SEABROOK — The largest flow of federal economic stimulus money into one New Hampshire water project drew a flurry of state and federal officials to Seabrook yesterday to officiate at the ground-breaking of the town's long-awaited water treatment plant.
Coming through the state Department of Environmental Services, the $11 million project received $5 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds — more than any other water improvement project in the Granite State.
"In Seabrook and in municipalities throughout the estate, investment in water infrastructure is necessary to ensure communities prosper and thrive," state DES commissioner Tom Burack told the large group gathered at the plant's Route 107 construction site yesterday. "This particular facility will improve the public health protection for the residents (and workers) of Seabrook by removing arsenic, iron, manganese and radon from the well water that supplies the public water system."
When completed, the plant will bring Seabrook's water into compliance with federal drinking water standards.
Along with local, state and federal environmental agency officials in Seabrook yesterday for the event were Seabrook's Governor's Councillor Beverly Hollingworth and a representative from the office of Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter.
Stimulus finding will come to the Seabrook project in two ways. There will be a $2.5 million grant in the form of loan forgiveness, Town Manager Barry Brenner said. The other $2.5 million will come in a low-interest loan from the state's Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund, Brenner said. With the stimulus package funding, taxpayers will save millions over the life of the project.
Knowing the need for the treatment plant to conform with federal drinking water standards, Seabrook voters approved raising as much as $12 million through a bond issuance for the project, Brenner said. Six million in municipal bonds have been issued for the project, he said, and the $5 million coming from the ARRA should be enough to complete the job.
"The new estimate to complete the plant is $11 million," Brenner said. "I don't think we'll need to issue any more bonds."
Brenner added that in his career as a public administrator, he's worked on a lot of projects in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and the level of cooperation Seabrook has received from state and federal agencies on this project has been excellent.
Burack; Sarah Pillsbury, administrator of the DES Drinking Water Bureau; and Stephen Perkins, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional deputy administrator, praised local leaders in Seabrook, from the Board of Selectmen to Brenner to Water Superintendent Curtis Slayon for their roles in piloting the project through to completion and often overcoming the hurtles that hounded the project.
Selectman Aboul Khan also applauded Seabrook's voters, who approved the project and its funding at Town Meeting years ago. Without the vote that approved the bond issuance, the project would not have qualified for the stimulus funding or ever gotten off the drawing board, he said.
Perkins said Seabrook's public water infrastructure isn't the only project in the nation that saw postponement over recent years. New England in particular with its aging water systems, is in need of funding because maintenance of the systems has been postponed repeatedly in years past, he said.
Over the next 20 years, there is a need for $300 billion to finance water system projects nationwide, with New Hampshire alone needing $850 million, Perkins said.
Brenner didn't know how many jobs would be created for the project before it's done but said it has encompassed a number of consulting, engineering and design companies over its lifespan already. Hooksett's Kinsman Corp. will build the plant, which has a completion date of January 2011.
