The following is a press release submitted by Town Administrator Fred Turkington:
Twenty Wayland, LLC, the developers of the Town Center project under construction at 400-440 Boston Post Road, filed suit late last week against the Town and the Wastewater Management District Commission (WWMDC). The complaint alleges the Town and WWMDC have breached the contract between the parties by failing to provide 45,000 gallons per day (gpd) of wastewater treatment capacity to Twenty Wayland. The company charges the WWMDC with oversubscribing the wastewater treatment facility, allowing other parties to connect in excess of the capacity that remained for the town to allocate after the facility was acquired by the town in 1999. Twenty Wayland further alleges that the WWMDC has overcharged for sewer use based on capacity and flow since 2005 and seeks unspecified damages related to the sewer use charges and the impact on the marketability of the residential portion of the Town Center project.
Fred Knight, chair of the WWMDC, states that there has been on-going dialogue between parties regarding the allegations. The capacity dispute centers around Mass Department of Environmental Protection’s (MassDEP) decision to permit a first phase of 28,000 of the 45,000 gpd sought by Twenty Wayland based on Title V projected wastewater capacity rather than actual plant outflow data, which shows treatment well below predicted levels. Ever since MassDEP, in early June 2011, released only the first phase of 28,000 gpd of permitted capacity to Twenty Wayland, representatives of the WWMDC and the Board of Selectmen have been working to determine a method of securing additional outflow for the second phase of the DEP permit (the remaining 17,000 gallons per day of capacity) with Title V as soon as possible. The option of permitting a leaching field adjacent to the town building received initial positive response from MassDEP, and the WWMDC pushed forward authorizing the necessary engineering contract to determine feasibility. “We do not believe there is a capacity problem with the plant,” said Mr. Knight. The disputed charges are a result of the claim that contracted capacity has not been made available. In short, Twenty Wayland doesn’t believe it should pay for capacity to which it doesn’t have access.
In August, Twenty Wayland submitted a draft of the suit to itemize its concerns, so the filing of the suit with the courts was not unexpected. However, Twenty Wayland recently paid all outstanding disputed sewer usage charges, and while retaining their right to continue to dispute the charges, indicated it would await the results of efforts by the Commission to identify and permit an alternative discharge point that would allow Mass Department of Environmental Protection to release the remaining 17,000 gallons per day of capacity at issue.
“We look forward to resolving this suit once MassDEP responds to our proposal and releases the remaining capacity to Twenty Wayland so the Town Center project can be fully developed,” said Mr. Knight.
