(This story by Derek Carson was published in the Bennington Banner on May 9.)
BENNINGTON — The state has fined the Town of Bennington $15,000 for failing to maintain its wastewater treatment plant.
The Department of Environmental Conservation announced Monday that the “facility’s disrepair caused foul odors and several releases of partially treated wastewater into the Walloomsac River.” The facility is located on Harrington Road in North Bennington. Last summer, residents began to complain about “putrid” smells coming from the plant.
“The Town of Bennington has a permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation [DEC] to discharge treated wastewater into the Walloomsac River,” reads a release from the department. “Prior to discharge, units known as rotating biological contactors [RBC] biologically treat the wastewater. In the late summer of 2016, failure of two-thirds of the facility’s 32 RBC units caused discharge water to be released into the river with bacteria levels above allowable standards.
Beginning in 2015, the Town adopted a schedule to replace four RBC units annually.
After eight units were replaced, three catastrophically failed, causing a cascade of failures across other units. As these mechanical, electrical, and structural problems persisted, only 10 of the 32 RBC units remained operational by the fall 2016. In fact, eight RBC units had been intentionally decommissioned in order to supply the system with replacement parts.” The DEC reported that there is currently no evidence of health or safety impacts on the river due to the failure.
Currently 25 of the plant’s RBC units are operational, one more than the state’s required 24, said Bennington Town Manager Stu Hurd.
Some of the gearboxes that failed in the RBC units last summer were among those that had been replaced starting in 2015, meaning that they were only a year or two old, he said. When those failed, it put considerable stress on the other units, causing more failures, Hurd said.
The Vermont Superior Court, Environmental Division, issued an order on April 21 that requires Bennington to pay a $15,000 penalty and to submit to the state an evaluation of the current state of the facility within 60 days.
This detailed analysis must address how the facility will maintain the existing RBC units so that consistent permit compliance can be maintained pending more permanent upgrades. The town then has an additional 60 days to submit a revised plan and schedule for replacement of the RBC units, with a public bond vote targeted for October 2017.
Hurd said that the town had negotiated the fine down to $15,000, which was made up of $3,750 that will go to the DEC and $11,250 that will go toward a water quality project identified by the town and approved by the Agency of Natural Resources. Hurd said that the town is looking for projects that will benefit this region, but has not yet made a decision.
“I think the agency was heavy-handed in response to the problems we had,” said Hurd. In April, he said that the cost of the capital bond project to upgrade the equipment in the water treatment plant would be $10-11 million, which he said at the time represented the large bond issue faced by the town in his tenure. On Monday, he said that in speaking with water department staff about what parts of the work can be done in-house, he was now estimating the total cost of the project would be closer to $9.5 million.
“Facilities that operate on the margins of disrepair run a much greater risk of dangerously releasing untreated wastewater into rivers we use for fishing, swimming, playing,” said DEC Commissioner Emily Boedecker. “It is imperative that we hold communities responsible for ensuring their public wastewater infrastructure investments remain in good working order.”
Hurd said that while he agreed with Boedecker’s words generally, he felt that it was an unfair assessment of Bennington’s situation. He said that while the equipment in question is 31 years old, it was in good operating condition, and that the plant had received positive marks in state inspections in recent years.
