OXFORD — The Board of Selectmen has chosen Ovivo USA, an international water treatment company, to supply the equipment for the town’s proposed wastewater treatment plant.

The price tag for Ovivo’s custom-built treatment system is $1.2 million, the lowest of three bids received by the town last month.

According to an evaluation by Woodard and Curran, the engineering company designing Oxford’s treatment plant, Ovivo scored 94 out of 100 points, measured across six criteria, including total cost, net cost, operability and reliability, warranty, technical support and experience.

Ovivo’s competitors for the project, GE Water and Process Technologies and Koch Membrane Systems received 79 and 70 points, respectively, according to Woodard and Curran’s scores.

Rather than using a conventional chemical treatment, the system Oxford is proposing uses a series of fine mesh screens, or membranes, to slough off solids. The remaining wastewater is sanitized with ultraviolet light.

“We recommend the Ovivo system … be utilized for the Oxford WWTF due to its lowest up-front capital equipment cost, low life-cycle cost, robust warranty and proven historical track in municipal wastewater treatment applications throughout the U.S.” Woodard and Curran Vice President Brent Bridges wrote in a Nov. 26 memo to Town Manager Michael Chammings.

During the board’s meeting Thursday evening, Chammings noted that Ovivo reduced its initial base bid by $40,000 to $1,208,763. He reported that Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection was excited about the Ovivo system and would approve the discharge permit for the treatment plant as soon as he informed the department of the board’s decision.

The company is standing by its product with a full, 10-year warranty, a guarantee its competitors didn’t match, Chammings told selectmen.

According to Bridge’s memo, the annual operation cost to run Ovivo’s system is estimated at $38,500. The total life-cycle cost of the system is $2.88 million. At Thursday’s meeting, Chammings said the system’s had a 20-year estimated life span.

Ovivo specializes in water treatment technology and has branches in 21 countries with more than 1,500 employees, according to its website. According to Woodard and Curran, the company has systems operating in more than 100 facilities in the U.S. and more than 500 worldwide.

Ovivo is a subsidiary of the GLV Group, an international corporation that also owns pulp and paper and soft drink processing technology companies.

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