Groton panel continues to seek ways to solve sewer issue

GROTON -- Looking to expand the role of the Lost Lake Sewer Advisory Committee, members brainstormed ideas with the aim of approaching selectmen for a change in its mandate.

Originally established to study septic conditions at Lost Lake, the committee's recommendation to build a $12.9 million sewer system that would have connected the neighborhood with a treatment plant in Ayer was rejected at a 2012 Town Meeting.

One reason for the rejection was due to the uncertainty that the source of the contamination of the lakes was coming from neighborhood septic systems. Instead, residents insisted a more thorough study of the area around the lakes be undertaken.

A reconstituted Lost Lake Sewer Committee was appointed and consultants were hired to proceed with testing, which proved inconclusive.

Findings did indicate unexpected "emergent contaminants" at different points, including those near the Water Department's Whitney Well site.

Emergent contaminants is a new category of potential pollutants of ground water that is little understood in how it travels in the groundwater or how much of a threat to people its presence might be.

Comprised mostly of prescription medicines, testing at two sites on the lakes indicated the presence of five kinds of drugs and chemicals, including tranquilizers, nicotine, insect repellent, pain relievers and medicines needed to control seizures.

Initial results of the testing indicated relatively low concentrations of nitrates and phosphates, the more common pollutants.

The results left the committee with little support for the installation of an expensive sewer system, particularly if that system could potentially address only part of the contamination problem.

"The testing raised more questions than it answered," said Chairman Jack Petropoulos Thursday.

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Groton panel continues to seek ways to solve sewer issue