Greenville’s Select Board held two public hearings concerning separate $400,000 wastewater treatment bonds in the Town Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
The first hearing focused on a $400,000 bond to pay for additional construction and engineering costs for a wastewater chemical feed building. Town Administrator Tara Sousa said the current building, a trailer, was put in temporarily in 2017 to address the Environmental Protection Agency’s concerns. She said it was set up to run pilot tests on chemicals on high-priority pollutants, including copper, aluminum and phosphorus.
According to Sousa, the town received an EPA order for water quality violations because of effluent metals. “The pollutants need to be addressed to meet EPA requirements,” she said. According to a project description on the EPA website, an engineering study recommended the chemical addition of a ferric chloride/polymer solution and alkalinity to meet permit limits.
The second hearing covered an additional $400,000 bond to pay for engineering, repair and construction of wastewater treatment plant components. Sousa said the list includes a back-up wastewater clarifier, aeration tanks and chlorine contact baffles.
According to Sousa, the bond won’t cover the clarifier, the most expensive item on the list. “The current clarifier was replaced in 2001 using a $437,000 loan,” she said. She said she wasn’t sure if a grant augmented the 2001 loan, and the cost of a modern clarifier would exceed the price paid over 20 years ago.
Sousa said the bond’s purpose isn’t to cover the full replacement cost, but rather to start the engineering process. “It’s intended to begin a long effort to address a list of concerns.”
The Select Board will present the two bonds as Warrant Articles 2 and 3 at the Town Meeting on March 14.