| Abstract: |
DPWs and Water and Sewer Commissions are struggling with addressing community wastewater management needs. In Massachusetts, Comprehensive Wastewater Management Planning looks at current needs based on existing developments, analysis of Title 5 failures, groundwater elevations, soil types, and environmental resources. Many communities are also looking at future needs by projecting growth throughout town. By using GIS, these existing and future needs can be analyzed by overlaying available spatial and tabular data. By using the resulting information to generate reports and maps, GIS can help guide the planning effort. Planners and environmental agencies have expressed concerns related to sewers as a sole option for wastewater management as they result in less groundwater recharge at the point of withdrawal, can impact stream flows, and can encourage growth. Comprehensive Wastewater Management Planning needs to look at the constraints on siting on-site disposal systems and water quality concerns and balance those with land use and water quantity concerns. As more and more high-quality data becomes available, GIS can be a useful tool in this process. |