Oak Bluffs Town Official Is Ordered to Pay Fines for Violating State Laws

By CHRIS BURRELL

The enforcement branch of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has found that Joseph N. Alosso - an Island official in charge of two municipal sewage treatment plants on the Vineyard - deliberately violated more than half a dozen state environmental regulations last year during the construction of a septic system for his new four-bedroom house in Oak Bluffs.

The state environmental agency has ordered Mr. Alosso and his wife, Evelyn Alosso, to pay the state more than $28,000 in fines and to comply with numerous orders before the end of the year.

Mr. Alosso manages both the Edgartown and Oak Bluffs wastewater treatment facilities and was chairman of the Oak Bluffs board of health when the septic permits were issued by his own board. He is no longer a member of the board of health.

Yesterday, Mr. Alosso denied any wrongdoing and vowed to appeal the ruling from the DEP. He must do so before Nov. 4, according to the terms of the administrative order and penalty assessment notice.

The two documents, numbering 16 pages in length, were received yesterday by the Oak Bluffs board of health.

Sent to Mr. and Mrs. Alosso last Friday by certified mail, the order and penalty notice together detail a string of violations uncovered by the DEP during an investigation of the Alosso property on 53 Carol Lane - a 7,405-square-foot parcel located in a nitrogen-sensitive section of town governed by strict regulations.

Chief among the cited violations is the fact that the septic system on the lot and the number of bedrooms in the house exceed what is allowed under state law.

"The system was designed and installed to receive more than 440 gallons of flow per day per acre in a nitrogen sensitive area," the letter states. "The respondents [Joseph and Evelyn Alosso] increased the actual design or design flow to the upgraded system, which was not performed in full compliance with the requirements [for] new construction."

Glenn Haas, director of the DEP division of watershed management in Boston, states flatly: "The violations described in the above paragraphs were willful and not a result of error."

According to Mr. Haas, the Alossos violated eight specific environmental regulations, including:

* The Alossos "discharged to the septic system without first obtaining a certificate of compliance."

* They backfilled over the septic system before a final inspection was conducted.

* They applied for a certificate of occupancy for their new house before the septic compliance certificate had been issued.

* Only one percolation test was completed at the property when two were required.

* The Alossos failed to seek a variance for the septic system even though the bounds of the leaching field exceeded the 10-foot setback limitation established by state law.

The penalties leveled against Mr. and Mrs. Alosso are severe. Four of the violations carry administrative fines totaling $28,310, which must be paid by Nov. 4 unless they file an official appeal before that date.

The DEP also ordered the Alossos to submit a proposed deed restriction on the house limiting its use to a maximum of three bedrooms. That order must be met by Oct. 31, and the deed restriction must be filed at the Dukes County Registry of Deeds by Dec. 31.

Another order requires them to take steps to mitigate the sewage flow in the environmentally sensitive region of Oak Bluffs. There are two options. One mandates that the Alossos acquire a quarter acre of land elsewhere in the Zone 2 region and use it as a "nitrogen loading credit," essentially placing a development restriction on the additional parcel.

The second option calls for modifying the existing septic system and applying for a formal variance for the five-foot setback of the leaching field.

Either option must be implemented by Dec. 15, according to the penalty notice.

The DEP began its investigation into Mr. Alosso's septic system last winter after receiving a complaint about the property.

Last month, the state agency concluded that the Oak Bluffs board of health and a Tisbury engineering firm had violated environmental regulations when they signed septic permits for the Alosso house.

Last June, the DEP sent Mr. Alosso a draft consent decree, a sternly worded 10-page letter listing alleged violations surrounding the installation of the septic system at his house.

Much of the DEP investigation centered on the issue of bedrooms.

When Mr. Alosso applied for a septic permit for his new house last year, he told his colleagues at the board of health that he was simply replacing a preexisting 824-square-foot ranch house with four bedrooms.

But when DEP investigators examined building records and documents at the Oak Bluffs board of assessors, they concluded that the house never contained more than three bedrooms, at most.

It's a crucial piece of data. The section of town where Mr. Alosso's house is located is designated as Zone 2, where strict state and local regulations protect the town drinking water supply.

Under Zone 2 regulations, Mr. Alosso never would have been allowed to build a four-bedroom house on such a small parcel - unless a four-bedroom house had previously existed on the site.

Zone 2 rules limit the number of bedrooms allowed on an area of land and control the nitrogen loading from septic tanks and cesspools. The formula for construction in Zone 2 is prohibitive, allowing just one bedroom per quarter-acre of land, roughly 10,000 square feet.

Oak Bluffs assessors counted two bedrooms in Mr. Alosso's old house, but a special notation mentioned two other bedrooms in the basement.

Mr. Alosso purchased the property in 1995. Assessors records from 1992 indicate that the house contained three bedrooms, according to the DEP letter.

"No changes in the building footprint or upgrade to the subsurface sewage disposal system were noted in the town records for the period of time from October 1992 through July 2003," the letter said.

Town records show that Mr. Alosso went to the board of assessors in July, a month after he received the draft consent decree from the DEP, to find some help for his problem. According to minutes of a July 8 meeting of the board of assessors: "Joe Alosso presented a letter that he wanted the board to endorse regarding his problem with the DEP."

The chairman of the Oak Bluffs board of assessors, Jesse Law 3rd, sent a letter one day later to the senior counsel at the DEP in Boston, affirming the existence of two bedrooms below grade for a total of four bedrooms in the house.

An earlier draft of the July 8 letter described some uncertainty about the extra two-bedroom notation. "When that note was added to the record and by who is unknown at this time. Our current assessor has no recollection of actually adding this note to the Alosso card," the letter from assessors stated.

Mr. Alosso lost his bid for another term on the board of health last spring.

Yesterday he proclaimed his innocence. "I've done nothing wrong and I will appeal it," he said.