SWAMPSCOTT — The town is searching for six volunteers to serve on its recently-approved Water and Sewer Infrastructure Committee.

The Select Board voted unanimously to create the new committee last week before voting to allocate $2.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for source elimination practices, including $1.8 million to continue replacing and repairing old sewer pipes that leak into King’s and Fisherman’s Beaches.

Committee members will work with the Director of Public Works and engineering consultants to develop and recommend comprehensive plans, policies, and procedures necessary to keep Swampscott’s water resources in compliance with all state and federal standards to the Select Board.

One of the committee’s main priorities will be to draft creative solutions toward compliance with the Town’s 2015 Environmental Protection Agency consent decree, which mandates that the town fix its sewer lines to mitigate coastal pollution.

Select Board member Doug Thompson, who worked alongside fellow member Peter Spellios to draft an outline of the new committee, said the Town of Swampscott was searching for six volunteers — preferably from either business-related or engineering-related fields — to serve alongside DPW Director Gino Cresta.

“A few heads are better than one or two, so this is an opportunity. There’s been such a great engagement from the community right now on these issues, and we want to make good use of that,” Thompson said. “(We’re looking for) people with scientific or engineering backgrounds, people with great business finance perspectives, we want to bring everybody in to make sure that we’ve got the best information and people feel engaged and transparent.”

Thompson and Spellios were charged with drafting the proposed new committee at a Select Board meeting last month after numerous residents advocated for the local government to heighten its beach cleanup efforts.

“I really appreciate the movement to create a committee for sewer infrastructure. I do think it’s desperately needed, and I think it’s going to add the voices that are missing from the table right now… (this is) going to help speed up the process and create the harmony that so many of us are looking for,” Save King’s Beach Organizer Andrea Amour said at a Nov. 1 Select Board meeting.

Those interested in serving on the committee have until Dec. 7 to apply online at www.swampscottma.gov. According to Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald, the town has already received a number of applications and resumes after an automated phone call went out to Swampscott residents last week, encouraging them to apply.

“This will help us tackle some of the complicated challenges associated with water, stormwater, and wastewater — three critical pieces of underground infrastructure that really you wouldn’t notice if you really weren’t reading the papers or following our discussions. It’s the invisible infrastructure that everybody depends on, and we need some of the best and brightest to really lend us a hand as we seek to address some of the critical challenges that we’re facing,” Fitzgerald said.