t stabilize under it, because we’re down so deep. We’re eighteen feet down,” Genovese said. “So we had to ask for more money, because we have to come up with a better dewatering system, remove the groundwater and stabilize that trench.”
According to the application for additional monies from MassWorks, tight soils with low permeability, in combination with high groundwater levels, are creating hydrostatic uplift pressures on the trench bottom. The improved dewatering system will utilize the same strategy currently in use, drilling well points in the ground adjacent to the ditch, after which water will be pumped out of the ditch, through pipes, into the well points.
According to submission materials sent by Geeleher Enterprises, the subcontractor installing the drainage well points, the wells will reach a depth of 23 feet. The grant application stipulates that well points will be spaced about every 5 feet, instead of the original 30 feet between well points, as was initially budgeted for.
The total expenditure of $5.1 million for a sewer line of about one mile may sound excessive, but the line is key to industrial growth in Hatfield. One of the town’s larger employers, Stiebel Eltron, hopes to develop additional facilities on several parcels along the sewer project. Stiebel Eltron is a world leader in the manufacture of solar panels and related equipment.
The Route 5 project will also alleviate some of the risk of pollution to the aquifer used by residents for potable water. The low soil permeability and high water table, according to information submitted for the latest grant, in the past caused septic systems in the area to fail. Preventing future septic failures reduces the risk of pollution reaching groundwater, further protecting the town’s aquifer.
Select Board member Brian Moriarty thanked Michonski and Genovese for the extra work they contributed.
Chair Diana Szynal pointed to state Sens. Jo Comerford and John Velis as instrumental in getting funds to finish the project.
“They really stepped up for this little town and we really appreciate it,” Szynal said.