Town Moves to Study Upgrade Needs at Water Pollution Control Facility

It’s been 30 years since the town’s first went into operation and aside from adding a new section to the plant to handle denitrification, there have been few upgrades and maintenance project.

With Southington recently being named one of four towns that will be required to begin removing phosphorus or face steep fines from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, council members said this week that it’s time to move forward with a study that will help preparer the wastewater treatment plant for the future.

“The majority of the existing facility was built in 1982 and it’s come time where we need to consider these upgrades,” said Councilman John Barry. “I am still concerned over the unfunded phosphorus mandate and think (the DEEP) is on shaky ground, but we need to be prepared for what is coming down the road.”

The Town Council this week approved a motion that will allow Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback to enter negotiations with Tighe & Bond, a Massachusetts-based company that specializes in waste treatment plant engineering. Brumback will be allowed to spend up to $750,000 for the study, which will include in-depth analysis and proposed solutions to address inflow and infiltration, modernization and phosphorus removal.

The anticipated cost of the study is $743,000 and Brumback assured he would look to reduce costs from that point rather than spending the entire $750,000.

The company was selected following a review of nine engineering firms. CDM of Wethersfield, the company that conducted , and Woodward and Curran Engineering out of New York were also finalists, Brumback said Tuesday.

The DEEP recently stiffened its requirements for phosphorus removal, requiring that towns maintain an enrichment factor, or ER, of 8.4 or below. The Quinnipiac Watershed area, which includes Southington, Cheshire, Meriden and Wallingford, have been identified as a starting point for the ER requirements and are expected to meet these goals within the next four years or potentially face steep fines.

Councilman John Dobbins, chairman of the council’s sewer sub-committee, said late last week at the State of the Town dinner that the unfunded mandate could cost the town $30 million to $50 million in costs.

“It’s a complicated issue,” Dobbins said. “The easiest way to address the problem is through the use of metal salts, but the DEEP has indicated that removal of metal salts could be the next step in the process.”

The town is still paying off bonds for a recently completed Denitrification plant, which cost the town $14.5 million. The new phosphorus removal regulations are only going to continue to create additional costs for the community, Dobbins said.

While the town is preparing to enhance the Water Pollution Control Facility, officials have not yet ruled out the possibility of filing a lawsuit in regard to the stiff regulations. In light of a recent court ruling that requires the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to renegotiate the level of phosphorus that will need to be removed, the town will consider all options.

Brumback said filing a lawsuit could also be expensive and is hoping that the recent court ruling in Massachusetts will convince state DEEP officials to loosen their regulations as well.

“The need to remove phosphorus is not going away. What might change is the level of phosphorus that will need to be removed,” Brumback said. “Hopefully we can find a reasonable alternative without having to file litigation.”

While the council is moving forward with a needed study, however, there are some savings to be found in doing it, council members said. Dobbins said Monday that the costs for the study are reimbursable through state grants at 55 percent of the costs. The grants aren’t guaranteed, but Deputy Town Manager Mark Sciota said wastewater grants have traditionally been funded in the past.

While the council approved the three-part study Monday, they also chose to eliminate the fourth and final portion of the project in an effort to save taxpayers money. The fourth part could be addressed down the road and would not affect treatment plant operations if left for several years, officials said.

Councilman Christopher Palmieri, a member of the sewer sub-committee, said in light of all the costs the town is facing, it’s beneficial to wait on the last part of the study. The last part of the study will cost $215,000 to complete.

“We just talked about prioritizing the of the town and our capital improvement plan,” he said. “We are adjusting to what we need right now and that’s what we need to do.”