LIVERMORE FALLS – The town has received word that the tentative new draft license for the wastewater treatment plant discharge of treated effluent into Androscoggin River will be increased to 2 million gallons per day year round.
The treatment plant doesn’t treat and discharge half that much, but the town had planned on peak flow and economic growth when it complied with state guidelines in the late 1990s for a higher discharge and did a $5.8 million upgrade.
The state mandated that Livermore Falls upgrade its plant to eliminate combined sewer overflow discharge. The original plant had a license to treat 1 million gallons per day.
The state approved the design of the plant and helped fund the upgrade that could process up to 2 million gallons a day of sewage before it was discharged into the river.
The treatment plant treats sewage from residents in both Livermore Falls and a portion of Jay. Jay paid 49 percent of the upgrade and had a signed agreement with Livermore Falls allowing Jay to discharge 980,000 gallons a day.
In 2001, Livermore Falls officials learned that the Department of Environmental Protection planned to limit the wastewater treatment plant’s discharge license to 1 million gallons a day during summer months.
That would have left Livermore Falls with a treated discharge of only 20,000 gallons a day during summer months, if Jay was to use its capacity under the agreement.
Though it didn’t pose a problem in 2001 when the average daily discharge between the two towns was about 660,000 gallons, town officials were upset that they weren’t getting what they paid for in the upgrade.
They had complied with state regulations to upgrade the plant, and they were not getting the license that went with it.
So it was good news to Mitchell to hear that the town would be getting a license that went along with the plant’s capacity.
Mitchell said the draft license will go through a review process, which will include a hearing and comment period, with the license to be issued in June.
There is a new restriction on the license that would limit phosphorous discharge that Mitchell said, he doesn’t believe will be a problem.
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