Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect that Dennis' town meeting will not be broadcast or streamed live, it will be entirely in-person.

DENNIS- A redesign of wastewater systems, repealing the single-use bottle ban, the Pilgrim power plant and conservation of Tobey Woods are all on the docket for annual Town Meeting. 

The meeting is set for May 3 at 7 p.m. at the Nathaniel H. Wixon Innovation School.

Dennis’ wastewater system could be in for some big changes, with residents voting on raising money to design a water resource reclamation facility and Phase I Wastewater Collection System outlined in Article 22. 

Select Board member Paul McCormick said he believes the article is the most important on the 37-article warrant. 

“We’ve been working on this (wastewater issues) for over 20 years,” he said. “The time has come to get this going.”

McCormick said the design phase of the project, outlined in the warrant, is estimated to cost $7.7 million.

“We’ve been putting $300,000 annually into the wastewater stabilization fund, so we’ve been saving for this,” he said. 

As of early March, the town has already raised $4.1 million for the wastewater stabilization fund and the wastewater infrastructure investment fund, and McCormick said once the design plans get the go-ahead, the town can apply for state and federal grants.

More:Dennis Town Meeting may get the ball rolling for wastewater infrastructure design

Article 21 of the warrant also asks the town to approve moving money from the rooms tax collection to the wastewater stabilization fund, further offsetting the cost of the designs. 

Other Cape towns — such as Barnstable, Harwich and Chatham — have secured rooms tax revenue to use for wastewater management, according to McCormick, which makes him optimistic Dennis will be approved for that money, too. 

Due to the town's effort to set aside money and potential state and federal grants, McCormick said he does not anticipate any tax increases for residents for this phase of the project.

For many in town, wastewater upgrades have been a long time coming. At a Feb. 1 Select Board meeting, experts from UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology provided the town with an updated water quality assessment.

The outcome was grim, as the experts found that the water quality in Swan Pond and Bass River are just as bad, if not worse, than over a decade ago when it was discovered both bodies had poor water quality due to high levels of nitrogen.

The design of both the facility and the collection system is the first step in addressing the town’s wastewater problem, with the state already approving Dennis’ Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan.

Article 37 in the town warrant – also a non-binding advisory question for the upcoming election – revolves around the now-closed Pilgrim nuclear power plant and its plan to discharge approximately 1 million gallons of radioactively contaminated water into Cape Cod Bay.

Holtec International, the company responsible for decommissioning the plant, faced fierce public backlash after it was discovered the company planned to discharge this water – used to cool spent fuel cells and reactors – in the first few months of 2022.

While discharging into the bay is not completely off the table, Holtec promised not to discharge any water in the bay in 2022 and to explore other options.

Towns across the Cape and southeast Massachusetts, including Dennis, submitted letters to state Sen. Susan Moran in support of her legislation that would make it illegal to dump radioactive liquid waste into protected ocean environments like Cape Cod Bay.

More:Cape town leaders oppose radioactive water release in Cape Cod Bay, in letters filed at hearing

“I agree with them (opposition to Holtec) wholeheartedly,” McCormick said. “The bay is too valuable a resource to have it contaminated like that.”

Dennis voters can expect a question on the May 10 ballot asking them if they support calling upon Holtec to immediately withdraw any plans to discharge radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay.

Another important item on the meeting agenda is Article 35, a citizen’s petition urging the repeal of Dennis’ commercial single-use plastic water bottle ban, which has been in effect since Dec. 31, 2021.

The ban made it illegal to sell non-carbonated, unflavored drinking water in single-use plastic bottles of less than one gallon, with penalties up to a $300 fine.

The petition argues that due to the ban, many local businesses have been left without a viable alternative to single-use plastic water bottles, and the pandemic has made public water-filling stations not only unsanitary, but unavailable in public places like schools, parks and beaches. Glass bottles are also prohibited from public places like beaches due to the town’s health and safety standards, according to the petition.

From an environmental angle, the petition also states boxed water is not recyclable due to its wax or vinyl filling, and that selling water in aluminum cans can sometimes be as bad for the environment as single-use plastic.

More:'Greener alternative': Cape businesses support plastic water bottle ban, seek substitutes

“It will be interesting to see how that flies,” McCormick said of the possible repeal.

While acknowledging he hates seeing the beach and roadside trash generated by single-use plastic water bottles, McCormick ultimately sees the ban as premature and harmful to local businesses.

“People don’t buy the individual water bottles in Dennis, they’ll just go to another town, so it’s difficult for local businesses to provide what customers want,” he said. “I want to see how the big manufacturers of these bottles are handling it, and then the towns can act.”

The Community Preservation Committee is asking the town to set aside $600,000 to purchase a conservation restriction of approximately 8.02 acres of undeveloped forest and marshland at 272 Main St. (Route 6A) in Dennis.

The committee is asking for $300,000 from the Community Preservation Open Space Reserve Account and $300,000 from the Community Preservation for Any Purpose Reserve, and with approval from the Select Board, will borrow $600,000 to pay for the project.

Curious Cape Cod:Great loop hike through Crowes Pasture that starts with a bang

If approved, they will also have the authority to file for any reimbursements or grants from the Massachusetts Local Acquisitions for Natural Diversity (LAND) grant to the tune of $312,000. If they do not secure that grant, the committee will be gifted $300,000 from the Dennis Conservation Land Trust to help offset the cost, according to Article 30 of the town warrant.

“This is something we’ve been looking at for a number of years, and we are hoping to get some state funding as well,” McCormick said.

Also to be discussed at Town Meeting is funding renovations for Dennis’ senior center, temporary repairs to Green View Drive and Uncle Bob’s Way.

The fire department has also requested the town vote to increase the ambulance fees for basic life support and advanced life support from $703 to $1,200 and $1,317 and $1,900 respectively.

Upgrades to the senior center will also be voted on, and while McCormick said the price for this project hasn’t been decided on, he is hoping the town will be able to use free cash to fund it.

When: May 3 at 7 p.m.

Where: Nathaniel H. Wixon Innovation School, 901 Route 134, South Dennis

The town meeting will be recorded by Dennis Channel 18 and posted on their website later that week: https://www.town.dennis.ma.us/channel-18