At Monday night’s Select Board meeting, Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto shared the current status of the Martins Landing Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is regulated by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, not the town, because its permit exceeds 10,000 gallons per day to serve the the 504-unit over-55 condominium complex, as well as the nuisance odor issue residents of Martins Landing brought before the North Reading Health Department and North Reading Board of Health last month.
The T.A.’s update, which includes a status report Pulte Homes of New England provided to its residents, is reprinted below:
Update regarding Martins Landing
Wastewater Treatment Plant and odor issue
The Health Department, at the direction of the Board of Health and with assistance from the Town Administrator, has been working with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), Pulte Homes of New England, Martins Landing Condominium Trust and their consultant Small Water Systems Services (SWSS), Town Counsel, and third party consultant Porter Odor Science regarding odors reported at Martin’s Landing at 104 Lowell Road.
It is important to note that the Town’s involvement through its Board of Health is limited to the odor/nuisance complaints, and that the wastewater treatment plant suspected of causing the odors is regulated by MassDEP. Pulte has committed to working with the Town’s Board of Health / Health Department to engage a third party consultant to evaluate the plant’s odor mitigation.
Pulte Homes of New England has provided the following updates to its residents:
Martins Landing WWTP Odor
Pulte management acknowledges your concerns about odor levels emanating from the WWTP and agrees that the current situation is not acceptable to you, the residents at Martins Landing. To address this, Pulte is working and has committed to work with the North Reading Health Department / Board of Health to:
• Engage a third-party independent consultant to evaluate the existing WWTP odor
mitigation systems and recommend both immediate short-term and long-term odor
mitigation improvements; and
• Implement short-term actions to minimize odors right away, while also planning for
long-term odor mitigation solutions.
Updates on progress of these mitigation efforts will be shared as this review moves forward.
Martins Landing WWTP tank repairs
As communicated on October 10, 2025, Pulte has scheduled the repairs of the steel wastewater treatment tank that has experienced corrosion to begin on October 27th. This work is expected to take approximately four weeks, with completion anticipated by the beginning of the last week of November. Once the repairs are complete, the WWTP will be placed back into normal operation. As previously discussed, Pulte is making the repairs at Pulte’s full expense with no cost to Martins Landing Condominium and includes a five-year warranty from the contractor. While the warranty provides peace of mind, the expectation is that the repair will last well beyond five years.
There will be no interruptions to sewer service during the repair period. However, daily pumping of the system will be required, which may result in temporary odor, noise, and inconvenience. I sincerely apologize for this and we will do our best to minimize the impact.
As previously discussed, additional concrete tank repairs are still needed. Unfortunately, these repairs could not be scheduled concurrently with the steel tank repairs. Nevertheless, Pulte remains committed to completing the concrete repair work at Pulte’s full expense with no cost to Martins Landing Condominium. I will provide further updates once the timing for the work is confirmed.
MassDEP inspection
MassDEP completed an inspection on October 3rd which identified issues to be addressed at the plant, and Pulte and the permittee Martins Landing Condominium Trust along with its licensed contracted operator SWSS have responded to reports and orders issued as a result of that inspection. Work has been performed at the plant this week, the replacement of media (filters) will be completed soon, and will continue in the coming weeks as outlined above. MassDEP has informed the Town that there are no significant violations at this time and the facility’s most recent data show that it is currently fully compliant in meeting its effluent limits.