Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan
Somerset, Massachusetts
The Town of Somerset is experiencing transition and funding challenges on many fronts including leadership, loss of industrial tax base, EPA/MassDEP permit requirements for wastewater and stormwater, and several completed and ongoing water and sewer system capital improvements projects. The Town identified the opportunity to address these challenges by combining a comprehensive wastewater management planning and water/stormwater system needs assessment into an Integrated Water Resources Management Plan (IWRMP). The IWRMP will evaluate alternatives for addressing Somerset’s current and future wastewater, drinking water, and stormwater needs and identify economical and environmentally appropriate means of meeting such needs. The viability of the plan relies on a dependable source of safe drinking water and environmentally protective systems for managing wastewater and stormwater.
BETA is working as a team with Wright-Pierce to assess the existing condition of the Town’s infrastructure and identify needs. BETA’s specific charge is stormwater and creating the Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan for inclusion in the IWRMP. BETA began by obtaining and reviewing previous plans and studies, planning documents, and interviews with the Highway Department and Planning staff to identify issues and needs; reviewing receiving waters; and completing an MS4 Compliance Strategy. BETA performed a culvert inventory and dry weather outfall screenings. This investigation work identifies gaps in the Town’s stormwater GIS mapping, MS4 permit compliance, and operations and maintenance practices. Using this information, opportunities for projects are identified including capital construction improvements, studies, evaluations, and data management. These projects are assessed and ranked with input from the Town and integrated with sewer and water project opportunities to create the IWRMP, a capital improvement plan, that the Town will use to plan for the future. The Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan developed by BETA includes the Stormwater Management Plan and Illicit Discharge Detection & Elimination Plan required by the MS4 permit.