The trend is clear and compelling.

The cities of Lewiston and Auburn are making tremendous gains in the ongoing effort to reduce the amount of untreated wastewater that flows into the Androscoggin River during heavy rains.

Those efforts, however, have been mischaracterized and used as cover in a fight over water quality involving the cities’ upstream neighbors. The Sun Journal recently published incorrect information in a guest column regarding municipal discharges of wastewater to the Androscoggin River. The residents of Lewiston and Auburn should know the facts and that their public wastewater treatment facility is committed to a clean Androscoggin River.

Authors of a Sunday, Feb. 13, article, regarding the quality of the Androscoggin River allude to Lewiston and Auburn polluting the river with sewage overflows. The authors, Reps. Thomas Saviello and Anne Perry and Sen. John Martin, state “more than 300 million gallons of untreated sewage was released into the Androscoggin River during the summer of 2004.” No source for the data was offered, and the information is incorrect.

Overflows from combined wastewater and storm sewers in Lewiston and Auburn during the summer months of 2004 totaled less than 35 million gallons, not more than 300 million gallons. In fact, the total overflow volume for the entire year was approximately 152 million gallons. (Source: Annual Report on Combined Sewer Overflows to Maine Department of Environmental Protection for the period ending Dec. 31, 2004)

Furthermore, the discharge is not “untreated sewage,” but a combination of storm water and wastewater, which is licensed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Discharges from combined sewers result when storm water enters the sewage collection system, thereby overloading the sewer system’s ability to convey or treat all wastewater. Discharges only occur during significant rain or snowmelt. It should also be noted that the volume of CSO in any one year is dependent upon many factors, including at least the intensity duration, total depth of rainfall, and frequency of that year’s storm events.

A writer from the Rumford Pulp & Paperwork Resource Council, in a letter to the editor appearing in the Feb. 27 edition, reused the same incorrect discharge information and further stated that combined sewer overflows are the type of pollution that does the most damage to the river ecosystem. This is a misleading statement. By their nature, combined sewer overflows are relatively dilute, predominantly naturally degradable, and occur at times when the river is best able to assimilate them – during periods of high flows and high dissolved oxygen.

The city of Lewiston, Auburn Sewerage District and Lewiston-Auburn Water Pollution Control Authority are collectively in the sixth year of a 15-year plan approved by DEP that will provide complete control of combined sewer overflows.

In the first five years of the plan, the combined entities have spent more than $15 million on wastewater treatment plant upgrades and sewer separation projects. All dollars were local dollars generated from sewer fees and municipal taxes.

The impact of the expenditures over the first five years has resulted in a significant reduction in combined sewer overflow discharges, with all discharges expected to be controlled by completion of the 15-year plan.

The annual frequency of overflows at the wastewater treatment plant has been reduced from 509 hours in 2000 to 211 hours in 2004, a 58 percent reduction. Similarly, the total annual discharge volume from all combined sewers has been reduced from 347 million gallons in 2000 to 152 million gallons in 2004, a 56 percent reduction.

The improvement in the water quality of the Androscoggin River over the last 30 years has been nothing short of astounding. Clearly the taxpayers and ratepayers in Lewiston and Auburn are continuing the progress that began with the completion of the wastewater treatment plant in 1974. We urge all parties in the current debate to work cooperatively and to refrain from attacks that turn attention away from what we all are working toward: the cleanest Androscoggin River possible.

Clayton “Mac” Richardson, is the superintendent of the Lewiston Auburn Water Pollution Control Authority; David Jones is the director of public services, city of Lewiston; and Normand Lamie is the general manager of the Auburn Sewerage District.

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