Reconstruction of sewage plant to begin this month
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
By December, the Carlin Construction Co. will begin renovation work on the Surfside Wastewater Treatment Plant to upgrade it to an advanced treatment plant.

The sewer beds at the Surfside Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Two weeks ago, the Historic District Commission approved seven certificates of appropriateness for demolition, renovation and new dwelling construction at the plant, which is located at the ocean end of South Shore Road.

Island voters authorized a $3.2 million debt exclusion override in a special election on Oct. 31 and the Board of Selectmen approved Carlin's $39.9 million contract for work on the plant at its Nov. 1 meeting the next night.

"The contract has been sent to the contractor and after he receives that, he has 30 days to mobilize and begin construction," said Department of Public Works Superintendent Jeff Willett.

Carlin, of New London, Conn., bid the lowest on the upgrade work, but its bid still came in at close to $11.7 million more than the $35.5 million that 2005 Town Meeting voters appropriated for the work. To reduce this cost somewhat, Carlin scratched a landscaping plan costing $104,000 and a modular duplex for employee housing priced at $1.7 million.

The remaining $6.3 million of the 30-percent cost overrun, which the town attributes to increased bonding, insurance and fuel costs, will be borne by taxpayers through the same payment formula for the original $35.5 million price tag. Existing and future sewer users will pay 66 percent of the $35.5 million and taxpayers will pick up the remaining 34 percent of the bill.

The work Carlin will do includes renovations and repairs for the sludge processing, primary treatment, process analysis, equipment storage and administrative buildings along with the construction of a new, 6,300- square-foot building for the advanced treatment apparatus that replaces the existing blower building at the south end of the plant. In this new building will be the "advanced treatment" called sequencing batch reactors.

Once the existing primary treatment process extracts most of the solids from the wastewater, it will be pumped into this new building where an activated sludge biological treatment process that uses bacteria and aeration, will further cleanse the sewage water.

Islanders' tax dollars are also going toward replacement of corroded and/or worn out and outdated plumbing, electrical, computer, and HVAC systems, enclosing the maintenance shelter, converting the vehicle storage shelter into a solids, sludge, and control building, enclosing the laboratory, and replacing the primary clarifier sludge collection equipment among many other improvements. Specifically, Carlin's exterior work includes:

+ Demolishing the blower building and the odor control system,

+ Adding walls, siding, trim, doors, garage doors, a louver to the equipment storage building, enclosing its columns and replacing its roofing,

+ Adding walls, siding, trim, doors, windows, garage doors, a louver to the sludge processing building, enclosing its columns and replacing its roofing,

+ Replacing siding, trim and doors on the process analysis building along with replacing and relocating window location, replacement of roofing, replacement and addition of louvers, removal of a temporary shelter and the addition of a chimney,

+ Removing odor ducts from the primary treatment building and replacing siding, trim, doors and roofing along with relocating a door and replacing windows while reducing their number,

+ Eliminating a door from the administrative building, replacing its siding, trim and other doors, replacing windows while reducing their number, replacing the roof and removing a louver and an air conditioning unit.

Willett said that Carlin would be doing work around the current treatment operations with no interruption of sewage flow to the plant.

"I totally expect that they will get going as quickly as they can," said Willett. "They only have a couple of years to get it done."

Town Administrator Libby Gibson added that she expects the work to be done by the Department of Environmental Protection-mandated completion date of June 2008.

"I have no reason not to believe that pending any unforeseen issues that might arise," she said. Once completed and functioning, the new plant will handle 3.5 million gallons of sewage per day. Currently it is permitted for 1.8 million.

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