Candidate profile: Peter Dunlop

Feb 29, 2016

As Chairman for the Council on Aging, Peter Dunlop believes he is especially qualified to address Wareham’s sewerage concerns.

“If you got all the seniors together in Wareham, that’s one-third of the population,” Dunlop said. “I want to be a voice for the seniors, and those on fixed incomes.”

Dunlop is running for a seat on the Board of Sewer Commissioners in April’s election. The seat is currently held by Chairwoman Marilyn Jordan.

Though Dunlop moved full-time to the area 11 years ago, he said he had been visiting and living part-time in the area beginning in 1997. Since then, he said he has become connected to the people, and to the town’s government, and wants to ensure those who can’t afford higher sewer rates won’t have to shoulder that burden.

Dunlop supports the project collaboration between the Buzzards Bay Coalition and the Water Pollution Control Facility that seeks to move the town’s outfall pipe from the shallow, seldom-flushed Agawam River to the deep Cape Cod Canal at Mass Maritime, where sewage can be flushed several times per day. He believes this will be beneficial for the town’s sewage rates, since it would be able to treat “a lot more” sewage from other towns, thereby creating revenue for Wareham, and allowing sewer users to enjoy lower rates.

“That is where I would be focusing most of my attention,” Dunlop said. “You could use that system to 100 percent.”

He also said he would like to implement a different pay system for sewage use, rather than the current flat fee users now have. Because Wareham has many summer residents, the town’s year-round residents are “crippled” when it comes time to shoulder the wintertime sewer fees, which are higher, due to a lower population among which to split the total cost.

“Obviously, they are going to pay their fair share, but they shouldn’t pay a flat fee that will go up when people aren’t around,” Dunlop said.

Dunlop said he sees achieving this by coordinating the sewer department and the water departments, and basing the bills on water usage, after a baseline sewer fee.

Dunlop also wants to explore the option of further refining the town’s Greazezilla system currently produces. Greazezilla is a brown-grease separation system brought in in October 2015 that is meant to allow the town’s sewer plant to reduce costs, create oil as a re-sellable product and bring cleaner wastewater into the plant for full treatment.

“[Greazezilla] can come up with number six fuel,” Dunlop said, referring to the grade of oil the system can produce. “But if you could refine it even more, you could hypothetically run your equipment on waste … number two fuel … is practically diesel.”

The town’s elections will be held on April 5.