PARIS – The Paris Utility District is trying to get ahead of the curve in anticipation of tightening water quality regulations.

Superintendent John Barlow said Thursday the district has hired a Portland engineering firm to complete a comprehensive evaluation and planning study of the Paris wastewater treatment facility.

“Our wastewater treatment plant went online in 1975,” Barlow said. “It’s getting old and the discharge requirements have changed over the years.”

The facility’s license will expire in August 2006, Barlow said. If the plant is not upgraded before then, the license may not be renewed.

Pollutants are screened from wastewater at a much higher level today than in 1975, Barlow said.

Woodard and Curran is the Portland engineering firm hired to conduct the treatment facility study. It will look at the age of the plant, pending water quality regulations, “and just the overall general wastewater treatment technology that is available today that was not available 30-plus years ago,” Barlow said.

The study is expected to cost about $20,000, he said.

In order to offset this cost, the Paris Utility District has applied for a Rural Development grant. It is awaiting approval of the $15,000 request before starting the study. Barlow said he expects to hear about the grant by the end of the month, and hopes the study may go forward at that point.

The utility district also has inquired about grant programs through the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Protection Agency.

A letter sent to the Department of Environmental Protection resulted in a request from Andrew Fisk, director of the Bureau of Land and Water Quality, that Paris and Norway look together at future wastewater treatment upgrades.

“With the Little Androscoggin having such low summertime flows,” Fisk wrote, “is it realistic that each entity can continue with their separate facilities, meet water quality standards and allow growth in each community, say for the next 20 years?”

Fisk could not be reached for comment Thursday, but Barlow said he already has placed a call to Norway Town Manager Dave Holt.

Holt said Thursday that the Norway Board of Selectmen would be discussing Fisk’s letter at the regular meeting that night.

He feels Norway has addressed past problems with its treatment methods, but said, “all that aside, in my opinion it certainly makes sense to work together.”