EPA honors Montague for wastewater plant upgrade

Montague’s handling of a $5.7 million upgrade of its wastewater treatment plant has earned recognition from the New England office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Over the past several years, the town has been making improvements to the wastewater facility in order to prevent heavy rainfall from causing a mix of water and sewage to flow into the Connecticut River. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection nominated Montague for an EPA award in part because of the town’s success in keeping the treatment plant operating at full efficiency during the upgrade, which is expected to be completed later this year.

“During all this work, the daily operation of the facility was never compromised,” DEP spokesman Joe Ferson said.
Ferson described the wastewater plant, built in 1964, as a “very old facility.”

“The fact that they kept it running, with a significantly reduced budget for the project, is very laudable,” he said.

Robert Trombley, Montague’s wastewater superintendent, said that his department has emphasized the importance of talking through any issues or concerns that arise related to the upgrade.

Thanks to a $970,000 federal grant awarded to the town last year, Montague will be installing a rotary press that will condense sewer sludge into a consistency solid enough so that it can be removed by a container truck every week or two rather than by tanker trucks four to five times per week.

The new technology will save the town about $100,000 in annual disposal costs, Trombley said.

Montague received its “Regional EPA Wastewater Treatment Plant Excellence Award” in Boston on Jan. 26.