TURNERS FALLS — The state Department of Environmental Protection is fining Montague’s wastewater treatment plant and ordering a study of its operations as a result of two incidents at the plant.

The DEP issued a consent order, giving the plant six months to hire an engineer to do a study of the plant and issued a $5,000 fine. The Montague Board of Selectmen voted Monday night to alter the time frame suggested in the order before agreeing to it.

“The meat of the consent order is to give the town the opportunity and satisfy the DEP’s desire to know how the Montague wastewater treatment plant works,“ town administrator Frank Abbondazio said during the meeting.

Montague’s wastewater treatment plant has a unique pilot program which uses bacteria and oxygen control to eliminate all solid sewage. The program was so effective that 26 other plants around the county started sending their sewage to be treated in Montague.

With understaffing issues, however, the plant has been unable to keep up with the workload and has stopped treating outside materials. These same staffing issues are part of why the board wants to extend the recommended timeline of the study.

“We’re pretty much in agreement in concept with what the DEP is proposing, but the board wanted to sit down and talk about the scope of the work being involved and take a couple weeks to get it right before signing off on it,” Abbondazio said.

The DEP is tying the order to two incidents at the plant — in November 2014 and February 2016.

The 2014 incident was a screw pump failure, which resulted in 18,480 gallons of partially treated wastewater flowing into the Connecticut River. The 2016 incident was the result of an overflow which began in January and continued until February, resulting in 9,586,381 gallons of sewage flowing into the river.

Issues like these are not uncommon among treatment plants, Grant Weaver, the plant’s interim superintendent, said at the meeting.

“Most treatment plants have occasional violations and they come in terms of daily weekly and monthly. We’ve had a couple monthly and we really shouldn’t be having monthly violations,” Weaver said. “But overall, plant meets its permit as a whole.”

While both these incidents were regrettable, they were the result of system malfunctions and weather-related buildup, and had nothing to do with the plant’s unique process, board chairman Rich Kuklewicz said.

“The one that happened earlier this year was a combined overflow issue. There was debris blocking the screening racks,” Kuklewicz said. “I just don’t see how they tied the two other than that it’s a way to pressure us into hiring an engineer to generate a report to benefit other folks besides the Town of Montague.”

Part of the motivation for the study is for the DEP to learn about the mechanics of the Montague plant and see if other plants should be adopting its methods, Abbondanzio said.

“The DEP really wants to replicate this process if possible in other locations and make sure whatever we’re doing is safe and that it won’t result in repeated overflows or violations,” Abbondazio said. “They have to be convinced of that, otherwise they’re not gonna approve a final permit to continue this process.”

The board will mail a letter to the DEP sometime this week, clarifying some issues from the order and asking for an extension to complete the study.