MIDDLEBOROUGH — Middleborough’s planned $62 million South Wells Water Treatment Plant has cleared the main local approvals it needs, and the project’s next steps move from Town Hall hearing rooms to loan paperwork, contractor bids and neighborhood streets.

The Planning Board voted 5-0 on Sept. 15 to waive site plan review for the plant, according to minutes filed with the town clerk Oct. 7. Thirteen days later, the Select Board unanimously granted the project a special permit under the town’s Water Resource Protection District bylaw. At that hearing, Town Engineer Michael Ohrenberger said the project already holds an Order of Conditions from the Conservation Commission along with the Planning Board waiver, according to the Select Board’s draft Sept. 28 minutes. He said an earth-removal permit will be requested later.

The plant would treat water from the Tispaquin, Miller Street and Rock Village wells for PFAS, iron and manganese. Ohrenberger told the Select Board it will handle up to 1.75 million gallons a day and must meet new federal PFAS limits by 2031.

What comes next

A schedule in the Water and Sewer Commissioners’ Sept. 2 packet calls for an application to the state revolving fund, the low-interest loan program for water projects, this month. Contractor prequalification runs through December, bidding from January to April 2027, and construction from July 2027 to July 2029.

Ohrenberger said the town will seek bids from treatment plant, water main and bridge contractors. The treatment building itself, 13,930 square feet, would go at the Miller Street well site at 42 Miller Street, with work at the Rock Village wells at 58 Miller Street and the Tispaquin wells at 389 Wareham Street.

What neighbors can expect

Raw water from the three well fields will be piped to the single plant, and finished water piped back into the system. Ohrenberger said new water mains will go in on Cushman, Wareham and Miller streets. Asked by Select Board Chair Teresa Farley about the effect on residents, he said temporary water shutdowns similar to past projects may occur.

Anthony Bertelli of 54 Miller Street, the only resident who spoke at the Sept. 28 hearing, asked about piping behind houses on his street. Ohrenberger said the lines from the Tispaquin and Rock Village wells will run in the road, while the Miller Street site will use a utility corridor.

The town is also buying land around its wells. On Sept. 28 the Select Board voted to sign a purchase and sale agreement for 155 Spruce Street, which voters authorized in June. Select Board member Brian Giovanoni said the parcel sits next to an existing well and would let the town keep control of the well’s protective zone, or move the well if needed.

The money behind it

The plant arrives as the water fund is under strain. The draft fall warrant asks voters to cover a $576,041 fiscal 2026 water shortfall from the fund’s savings, and Interim Town Manager Robert Nunes told the Select Board and Finance Committee on Sept. 21 that additional water enterprise debt over the next five to 10 years may total $110 million, The G.O.A.T. News reported this week.

At the Sept. 28 hearing, Nunes said the water superintendent has asked to use the town’s PFAS stabilization account for the project. Under state law, money in a stabilization account can be spent only by a two-thirds Town Meeting vote. The G.O.A.T. News reported in September that the town’s PFAS settlement fund held $1,350,455. The draft fall warrant the Select Board reviewed Oct. 5 includes no article to spend PFAS money.

Four questions for Town Meeting

The Planning Board’s other business this fall points toward Nov. 9. Its Oct. 6 agenda listed public hearings on three zoning changes in the draft Fall Special Town Meeting warrant, each needing a two-thirds vote. Minutes of the Oct. 6 meeting have not been posted, so this story does not report what the board decided that night.

Battery storage. On Sept. 15, Town Planner Leeann Bradley walked the board through comments from town counsel KP Law and the changes planned for the final draft of the battery energy storage bylaw, the minutes say. Article 20 would allow systems of 100 kilowatt-hours or less everywhere and allow larger systems only by special permit in a new overlay district. The G.O.A.T. News reported in August that the attorney general’s office had rejected a similar single-district approach in Waltham, and that the board chose to move ahead anyway.

Data centers. Article 14 would list data centers as prohibited in all 10 zoning districts and define them to include server buildings along with their cooling systems, substations and backup generators. The board voted in August to send the ban to Town Meeting, The G.O.A.T. News reported.

East Grove Street. Article 15 would move about 26.36 acres on four parcels along East Grove Street (Map 65, Lot 5659 and Map 66, Lots 3342, 3448 and 5727) from Residence A to General Use. At the same August meeting, the board voted 3-1 to draft a rezoning article for the former Freedman’s junkyard property on East Grove Street, with member Tracie Craig-McGee opposed. The warrant identifies the land only by map and lot and does not name the owners.

Morton Estates streets. On Sept. 15, Marcus Baptiste of Old Beach Investments asked the board to cut the performance bond on the Morton Estates subdivision off Old Center Street. A letter from Patrick Carrara of PMP Consulting, the board’s peer reviewer, said the work is complete with no outstanding items. The board reduced the bond to $5,000 and recommended the roads to the Select Board for acceptance, both 5-0. Article 16 asks voters to accept Morton Street and Grace Street as public ways, which would make their upkeep and plowing the town’s job. It needs a simple majority.

Neighbors weigh in on two retreat lots

Edward Medeiros of 9 Crest Drive has two retreat lot applications before the board, one on Moulton Street and one on Carey Street. A retreat lot is a house lot with less road frontage than the bylaw usually requires, allowed by special permit.

Five people spoke on the Moulton Street lot. Cindy Cuoto of 19 Moulton Street raised Eastern box turtle habitat, the condition of the road and whether emergency vehicles could get through in snowstorms, and she asked whether trees could be cut before a hearing opens. Medeiros told the board he had cleared trees that had already fallen and that Moulton Street is a private road. Matt Romello of 37 Moulton Street asked that the new lot join the homeowners association that pays for plowing. Devon Cahill of 29 Moulton Street said he worries about his yard washing away, and Medeiros said he will build a drainage basin and work with him. Jane Sanborn of 1161 Center Street asked for a fence around the basin where it abuts her land. Brian McAulay of 41 Moulton Street confirmed paving and drainage work had been done.

On Carey Street, Medeiros asked for time to check the wetland line and for a waiver to put the driveway 5 feet from 14 Carey Street instead of the required 10. He said the owner of that house prefers it there and can put that in writing. Jeff Calhoun of 10 Carey Street asked about heavy equipment, and Medeiros said he will reach the lot through the abutting lot he owns. Vice Chair Nancy Kefalis recused herself from that hearing.

Both hearings were continued to Nov. 17, with decision deadlines extended to Dec. 15.

The rest of the agenda, and where each case left off

Grace Estates. Robert Truax of Truax Engineering Group told the board the subdivision on Map 71, Lot 2938 is in its second round of peer review. The applicant wants a waiver to make a drainage basin part of Lot 4, with an easement to the town. The hearing was continued to Oct. 20 at 6:30 p.m., and the deadline extended to Nov. 10. The Oct. 6 agenda included a possible change of location for the Oct. 20 meeting because of early voting.

Wood Street retreat lot. The retreat lot bylaw requires the existing home to be a single-family house, and the house at 253-259 Wood Street has been used as a two-family, the minutes say. The permit can be granted only if the second kitchen comes out. Surveyor Bob Rego of River Hawk Land Survey asked for six months to bring the property into compliance. Louise Derry-Wells of 9 Chestnut Street raised concerns about blockages in Stoney Brook, and Rego said nothing proposed would affect the brook. The board continued the hearing until the owner either gets an accessory dwelling unit permit or the building inspector confirms the kitchen is gone, and extended the deadline to March 16, 2027. Earlier that night the board endorsed a Form A plan splitting the same property into two lots.

Form A plans. The board also endorsed plans dividing land at 206 Old Center Street and creating a new buildable lot at 188 Wareham Street, both presented by Dave Maddigan of Maddigan Land Surveying. Craig-McGee abstained on the Old Center Street plan.

Consultant bills. The board paid $2,925 to Apex for Fall Brook Subdivision, with Kefalis abstaining, and $3,528.75 in PMP Consulting invoices for Grace Estates, Morton Estates, Rose Ridge, Farland Estates and Campus 44. Developers reimburse the town for peer review. The Oct. 6 agenda listed $1,650 more from PMP for Campus 44 and Rose Ridge, plus a $150 legal notice for Grace Estates.

Planning help. Bradley said she does not need the board’s technical assistance hours from SRPEDD, the regional planning agency, this year. The board voted to donate them to the Community Preservation Committee.

Barrella serves on the Middleborough Finance Committee and the Town Manager Search Committee. The Finance Committee makes recommendations to Town Meeting on the warrant, including the articles described here, and reviews the water enterprise budget. The search committee has no role in these matters.