Wastewater Backwater

An Unholy Alliance, and the Gang of Four

By Spyro Mitrokostas

The Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod (APCC) and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce (CCCC) ?

What would possess perfectly respectable environmentalists like Elliott Carr and Maggie Giest who serve the APCC, to do business with the likes of John O'Brien and Wendy Northcross, who run the CCCC?

The preservation community needs the growth community to put its agenda across on development. The business community needs the environmental community to puts its agenda across on development. Once they worked as opponents on issues like the Commission and the Land bank. Today, they work together as partners.

"Not one selectman on Cape Cod has complained about the nitrification of our harbors. And not one municipal water official has ever said that our drinking water supply is in danger of nitrification by the homes that are polluting our bays."

Thus was created the Business Roundtable, affiliated with the APCC. A marriage of convenience. (Note the Business Roundtable is not so much, there is only one businessman on it, Dan Wolf CEO of Cape Air.)

The business community needs relief from the onslaught of regulation and conservation. Not much land left to develop, and what there is, is being competed for by land trusts, and the Cape Cod Commission. The preservationist would like to direct development, they realize there is going to be some, into growth centers, using the new buzz words, Smart Growth.

The APCC and would genuinely like to protect the watersheds, along the Cape rivers and bays, estuaries, currently being nitrified (polluted) by the houses that abut those areas, but cannot find the right regulatory mechanism (post Title 5) to stop it. The business community would like to find a way to continue to develop, without paying the extortion imposed by the Commission, or paying ridiculous prices competing with the land trusts.

A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon we're talking real money

So the idea is to concentrate future development in the town centers. If you can't build out, better build up, i.e., 2nd and 3rd floors in the downtowns. Only one problem; the centers cannot carry increased septic and are not sewered.

"But wait a minute, that problem doesn't exist yet. The wastewater problem is supposedly in outlying areas, like near the bays, harbors and marshlands"

So recognizing the mutual dilemma that these two groups find themselves in, it seems that they've found some common ground. Now all they have to do is find a way to treat wastewater from the new growth in the town centers. A billion dollar undertaking some would estimate.

Wastewater is the intersection where the two agendas meet, and it's the Business Roundtable, chaired by O'Brien and Carr, that's driving the bus right through the intersection.

So how and where do you get that kid of money? You need a governmental entity, like the state or the county, and you need a financing mechanism like a user fee or tax, to pay for the capital improvements and infrastructure.

A Solution in Search of a Problem

But wait a minute, that problem doesn't exist yet. The wastewater problem is supposedly in outlying areas, like near the bays, harbors and marshlands.

"The equitable thing to do would be to tax the source of the problem" (not the people)

The equitable thing to do would be to tax the source of the problem, the more expensive homes around the wetlands. That would be fair, but political impossible. So institute a fee or a tax on every user of water and make up some rationale like, every one enjoys the estuaries, or better yet, everyone drinks the water.

Not one selectman on Cape Cod has complained about the nitrification of our harbors. And not one municipal water official has ever said that our drinking water supply is in danger of nitrification by the homes that are polluting our bays.

Only non-water goo-goos have said that the Cape's aquifer is susceptible to extreme forms of pollution. For the record, the Mass Military Reservation has contaminated a lot of land, local water supplies and even shoreline. But it does not threaten the aquifer.

"Whenever you plan to tackle a problem that does not exist, who better than some ambitious politicians to help you champion the issue"

The Gunga Dins, getting the camel's nose under the tent

Whenever you plan to tackle a problem that does not exist, who better than some ambitious politicians to help you champion the issue. Enter Tom Bernardo, Speaker of the Assembly of Delegates, looking to further his career and Bill Doherty, Chairman of the County Commissioners, looking to get re-elected. They are the county officials who are championing a wasterwater collaborative idea.

After creating their own blue ribbon commission, the Barnstable County Wasterwater Implementation Committee, the duo realized that the APCC and the Business Roundtable's preferred modus operandi, a state authuority, could not pass muster with the locals, they finessed the issue with a collaborate. Read, the camel getting its nose under the tent for now.

And then they saw that their dog and pony show before the towns Boards of Selectmen failed, so they decided that there was a need to convince the regular folk of the urgent need of a wastewater something or other.

"A $116,000 appropriation to hire a PR flack to spend the year convincing the yokels that there really is a problem"

For now it's a collaborative, without a revenue generating component, ostensibly to help organize the towns around the fix. The people need to understand the problem before they can address it. A Public Relations campaign is warranted to convince the residents and voters of the dire situation we are in.

So last week, the County Commissioners and the Assembly of Delegates, passed an $116,000 appropriation to hire a PR flack to spend the year convincing the yokels that there really is a problem, and that the County, rather than their towns on there own can fix it, and oh yes, it won't cost you any money to do so. Not yet. Testifying on behalf of the county spending item was none other than Wendy Northcross.

Getting new jobs for Maggie Geist & John O'Brien

Trouble is, that neither the authority nor the collaborative will address the problem; older more expensive homes along the waterways polluting the bays. Building sewer capacity in the town centers to treat wastewater from newly invented development will not do that.

If that isn't outrageous enough, the real reason behind any wastewater initiative is that Maggie Geist wants a new job, and John O'Brien wants to keep being a player. Wastewater Collaborative would give Maggie a new job, Executive Director. She's tired of the one she has, and she's tired of waiting on the County hand and foot for yearly handouts of $20K and $30 K to do growth "forums" and wastewater implementation "planning".

"Tom Bernardo's gets the Gang of Four's support for State Rep.'s race next year, and Bill Doherty gets their undying gratitude and re-election next year"

They couldn't get the preferred independent authority from the state, so they settled for a county based entity. They can't get the County to buy in all the away, so they have to do it incrementally, but they'll get there.

The "Flush Tax" cometh plus Pork & Patronage

Tom Bernardo's gets the Gang of Four's support for State Rep.'s race next year, and Bill Doherty gets their undying gratitude and re-election next year. And then those guys are in place for the next step, state legislation for a taxing authority. (See Maggie and John's ed-op piece on the "Flush Tax" in Wednesday's Cape Cod Times)

And thusly, John O'Brien, having dreamed up this idea of the Business Roundtable, with the express purpose of marrying these two constituencies, would like to be the new Wastewater Authority, er, Collaborative Chairman. His reward, and he deserves it, would be to oversee the expenditure of vast sums of monies, doled out to new contracts, lobbying, and bonding, and not least of which, hiring. Because you see, all governmental power is derived from two things; pork and patronage.

And you thought this was about wasterwater.

Spyro Mitrokostas, has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors. He is the former Executive Director of the Cape Cod Technology Council and is active in local, state and national politics. He lives in Yarmouth with his wife and 3 children. He writes a Cape Cod Political Blog and can be emailed at spyro@cape.com.