NEWBURYPORT — City residents would see their sewer bills rise by $125 per year if officials go through with a plan to fix the aging sewage treatment plant.
The Department of Public Services and Sewer Commission is recommending a $25 million project to renovate the 45-year-old Water Street plant. It's the least expensive of three proposals to fix the deteriorating facilities.
The average homeowner's sewer bill now runs between $400 and $450, Brendan O'Regan, director of Public Services said, so the increase would push it into the $525 to $575 range.
The increase for the average business is expected to be $750 per year.
Renovations are needed since the facility is in such disrepair and so old that it is draining money from the department's budget, O'Regan said.
Much of the equipment — the compressors, pumps, motors, laboratory, drives, electrical systems, roofs, heating and ventilation systems, among others — is falling apart.
"We have gutters inside the building, collecting the rainwater that is leaking inside the roof. The gutters lead to 5-gallon buckets," O'Regan said as an example of the facility's poor conditions. "If we haven't gotten every day out of it, we've got every week out of those buildings."
O'Regan said the city's plant starting operating in 1963 and was upgraded in 1984. The typical lifetime of such plants is 20 years, he said.
"So by the time the renovated project goes on line, the old renovation will be about 30 years old," O'Regan said. "Which means we will have got our money's worth."
O'Regan said as the prices of both chemicals and energy continue to rise, it is only magnified as the equipment "gets older and older."
"With better technology, there will be less odors, less energy costs and less costs from chemicals," he said. It might not lower overall operational costs, but rather would keep the budget "stabilized."
"In these days of rising energy costs and rising chemical costs, keeping our budget stabilized is a good thing," he said.
David Hanlon, chairman of the Sewer Commission, presented a report to the City Council before its most recent meeting. Hanlon, O'Regan and other officials will be back in front of the City Council at 6:30 p.m. March 31 to further explain the details of the report; work on it started about two years ago.
Among the costs of the project are: $540,000 for a primary clarifier; $3.319 million for an aeration system; $6.565 million for all building costs; and $4.129 million for support system improvements, along with many other items.
City Councilor Barry Connell, chairman of the council's Public Utilities committee, said municipal funds go to three main things: roads, schools and water systems.
"Obviously public infrastructure has to be maintained," he said. "It is prudent to look at upgrading the facilities we are using right now."
Connell said he has not been able to pore through the details of the proposal, but said the wastewater facility is one of the most important environmental programs in Newburyport. The treated water from the facility is piped into the Merrimack River.
"I think this is something we have to do on some level at some time," Connell said. "It is not cheap. But it is one of those things that establishes a baseline of quality in terms of the kinds of services we provide to people."
Hanlon, in a slide presentation to the council, showed three alternatives for fixing the facility.
The recommended option is the $25 million renovation.
Another option included a completely new facility in a different location, with an $83 million price tag to be paid off by raising the sewer rate $415 per year for each household and $2,479 for each business.
Another plan includes what O'Regan calls the "do-nothing" plan. That plan, which is a reactive plan that would fix problems as they came along, would end up costing the city about $40 million over 20 years — the same length of time as the $25-million bond issue for the recommended plan, O'Regan said.
"The point we wanted to get across is that whenever you do this, there is a do-nothing alternative," he said. "But a lot of times people don't get the point across about what do nothing means. It means you are being reactive.
"Planning it out and doing it saves you money in the long run."
If all goes as planned, the quickest construction could begin on the new facilities is 2010 to 2012.
