Saco voters approve $50 million wastewater treatment facility bond

SACO — Voters approved funding for a rebuild of the city’s Water Resource Recovery Plant.

Residents voted 3,479 to 1,733 to allow the city to borrow up to $50 million in bonds to upgrade the facility on Front Street.

The Water Resource Recovery Plant serves more than 12,000 residents and 375 businesses. Wastewater from the city’s sewer system goes to the plant to get cleaned and sent back to the Saco River. The facility is about 50 years old, though some upgrades have been made over the past decades.

City officials say the proposed plan would upgrade aging components and would give the plant the capacity to accommodate future growth. The plan would keep the wastewater treatment at the current location, raising the property four feet to assure that with rising sea levels it’s above the 100-year-flood plain, preventing back-ups and flooding. Construction is anticipated to start in the spring, with the project completed in 2026 or 2027.

The cost of the project will be funded through a Tax Increment Financing District and sewer fees, and the city hopes to offset these costs with state and federal funding as well as sewer impact fees from new construction.

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at [email protected].