Trepanier Harwich's New Water/wastewater Superintendent

 HARWICH – The town has a new water/wastewater superintendent: Jason Trepanier, who took over as department head on Aug. 26. 

Trepanier served as the water/wastewater superintendent in East Bridgewater for 11 years, but he is familiar with Harwich, having worked as chief operator in the town’s water department from 2000 to 2002.    

 “I liked the area and that is what drew me back,” Trepanier said. “The water quality awards the town receives from [the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection] every year, that’s another reason why I came here.”

 There are other reasons. Trepanier lives in Pembroke where the man he is replacing also lives. Dan Pelletier served as the water and wastewater superintendent in Harwich for nine years, but resigned on April 26 to take advantage of a job opportunity much closer to home.

 Pelletier took a position in a private firm where he had been working part-time for the past six years to make ends meet, he said at the time. He was offered 100 percent health insurance and the opportunity to be a part owner in the company, Pelletier said. He had been commuting to Harwich on a daily basis. The company he is now working for is in Rockland, five miles from his home. 

Trepanier said he will be making the hour-long trip to and from Harwich, adding that he plans to continue to live in Pembroke given the real estate market on Cape Cod.

Trepanier said he knows Pelletier and that the former superintendent recommended he pursue the Harwich position because of the quality of the department.

“I left East Bridgewater to take the position and it was a really tough decision, but when I got here, I knew I made the right one,” Trepanier said. “I like that they take a lot of pride in what they do here, everybody who works here. The town benefits greatly from that and it was a big attraction for me.” 

Trepanier has had a lot of experience in water and wastewater distribution and collection in the 22 years since he left Harwich. He said he left to learn and received a good opportunity to work for a wastewater company where he became the New England supervisor. He said wastewater is growing and evolving and he has had a lot of time working with wastewater collection.

He spent the past 11 years as water/wastewater superintendent in East Bridgewater. The East Bridgewater system handles about 4,800 services and is about half the size of what the Harwich system will service when completed.

Trepanier said he has had experience working with larger systems, having served for three years as the water distribution manager in Framingham, which has a population of 70,000.

Trepanier has experience in system expansion, noting that East Bridgewater is in the process of designing a fourth collection system that will tie into a treatment plant in Brockton.

On Thursday, Trepanier was busy studying the phase three sewer expansion plans for East Harwich. It’s a large project, he said, scheduled to get underway in November with local firm Robert B. Our Company awarded the two contracts for the project. There are also plans to replace some water mains along the same roadways, and his department is working to coordinate the installation of new lines as the sewer work moves along.

There are also two major projects planned along Route 28. New water mains are planned from Harwich Port to West Harwich, and a dry pipe system will be installed when the Massachusetts Department of Transportation begins to upgrade Route 28 from the Herring River to the Dennis town line. Those projects could get underway by Labor Day of next year, Trepanier said. 

 Trepanier said he is proud to be working in a department where everyone demonstrates a great deal of responsibility and the water/wastewater commissioners do a great job managing operations.