WILTON — Wilton Water and Wastewater Superintendent Dalton Plante provided a small update to the Select Board on Tuesday, Jan 23, on the ongoing water transmission line project. Plante stated that the department is currently finalizing easements and has three remaining easements to resolve.

“I’ve been making it a point to do some door knocking and talking with homeowners to try to make sure that things are amenable to them,” Plante told the Select Board. “At this time, we only have three left. I believe two of them are anticipating signing their easements, so that way we can get things finalized and hopefully get things out to bid in the upcoming year.”

Plante added the department currently has no major projects schedule for the year, but that is subject to change.

The most recent update the Select Board had received on the project came from Jim Lord of Dirigo Engineering, who told the Select Board in a meeting in June the project was still in its planning phase and they were awaiting permits.

“Plans are at 95% complete, we’re simply waiting for the permits to come in to finalize,” Lord said at that meeting. “It makes no sense to finalize it until we see all the final conditions that the regulatory bodies will put out.”

In other business, Plante shared with the Select Board the department had replaced a 540 ft. section of water main with high density polyethylene fusible pipe, which he stated was the department’s first time using the material. Plante added the replacement went “exceedingly well” and the department has had no issues with the piping or the replacement fire hydrant.

Chairperson Tiffany Mairuri asked Plante what the department submitted to FEMA in damage costs from last month’s storm. He responded by saying the overall cost reported to FEMA was $16,000 with $5,000 specifically in damages.

Previouly, Plante told the Livermore Falls Advertiser they had assessed approximately $17,520 for emergency pumping, damage, erosion and equipment run time. He added that biggest ticket item was a lost pressure maintaining vault, which contained seven 95 gallon bladder tanks that controlled the water pressure in a neighborhood.

The department also contracted assistance from Vortex to help with their Canal Street Station. He added that Canal Street is the only one of their major stations that does not have a backup generator.

“I think the reason why it doesn’t is because the footprint of that location doesn’t allow for an exterior generator that’s sizable enough to run the station,” Plante said.

Plante shared with the SelectBoard one of his initiatives for his 2024 budget is to bring an “antiquated generator trailer” up to code in the event of a power outage.

“I don’t believe at this time that it’s currently ready to service in the event of a power outage,” he said, “but in addition to that, I think it’s going to need some electrical work. I don’t think it has the right plugs that are compatible on that station.

“It’ll need some work,” he continued, “but my hope is in the upcoming year that we get the generator trailer into a serviceable state so that way in the event that [Canal Street] goes down, we at least have that one for the major station.”

Vice-Chair Mike Wells followed up on some of his questions from Plante’s previous visit to the Select Board on Tuesday, Dec. 19, by asking the superintendent if the department tested the water that is pumped into the sewer for PFAS.

Plante stated they did not, but added that the department was a part of an introductory PFAS survey with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, where the DEP tested samples from approximate 114 select municipal treatment plants in the state. According to Plante, the survey was monthly over the course of four months and the results showed that Wilton was among the lowest in the state.

“Two of the worst ones, I believe, are Madison and Hartland,” Plante stated, “but they have industrial influence, or formerly industrial influence. It still has a lingering effect on their process.”

Plante added that, while at a Maine Rural Water Conference in December of 2022, he overheard a rumor of a potential PFAS limit on wastewater permits in the year 2026. However, no such rumor has come to fruition and Plante accredits that to DEP staffing.

“The state of Maine is still behind on permit writers,” he stated. “So a lot of the permits at this time are expired, because the DEP doesn’t have the staff to be able to issue the new permits. I don’t see them implementing a major change in effluent limitations until they can get everything up to snuff just with the regular permits they need to issue.”

Wells followed Plante’s comments that he would be working with Senator Russell Black to address this issue.

“I’ll be working with Russell Black to try to get some of this legislation pushed through,” Wells stated, “so we’re not paying $130,000 a year to get rid of sludge that doesn’t have PFAS.”

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