- Details
- Category: Past Issues
More building:
Sewer plant
upgrade
can now
proceed
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- The upgrade of the town's sewer treatment plant got the official go-ahead July 11.
C.H. Nickerson & Co. Inc. of Torrington has 610 days to "virtually" complete the project, according to Town Administrator Douglas M. Cutler.
The renovation of the plant is needed because some of the machinery is very old and parts are impossible to find now. In addition, the older plant will be hard-pressed to meet the stricter guidelines from the state, including the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus the system releases into the Quinebaug River.
The project is funded with $18.8 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture loans and grants, mostly grants, said Cutler. The money came from the USDA's Rural Development office's Community Facilities division. Funding also comes from the state and from Water Pollution Control Authority customers. The WPCA rates have already been increased, in anticipation of the project. "It's been factored in already over the years," Cutler said.
Fuss & O'Neill Engineering of Manchester designed the project.
Improvements would include, according to project documents: consisting generally of improvements which will improve the treatment process and the quality of treated effluent discharged into the Quinebaug River, and including but not limited to head works, disinfection system upgrades, new maintenance and administration building, construction of a third secondary settling tank, upgrade of existing sludge pumping system, repair of existing buildings, update of the plant’s electric service, modification to aeration tanks, addition of new blower building, addition of chemical phosphorus removal system, addition of intermediate pumping system and addition of effluent filtration system.