By Angeljean Chiaramida
SEABROOK — This week's Selectmen's meeting started off well, with its agenda intent on clearing the air of the rotten egg smell that's sporadically permeated the environment around the sewer plant since a new sludge reduction process was installed last summer.
But by the end of two hours Wednesday night, even after experts promised the problems are fixed, the debate dissolved into anger, with name-calling and threats of legal action by a union president fed up with employees having to endure the smell.
The new process installed into Seabrook's previously smooth-running and relatively odor-free wastewater treatment plant appeared to be a blessing when first proposed in 2007. It would reduce the sludge produced when water is extracted from sewage by as much as 80 percent and cut the rising cost of sludge disposal as well.
The cost to truck unwanted sludge away in 2007 was about $160,000. In 2008, the cost would have risen to almost $200,000, instead of the budgeted $23,000 with the new process.
Proposed by PMC BioTec, the new system uses microorganisms to gobble up most of the sludge. BioTec installed the $600,000 worth of equipment last spring with no up-front payment from cash-strapped Seabrook. The repayment plan extends over decades, using the money Seabrook would have spent on sludge removal. It wasn't projected to cost the town any additional money at all.
But its cost to nearby residents living along Route 286 and South Main Street — where Seabrook's wastewater treatment facility is located — is intangible, the neighbors say. It's brought horrible odors that stick to clothing, cause eyes to water, set off asthma episodes, and chase away buyers and summer renters due to the unforeseen problems getting the system to work right, they said.
Sewer treatment operator Phil Maltais and PMC BioTec President Don Rogers said the odor problem began after the December ice storm caused power outages that halted blowers, allowing hydrogen sulfide gas to build up in the vats.
Local residents have a different story. Selectman Bob Moore said the smell started in the fall, when he started getting calls.
"We had that smell all last summer, not just in November and December," said South Street resident Lisa Roberts. "And nothing was done about it until we started to complain."
"I've lived there for 15 years," said Grey Meyer, a South Main Street resident living closest to the plant. "We never had the smell before (the new process began.) You have no idea what I've gone through with that smell."
Private industry, such as pharmaceutical manufacturers with complex sewage to dispose of, have used PMC's new sludge reduction system successfully at a number of international sites, Rogers told residents.
Household sewage is less complex, Rogers said, and Seabrook was breaking new ground as the first municipal system in the country to try out the system.
But what was finally discovered a few weeks ago was that 70 percent of the waste tank diffusers had clogged completely, probably due to the blowers' inaction during the outage. Hydrogen sulfide gas continued to build up, spewing so much foul-smelling gas that the state Department of Environmental Services said the plant required immediate action.
Rogers, Maltais and Sewer Superintendent Warner Knowles assured residents they've unclogged the diffusers and will do so again if necessary. They are also planning to install new diffusers that won't clog. All three men said they felt the smell would disappear once new diffusers were in, but residents wanted none of it Wednesday night.
"You can turn this off tomorrow," Ken Tobey told selectmen. "And I think you should. My family aren't lab rats. You should turn it off tomorrow morning until these guys get their act together. Then we can try it again."
For Billy Knowles, president of the Seabrook Employees Union, having workers get sick from breathing unsafe levels of the noxious gas is a problem. The selectmen's desire to terminate the meeting without taking a vote on the future of the process while Knowles and others still had questions was the final insult.
He threatened unfair labor practice actions until a solution was found and the smell was gone permanently.
Selectman Brendan Kelly said selectmen would closet themselves away with their attorney before making a decision on what to do, but he gave no time line.
