Saco breaks ground on Water Resource Recovery Facility upgrades

Local, state and federal officials gathered Monday morning in Saco at a groundbreaking ceremony for upgrades to the city’s Water Resource Recovery Facility

In November 2021, Saco citizens voted to allow the city to borrow up to $50 million to upgrade the city’s wastewater treatment facility on Front Street.

Saco’s Water Resource Recovery Facility provides sewer services to more than 12,000 residents and 375 businesses. The plant is located along the Saco River, and the area has experienced flooding during storms.

In 2020, the Governor’s Climate Council created a Climate Action Plan for the state which mentioned the Saco facility.

“What really jumpstarted us is that we were included in the Climate Action Plan as one of the most at-risk facilities in the state of Maine. So that really gave us a baseline to get this project started,” said Water Resource Recovery Facility Director Howard Carter at Monday morning’s ceremony.

The City Council appointed a Coastal Resiliency Ad Hoc Committee in 2020 that worked with city staff, and U.S. EPA to recommend upgrades to the plant.

The project will raise and elevate the facility, expand the capacity of the plant to accommodate growth in the city, and will incorporate a UV light system that will eliminate the need for some chemicals.

“This is going to be one of the advanced treatment plants in the state of Maine,” said Carter.

 

EPA Region 1 Administrator David Cash, U.S. Senator Susan Collins and Saco Mayor Jodi MacPhail attend Monday morning's groundbreaking ceremony in Saco. PHOTO BY LIZ GOTTHELF

Mayor Jodi MacPhail said one of her first city appointments was to the then newly formed Coastal Resiliency Committee, and it became one of her goals to work with Carter and state and federal delegates to make the dream of an upgraded wastewater treatment facility a reality.

“When this first started, I posed the question how can you put a value on water? As we stand here today as we dedicate this new Wastewater facility, we now have our answer,” said MacPhail.

U.S. Senator Susan Collins referred to a video of the treatment plant during a December2019 storm event that Carter posted online.

 “It showed how the combined effect of heavy rain, snow melt and high tide threatened to overwhelm the existing low-lying, fifty-year- old treatment facility and contaminate the Saco river. It was truly a powerful video and I quickly learned that this was not just a one-time event,” she said. “With more severe weather events and rising seas, this was a wakeup call for more resilient wastewater infrastructure.”

Work on the wastewater treatment facility is projected to be completed in spring of 2027.

While residents voted for the city to borrow up to $50 million for the project, the city pledged to find alternative funding sources.

Collins, in collaboration with Senator Angus King, sponsored a Congressionally Directed Spending Request for $3.93 million toward the initial phase of the Saco Water Resource Recovery Project, according to a press release from the City of Saco. The project has also secured other funding sources, with $2 million in principal loan forgiveness from the DEP and two other critical Congressionally Directed/Community Project Funding initiatives bringing the state or federal funding amount to $10,956,978, according to the press release.

Saco Bay News Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.