DALTON, Mass.—The new sewer agreement with Pittsfield is going to "hurt" unless the town and its residents address the large amount of excess water entering the sewer system, Town Manager Eric Anderson told the Select Board last week.

 

The town's sewer rate has more than doubled for fiscal year 2027, with an annual bill of $1,217.08, which is billed biannually. The total bill for the town is $1,777,728.50.

 

"Our way out of this is reducing infiltration, reducing direct connections that shouldn't be there, and tracking down and figuring out how we can get the average household usage down. If we can do that, we can make this reasonable for the residents," Anderson said. 

 

"I say that, but it's not easy to do, and we're not going to suddenly wake up tomorrow and go from 300 million gallons going to Pittsfield to 120 million gallons. So, we kind of have to be realistic about our expectations, but we've got to work pretty hard to address this." 

 

More than a dozen residents attended the Select Board meeting, where Anderson outlined the history of the town's sewer agreement with Pittsfield, which dates back more than 50 years, along with the town's next steps in mitigating the cost.

 

In a follow-up interview with iBerkshires.com, Anderson said the town sends an average of roughly 350 million gallons of water into Pittsfield's wastewater system annually. This is significantly more than what a town of Dalton's size should be sending. Approximately 33 percent of this volume is the result of inflow from direct connections and infiltration of groundwater into the sewer system, he said. 

 

The town understands that this new rate is challenging for some taxpayers, so it is implementing relief measures.