Choose Granite Countertops Near Me Dennis, MA for Elegance and Durability

SOUTH DENNIS — Dennis has joined other Cape Cod towns in providing public sewer service to its property owners, after the end four years ago of a regional sewering plan with neighboring towns of Harwich and Yarmouth.

Dennis officials dug shovels into dirt on Friday, Oct. 3, to break ground on an $83 million wastewater treatment plant at 120 Theophilus F. Smith Road. The plant is part of the first of eight phases to provide sewer service throughout the town and nitrogen remediation for the town’s watersheds.

Friday was the culmination of nearly 25 years of study and planning by volunteer committees, town staff and officials with support from the state Department of Environmental Protection, according to town officials.

“It took different pathways over 25 years, but here we are and it’s wonderful,” Diane Chamberlain of the town Board of Health said. Chamberlain's long involvement in the project was since an initial wastewater task force that became the town Wastewater Implementation Committee, she said.

More than 50 people attended the event at the entrance to the site hidden behind public works buildings on the east side of the property.

Town Administrator Elizabeth Sullivan said the wastewater project is "the most important infrastructure project in the history of the town."

A phased approach to sewering

The plant now under construction is central to the $248 million wastewater plan that voters approved at the October 2024 special town meeting and on the subsequent town ballot. The funding covers the first three local contracts awarded for installing sewers totaling $183 million, Dennis Public Works Director Michael Lavin said in a phone interview earlier in the week. MWH Constructors has the contract for the treatment plant.

The first phase of the sewer construction also began in the summer, he said, starting in neighborhoods from Swan River to Bass River and up to Route 6 and adjoining neighborhoods. The plant construction will take about three years and the roadwork two to 2 1/2 years along with eight pump stations, he said.

Dennis is benefiting from zero percent financing as a loan from the state Department of Environmental Protection Revolving Fund and the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund, which results in $100 million in savings for the town, Lavin said.

The wastewater projects are a regulatory requirement for all Cape towns to meet water quality standards under Section 208 of the federal Clean Water Act. Towns are working under comprehensive wastewater management plans approved by the state to meet the goals of reducing nitrogen pollution in all waterways and drinking water.

“It’s been an issue for decades,” state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Provincetown, said at the site. “Ninety percent of embayments and estuaries are impaired. They are no longer pristine.”

“We have kicked the can down the road for decades on wastewater. We have run out of road,” Cyr added. He noted how towns bypassed generous federal funding offers for wastewater solutions in the 1970s, and now the Cape’s total cost is expected to reach $5 billion to $6 billion.

However, he said the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund has helped support the town’s wastewater projects since 2018. Dennis was one of 14 wastewater projects in 10 Cape towns awarded subsidies totaling $105 million in April 2025 by Water Protection Fund Management Board. The fund will provide more than $1.2 billion to towns by 2030, he said.

“Wastewater is always a challenge and we are proud every community is stepping up,” Cyr said.

Other Mid-Cape towns with sewer projects

Barnstable is in the first phase of its 30-year, $1.4 billion plan, consisting of 16 individual sewer expansion projects that will result in roughly 90 miles of new sewer infrastructure, according to the town’s website. Once complete, the first phase will remove approximately 44% of the nitrogen impacting the town’s waters.

Yarmouth voters approved $207 million in 2023 to advance its wastewater plan, focusing on a centralized wastewater treatment facility that is under construction on Buck Island Road. Yarmouth also is in the first phase of an eight-phase, 40-year plan that includes sewering all properties abutting Route 28 and Old Main Street in Yarmouth, and on South Shore Drive. The nitrogen remediation is aimed at all three impaired Yarmouth watersheds — Lewis Bay, Parkers River and Bass River.

Dennis residents can get weekly updates, detour information and watch daily progress on the wastewater plant construction at www.town.dennis.ma.us/356/Wastewater. They may also sign up to get emails on the project.

Susan Vaughn writes about transportation and other local community issues affecting Cape Cod residents and visitors. She can be reached at svaughn@capecodonline.com.

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