Fall River Seeks Utility Partnerships to Reduce Costs

In September 2025, the city of Fall River is actively pursuing "regionalization" of its utility services, particularly wastewater treatment, in an effort to share the maintenance, operations, and associated costs with neighboring municipalities.

Fall River's wastewater management network already includes inter-municipal agreements with Freetown, Westport, and Tiverton, Rhode Island, consolidating utility services by supplying water and accepting wastewater from these satellite towns. Now, the city is in talks with Somerset, Swansea, and Dighton to potentially expand this regional network.

The impetus for this move is the looming $57.5 million upgrade required for Somerset's aging wastewater treatment facilities. Rather than investing in these upgrades alone, Somerset is considering partnering with Fall River, which has been identified as the "primary option" for the town's wastewater needs. This regionalization could add approximately 4.2 million gallons per day to Fall River's current wastewater treatment volume of 22 million gallons.

Regionalization is seen as a way to spread the costs of utility services across a broader customer base, potentially easing the burden on Fall River's taxpayers. The city's administrator of community utilities, Paul Ferland, believes this approach could benefit all the municipalities involved, allowing them to aggregate costs and share resources.