By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Two of the three members of the Blackwater Public Service District members were on hand to address public comments at the board’s meeting at the Davis Town Hall. In attendance were members Al Tomson and Judy Cronauer. Distinct VII representative Jim Marshall appeared via telephone. Board Member Jody Flanagan was absent. Several members of the public were also in attendance to hear the latest developments of the board’s water treatment plant project.
Several members of the public were in attendance to hear if there were any updates on upgrades to the sewer collection in the City of Thomas. However, with the absence of Board Member and Thomas Mayor Jody Flanagan, no update was available for those in attendance.
Al Tomson did address the plans the Town of Davis has to upgrade their sewer collection and the funding the town has acquired to complete it. According to Tomson, the project is funded by a $5 million earmark along with a State match of $1.25 million and IJDC monies in the amount of $300,000. Tomson also said that the project would begin in late summer or early fall. According to Tomson, the goal of the PSD is to have both Thomas and Davis sewer collection systems upgraded before consolidating with the new entity and the new water treatment plant. Tomson said the project has already been through a preliminary engineering report and is currently looking to complete the design and will then enter the contract bidding phase. “That’s why we are looking at late summer, early fall,” Tomson said.
Executive Director of Friends of the Blackwater Judy Rodd was in attendance at the meeting to address several concerns she had with the project. One of Rodd’s main concerns was with leachate from the landfill and its impact on the system and potential impact on the river once it is discharged. Rodd said she was reminded of her concerns over leachate being trucked to Thomas for treatment and the facility’s yearly fines. According to Rodd, when the leachate is trucked in, the leachate is dumped in and overwhelms the bacteria who are used to only sewage and it leads to bacteria die off. “I have been told by…the guy who fines them every year, and he said I fine them every year and they never change anything and one of the problems is adding the leachate because its added all at once. It’s not piped.”
Rodd said the issue with the Thomas system could be fixed if the landfill creates its own system. Tomson said that is one of the avenues that is being explored for the new plant. Tomson said the PSD and their engineers are taking the matter of leachate seriously and are looking at every avenue to be able to treat it and safely discharge into the river. “The engineers are talking to the landfill,” Tomson said. “They are talking to Thomas and part of it is looking for pretreatment. Now pretreatment may occur at the landfill, it could occur at the sewage treatment plant and the options are, do you pipe it in or do you truck it into the holding area. The holding area allows you to release it in periodically as opposed to one bit surge that you were talking about. So, the engineers are looking at this very pragmatically and very thoroughly.”
Rodd also said a retired DEP sewage worker informed her that many of the problems Thomas is experiencing would be alleviated through enclosing the existing tanks in order to maintain temperature. “A guy from the DEP who used to manage sewage systems, said they could solve a whole lot of problems if they just enclosed the tanks,” Rodd said. “Because its too cold. If they enclosed them with a little bit of heat, the bacteria would do a lot better and the system would work.”
Rodd said she believed the Thomas plant was overbuilt and has more than adequate capacity to service Thomas, as well as Douglas. According to Rodd, the facility was built much larger than was needed and would service well if a couple of fixes were addressed. Rodd also voiced concerns over the potential of piping along the North Fork to a facility in Douglas. “It’s got a lot of capacity, it needs a couple of fixes, the landfill fixed, the enclosure fixed and I think it could do for even Davis,” Rodd said. “And I’m concerned with it going down the North Fork, piping going down the North Fork to a treatment system near Douglas. I know the people of Douglas are concerned.”
Marshall said that the Douglas area had been selected by a previous engineer and that the current engineering firm is reevaluating everything. “The current engineer is currently looking, he’s reevaluating everything,” Marshall said. “So, the Douglas area is not, has not been decided on as a potential place for the sewer pipe.”
Tomson addressed the issue of the leachate concerns. “Leachate is currently being trucked to Westernport and Moorefield, mostly to Westernport,” Tomson said. “It’s expensive, it’s dangerous. They already had one accident a couple of years ago when a tractor trailer overturned hauling the leachate because of a tree that had fallen onto the road in the wintertime. So, safety and money are both concerns. The third concern is if we treat it here, that we treat it correctly and the plant would be designed to treat the leachate just like its designed at Westernport to treat the leachate. Whether it gets trucked from the landfill or piped from the landfill to the treatment plant is still a question because piping has issues with it and trucking it has issues. They would figure out what the best solution would be and make accommodations with it. So, leachate is still very much a part of the study.”
Tomson said that while Thomas’ facility was over capacity, it was not the correct capacity needed. Tomson also outlined the area the new plant will serve. “They are also looking at the Thomas treatment plant,” Tomson said. “It is over capacity, but it is not necessarily the right capacity. As well as this project is doing Davis, Thomas, Blackwater Falls State Park, the landfill, the Industrial Park, the Lewiston Center, the Youth Center and the expansion of housing that goes down Corridor H and we are also looking at Benbush and those areas, as well as Canaan Heights. So that capacity, is more than the unused capacity in the Thomas plant, but it is being studied because we want to make sure we are making a fiscally prudent decision as to how we go forward.”
Rodd also informed the Board of the Friends of the Blackwater’s project to clean mine water. “That Rail Trail is a protected area,” Rodd said. “As is Blackwater Industrial Complex and it already has a waterline under it. We are paying for the planning of an acid mine drainage treatment plant right where the Douglas Road crosses the North Fork.”
Tomson thanked Rodd for the information and said that was information that the PSD and the engineers needed to know. Rodd informed the Board of who was involved in the project and who the best contacts would be for more information for the engineers. Rodd said construction on the project would begin in the summer. “The Abandoned Mines people are building it,” Rodd said. “We paid for the design.”
As part of the meeting, the Board decided on a regularly set schedule for meetings. The decision on the third Tuesday of the month at 10 a.m. was made and the date for the next meeting set.
The next meeting of the Blackwater Public Service District will be held January 16th at 10 a.m. at the Davis Town Hall.