COLRAIN — After residents learned of potential paths forward for Griswoldville’s Colrain Sewer District, the plan is to install a community Title 5 sewer system on the Barnhardt Manufacturing Co. property at 247 Main Road.
The district includes 19 residential buildings and a chapel that were previously serviced by the wastewater treatment system at the Barnhardt plant before it closed three years ago, prompting the start of a short-term solution of trucking the waste to Montague.
Earlier this month, engineering firm Wright-Pierce recommended a $3.55 million Bioclere system that would be installed underground and treat the wastewater without the addition of chemicals. Wright-Pierce Engineer Anna Alegria said annual operating costs would be $217,000, though she noted that the total expense could be lower depending on whether the Sewer District can secure more grants and earmarks. In addition to the $500,000 Rural Development Grant that funded the sewer study and draft engineering report, the Sewer District has secured a $1 million federal earmark.
Alegria said the treatment system could be installed at the Barnhardt property, with a disposal field across the street, where there is currently a parking lot. Barnhardt has agreed to donate the 1.22 acres necessary for construction.
At the Selectboard meeting on Tuesday night, Pat Geary, chair of the Colrain Sewer District’s board of directors, said they are “making some good progress” on pursuing the recommended Bioclere system.
According to the Bioclere product description on Aquapoint’s website, it is “a modified trickling filter over a clarifier (settling tank) that is designed to treat wastewater with varying organic and nutrient concentrations. … Within the Bioclere filter, wastewater is evenly distributed over the surface of plastic media where microorganisms known as biomass attach themselves to the media and consume BOD/COD and ammonia-N. Residual solids from the treatment process settle in the clarifier below the filter and are evacuated by a recirculation pump while clean effluent leaves the system by gravity.”
Moving forward, Geary said that because the town owns the collection system — the initial portion of the system that collects the waste from the home and transports it away to a septic tank — the Colrain Sewer District and the town must make an agreement to transfer the collection system’s ownership. Geary presented a letter outlining three avenues the town could take to either transfer or maintain ownership.
Option A entails the town applying for grant funding, hiring a contractor, managing the sewer system installation and transferring ownership of the collection system to the Colrain Sewer District once the project is complete. For Option B, the town would pay a lump sum to the Colrain Sewer District for it to take ownership of the collection system “as is.” Option C would involve the town owning the collection system while allowing the Sewer District to connect the collection system with the proposed new treatment system after rules, regulations, and operation and maintenance procedures are established.
Geary’s letter states that the district would like to take ownership of the collection system if the town addresses its rehabilitation and associated costs in an agreement.
“I just want to start a conversation with the town, so that we can try to work together and get this done,” Geary said.
Selectboard Chair Emily Thurber expressed concern with Option A delaying the treatment system’s installation as the town hunts and waits for grants.
“We’ve waited this long, so if it takes longer, it takes longer,” Geary responded.
Joe Slowinski, who lives just outside the Sewer District, expressed frustration with the proposed project, claiming it “makes no economic sense whatsoever.”
“This could be read as they’re trying to leverage the town,” Slowinski said of the Sewer District. “[The Selectboard’s] job is to make sure that people don’t leverage the town.”
Slowinski suggested that the district not use the town-owned collection system.
Referring to state and federal grants, he added, “I do not ascribe to the, ‘It’s somebody else paying.’ It’s federal money, it’s state money. We pay those [taxes], that’s our money, that’s the taxpayer writ large, and there’s nobody that can justify these costs.”
“I don’t know where to begin with the misrepresentations,” Geary said in response to Slowinski’s comments.
According to Geary, the Sewer District worked with several agencies to examine all options for its future, including Slowinski’s suggestion to convert the canals into drain fields.
“We would’ve been condemned if we didn’t look at all options. We wanted to be thorough,” Geary said. “We’ve been trying to protect the town, we’ve been doing our part in trying to find a solution that not only treats our waste, but has a minimal impact on the town. The only reason we’re requesting help from the town right now is because [it owns] the collection system.”
The Selectboard members decided to send Wright-Pierce’s study of Griswoldville’s Colrain Sewer District and the letter Geary presented to town counsel, and revisit the project at a future meeting before moving forward with any options Geary mentioned.
Town Administrator Diana Parsons informed the Selectboard that Barnhardt asked the town to sign off on the demolition of its building by March 30 to ensure it does not impact any connections between the building and the collection system.
In an email on Wednesday, Parsons said, “After discussion, the town determined that it makes the most sense for the district to sign off. [Barnhardt has] been using the system for nearly 30 years and [has] the best understanding of its operation and location of connections.”