Beach's Outdated Sewers Could Cost $15M to Overhaul

Selectmen approved a project Monday to replace sewer lines under three streets on Hampton Beach's west side, although the work's just the tip of a subterranean wastewater iceberg because one official estimates there are many more streets that need full overhauls to correct significant infiltration problems.

Public Works Director Keith Noyes told Hampton selectmen that it could cost between $10 million and $15 million to replace all of the crumbling lines, which are causing the town's wastewater treatment facility to process a high volume of line infiltration in addition to regular flow.

The board will make headway next year on some of those streets — the full number of which isn't currently known — thanks to the unanimous acceptance Monday of a $389,882 project to replace the 1949 clay sewer lines under Auburn Avenue, Auburn Avenue Extension and Perkins Avenue.

Chairman Dick Nichols raised concerns, though, about performing this work as well as the Exeter Road resurfacing and clay sewer line replacement project before dealing with a west side sewer project that "fell off the face of the Earth" a decade ago.

He said the town never did anything with roughly $480,000 allocated as part of a roughly $900,000 project approved at the 2002 town meeting to replace lines on six west side beach streets. "At some point," Nichols said it was determined that those funds should be used elsewhere because there "was not enough money" to actually perform the upgrades, which included Riverview Terrace and Hobson, Johnson, Fellows and Harris avenues.

"My question is, why are we moving on to something else before we address something that was a matter of urgency 10 years ago?" asked Nichols, who made Monday's motion to accept the sewer project on Auburn and Perkins avenues. "What about the other streets?"

Noyes said Exeter Road is a priority because the road was already targeted for resurfacing due to its high volume of traffic, and he said it "doesn't make sense [financially] to do all of that roadwork without replacing the sewer lines and drainage underneath."

Auburn Avenue, Auburn Avenue Extension and Perkins Avenue were also already identified as feasible short-term projects, and Deputy Public Works Director Chris Jacobs told selectmen there is "a lot of infiltration" currently in the outdated lines under those roads.

Despite the approval of those projects, Noyes said it still is "in the town's best interests to replace all of the sewer" lines on the west side of Hampton Beach. Noyes said those streets aren't being forgotten or intentionally de-prioritized, as all of the beach's sewers will be investigated in the spring as part of a $100,000 infiltration study approved at the 2013 town meeting. 

He "didn't want to make a recommendation" Monday, though, about streets targeted for replacement, nor did he want to put out bids for those streets because he said he wants to wait until he gets the results of the infiltration study at some point in July 2014.

That would allow him to give the town the most complete set of information possible, and allow the voters to decide at the 2015 town meeting whether to approve a large, long-term loan to secure full funding for the replacement of all of the necessary sewer lines.

"There are definitely more streets [than the ones approved Monday]," said Noyes. "That's why I think it's prudent to give the town the option... to get the biggest bang for its buck [after receiving the full report on the issue]."