MEXICO — Sewer system customers will
have a chance on Tuesday to learn about and ask questions about plans
to apply for a low-interest loan to make upgrades to the aging sewer
line.

The public informational session is set
for 4:30 p.m., July 28, at the Mexico Town Hall.

“We’re trying to be proactive,”
said Anne Young, one of the three trustees for the Mexico Sewer
District board.

The other board members are Lisa
Gallant, chairwoman, and Crystal MacKinnon.

Tentative plans are to apply for up to
$440,000 from United States Department of Agriculture, Rural
Development.

Young said engineering work by the
Portland firm of Wright-Pierce has been largely completed during the
past few months. That showed some weak areas of inflow and
infiltration of the lines during certain times of the year which leads
to exceeding the capacity of the sewer plant. No large development
can take place until the sewer lines are upgraded, she said.

She said each of the three towns that
use the plant, located in Mexico, must decide what to do about
infiltration. The Rumford/Mexico Sewer District serves Mexico,
Rumford and Dixfield.

Trustees hope to have the report
written by Wright-Pierce at the Tuesday meeting.

Young said some of the sewer lines are
substandard and all are between 50 and 70 years old. Some are clay
pipes while others are PVC. She said the Maine Department of
Environmental Protection has given the towns in the Rumford/Mexico
Sewer District 10 years to study the area and made upgrades, if
necessary.

Mexico sewer district users pay $175 a
year per unit. Whether that rate will rise will depend upon the
amount of funding borrowed and interest rate.

eadams@sunjournal.com