DEAR SUN SPOTS: Have you ever wondered where your waste goes when you flush, take a shower, or wash your dishes?

Join us for a tour of the Lewiston Auburn Clean Water Authority’s Wastewater Treatment Facility on Lincoln Street in Lewiston to find out. The tour is free and open to the public. 

It will be held on Wednesday, June 25, starting at 5:30 p.m. with pizza, a brief discussion of the Androscoggin’s water quality and an overview of improvements that are being made throughout the Androscoggin River Watershed.

General Manager Travis Peaslee will provide an overview of how treatment facilities operate and lead a tour of the facility.

When we send material down the drain, our wastewater, (sewage) travels through a system of pipes. Prior to passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, most of the collection systems discharged combined stormwater and sewage directly into our rivers and streams. Thanks to the Clean Water Act, wastewater treatment facilities were constructed, and our rivers and streams began to improve. 

These facilities, built in the 1970s and early 1980s, have needed modern-day improvements. Many municipalities have made these improvements, including separating stormwater from sewage. The combined stormwater and sewage was often a large source of overflow into our rivers during snowmelt and storm events. 

The Lewiston-Auburn Clean Water Authority has completed a large retention tank to provide for the treatment of combined wastewater and is enthusiastic to showcase this impressive improvement to the facility.

In general, Lewiston and Auburn have separated many of their old, combined sewers (collect both stormwater runoff and sewage).  However, it is extremely difficult and expensive to separate some of the pipes and there are also numerous connections from roof and cellar drains and private connections that are very difficult and expensive to isolate and remove. So there continues to be some wet weather periods that cannot be handled.  The tank provides for the runoff of those excessive storms to be stored and treated after the storm subsides. 

The program is not just for Lewiston and Auburn residents; many of the towns and cities along the Androscoggin River with concentrated urban areas have similar wastewater treatment facilities. 

Residents in rural areas may well be familiar with their on-site disposal systems; but when septic tanks are pumped, that waste is trucked to one of the region’s wastewater treatment plants.

The Androscoggin River Watershed Council and the Androscoggin Valley Soil & Water Conservation District are teaming with the Lewiston Auburn Clean Water Authority to present this discussion and tour. The event is free. Please register prior to June 23 for planning purposes. More information and registration is available at https://tinyurl.com/bd82rcxb. — Ferg, no town

ANSWER: Thank you for all the good information and I do hope people will come to learn how things work and what can be done to help the environment. You may also want to become more knowledgeable about how your dollars are spent, and have the opportunity to participate in the tour and ask questions. I worked for an engineering firm in the late ’80s and early ’90s and trust me, this is an interesting topic and the more you learn about it, the better. 

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