The Wareham Sewer Commission gave sewer-connection approval for four units of affordable housing from the Wareham Housing Authority in a meeting on Thursday, Feb. 8. 

The Commission previously denied the project approval due to the moratorium in place on new sewer flows. By the Feb. 8 meeting, the Commission found a certain amount of un-allocated sewer flow already permitted under the sewer moratorium, giving the Housing Authority's project a path forward. 

The Housing Authority plans to construct two duplexes on its affordable housing development on Sandwich Road, for a total of four units of housing. It needs Sewer Commission approval for the project, because the buildings will connect to the town's sewer system. 

The moratorium, established in April 2022, prohibits additional flow coming into the town's sewer system. 

When it came into place, consulting company GHD gave the Sewer Commission a list of projects that had been approved but not yet built. The flow from those projects was accounted for in the sewer moratorium. 

One project, at 83 Sandwich Road, was approved for 1320 gallons per day of sewer flow. That project was withdrawn after the sewer moratorium came into place, freeing up those 1320 gallons of flow for other projects to use, explained Sewer Commissioner Sandra Slavin. 

Since that time, eight building permits have been approved by the former Water Pollution Control Facility Director Guy Campinha. These used up 810 gallons per day of the freed-up flow, leaving 510 gallons unallocated. 

The Housing Authority needed 440 gallons per day for its project, so the Sewer Commission was able to approve it using the remaining flow under the moratorium, said Slavin.