Treated Sewage to Flow into Lake Winnipesaukee?

[mcdude]

excerpts from CITIZEN ARTICLE

Members of the Tuftonboro Conservation Commission are scheduled to appear before a state environmental panel today to challenge Wolfeboro's plan to dump treated wastewater at a new site that sits directly next to a brook that flows into Lake Winnipesaukee.

A group of Tuftonboro residents is raising environmental and health concerns about a Wolfeboro's plan to pump upward of 600,000 gallons of disinfected wastewater into "rapid infiltration basins" located near the town line.

Tuftonboro Conservation Commission Chair Mikel Phelps and others believe the multimillion-dollar project could lead to harmful chemicals percolating into 19 Mile Brook, not only threatening wildlife, but potentially those swimming at a town beach on Lake Winnipesaukee near the brook's outlet.

The Tuftonboro Conservation Commission head said nearby Mirror Lake has experienced greenish-blue blooms believed to be linked to cyno-bacteria — an organism whose numbers are linked to the type of nutrients sometimes found in wastewater.

As the Mirror Lake Protection Association undertakes its own study to investigate the root of the problem, Phelps and others are expressing concern about a solution that has Wolfeboro looking to build a pipeline that would bring up to 600,000 gallons of the wastewater to a new 35-acre site he said is only approximately 1,000 feet from 19 Mile Brook, which leads to 19 Mile Bay on Lake Winnipesaukee in Tuftonboro.