PLUM ISLAND, Mass. — Maintaining a sewer system on a barrier island sand bar is never an easy task. And the sewer system on this ever-more-populated island is no exception.
For all its challenges, the PI sewer system has enhanced the island’s charm by producing the cute candy cane-like exhaust pipes in many yards that serve as an unofficial symbol of the island.
In 2015, the sewer system, fragile at best, went into catastrophic failure, resulting in many outages and law suits that generated some funds for upgrades. But the upgraded system has never worked properly in its entirety, causing residents and city workers tremendous stress as repairs the system were required in the worse of weather.
Now the city is preparing at least to install a better monitoring system to pinpoint where the sewage system is not working. But before they spend vast sums on the monitoring system, they want to test it.
The pilot, according to the city’s official web site, will monitor 100 pits for six months before the city commits to install the monitoring system on all 630 pits.
Beginning next month and through mid-November, expect to see narrow trenches between roadside pits and air terminals to house conduit and wiring for the new monitoring system. This may require some intermittent road closures.
The city does not expect the pilot will cause interruptions to the sewer service. If successful, the pilot will help city crews more easily detect and deal with issues in the system.
The test will be considered successful if there is a minimum of 95 percent operational availability across all 100 locations during the six-month pilot, the city said. ♦
