LIVERMORE FALLS – The state Board of Environmental Protection stayed an order last week that would have required the Livermore Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant to adhere to ortho-phosphate limits in June.
The town still has to test for this type of phosphorous found in detergents, including dish washing detergents, but plant Superintendent Kent Mitchell said Wednesday he doesn’t have to remove it.
The limit that has been stayed for now is 8.34 pounds per day on a monthly average, Mitchell said.
To comply with its discharge license provision, the town would have had to make upgrades to the treatment plant, which serves Livermore Falls and parts of Jay, to remove excess phosphorous.
The treatment plant discharges effluent into the Androscoggin River.
It is estimated that the plant would experience undue hardship if the ortho-phosphate limitation was not stayed, according to documents submitted by Preti Flaherty to the Board of Environmental Protection on behalf of Jay and Livermore Falls,
The financial burden of the capital costs and annual operation and maintenance costs of facility upgrades at the plant have been estimated as approximately $375,000, a one-time cost, and $25,000 a year, the document states.
Two further longer-term costs would be for overall reduction in plant life span and higher monthly sludge removal costs that will result from the treatment process to remove ortho-phosphate.
The plant underwent a $5.8 million upgrade in the late 1990s after 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.
Its discharge license was renewed last year and increased to 2 million gallons per day, year-round, of effluent.
The plant doesn’t treat and discharge half that much but the town was planning on peak flow and economic growth when it complied with state guidelines, Mitchell said.
The new license also included stipulations that the plant comply with the ortho-phosphate limits.
Mitchell said the town still gets to keep the 2 million gallons per day discharge but got a stay on those limits.
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