The Environmental Protection Agency has opened a commenting period from the public regarding Portland Water District’s proposed surface waste water disposal system for the Town of Windham.
 |
| A map shows the route of the new wastewater treatment system being planned in North Windham. The project is expected to start sometime this summer. COURTESY PHOTO |
The water district has submitted a new application for a new Waste Discharge License to discharge an annual average of 154,000 gallons per day of secondary treated sanitary wastewater through a subsurface drip dispersal irrigation system to groundwater in Windham. The annual average of 154,000 gpd is equal to the design capacity of the new wastewater treatment facility near Manchester School. Because of the proximity of the discharge to Collins Pond and Ditch Brook, those surface water bodies are also considered in the license application.
The application specifies that a technology-based numeric limit will be placed upon the total phosphorus in the discharge along with limits for biochemical oxygen demand and total suspended solids. It also requires pH and total metals monitoring in the discharge and the ground water monitoring wells based on constituents believed to be found in the discharge.
The application also requires that a water quality-based nitrate-nitrogen limit for the wastewater treatment be based upon the National Primary Drinking Water Standard and sets an annual average limit of 154,000 gallons per day and a daily maximum of 432,000 gallons per day for flow based on the design capacity of the treatment system and the EPA’s current understanding of the remaining capacity for total phosphorus of Collins Pond.
According to the application, the discharge will not lower the quality of any classified body of water and will meet the state’s antidegradation policy to maintain and protect state waterways and to achieve important economic or social benefits to the state.
Plans approved by Windham voters in a special referendum last June include construction of a public wastewater system and will result in the removal of about 100 septic systems that are currently discharging into the North Windham aquifer. It would lead to the creation of a collection and pumping system over three miles in length to connect businesses and residents to the system and will treat wastewater through an advanced micro-filtration system. Current businesses will be able to further grow and expand while new businesses can be situated without further degrading the aquifer and using valuable real estate for septic systems.
The system would also create a new pumping station near Windham High School and RSU 14 that will provide service from the high school campus to a new treatment facility in North Windham. It would use Advanced Membrane Bio Reactor Technology.
Years of study in the North Windham Commercial District have shown that the use of private septic systems was having long-term adverse effects on the underlying aquifer and adjacent water bodies. Windham and the Portland Water District have partnered for the project to design a reliable, advanced wastewater treatment system that will improve and protect water quality. Funding for the $40.6 million project is coming from a mix of federal, state, and local sources.
No Windham residence will be required to hook up to the sewer and no penalty fee will be imposed if residences decline to join the wastewater sewer unless the residence is adjacent to the sewer and experiences a total septic system failure. Fees to hook up to the sewer have not yet been established but would be nominal and in line with what neighboring communities charge, Windham town officials say.
Construction of the wastewater treatment facility near Manchester school is set to begin this summer.
For a thorough overview of the new Windham Wastewater Treatment Facility and system, visit https://www.windhammaine.us/771/North-Windham-Sewer-Project <
No comments:
Post a Comment