New Wastewater Group Meets & Gets Organized

New Wastewater Group Meets & Gets Organized

Rochester’s newly formed Wastewater Study Committee held an organizational meeting Thursday, March 7 at the Rochester Town Office. Alvina Harvey is the chairman.

Selectboard chairman Charlie Biederman spoke briefly about the goals of the group. He read Marvin Harvey’s original motion, as recorded in the minutes of the Selectboard meeting of Feb. 25 (and amended by Biederman at that meeting) and set forth a few points for the committee to consider: do they want a representative from the selectboard on the committee? If so, who, and with what status? (committee member, or ex-officio, for example). He reiterated that all reading materials as set forth in the motion are available and suggested using Terry Severy and others within the town as resources.

Biederman also suggested contacting the Agency of Natural Resources and Vermont League of Cities and Towns for information and recommended that any questions for the engineers be forwarded to Terry Severy or the selectboard first, because the engineers will charge for their time and the selectboard is responsible for that cost. He said he hoped that one focus for this committee would be conservation of both water and sewer systems resources.

Alvina Harvey gave the group some written materials on greenhouses, lagoons, and generally discussed the Living Greenhouse concept. She said she had visited the site in Burlington, which is only operating for observation at this time. It has been running for five years under an EPA grant. Harvey has discussed the Burlington location in depth with Eric Wells, a former Rochester resident who now works for the company that installed the Burlington greenhouse system. He is coming down Thursday, March 14 to look at the Rochester fields.

It was noted that other sites in other locations are operating and should be visited and reviewed.

Terry Severy described a "standard" treatment plant, with approximately 5,000 square feet needed. In reply to a query as to how much pumping the town currently has to do, Severy noted that the sludge has to be taken to Glens Falls. The town has an indirect water treatment permit for 66,150 gallons per day.

Asked whether the town would be able to replace or adapt part of the system, Severy said they would have to review that with the Agency of Natural Resources.

Questioned as to what could be done to extend the life of the fields, Severy said the town has filters, which need to be installed, which would be cleaned three to four times a year. Systems 1 and 3 are due to be pumped. Then he will get in to the tanks and install the brackets for the filters. Groundwater infiltration is a problem and he is working on part of system # 2 to get surface water out of the system.

Severy noted that he believes flow metering will show that the town is actually producing about 30,000 gallons of effluent. He feels there has been "a dramatic drop" in water usage.

The committee also discussed water bills, water saving toilets, recycling "gray water," grease traps in restaurants, and water conservation.

The group assigned several areas for research. Heather Masterton volunteered to focus on Water Conservation and education. John Allen will continue to work on the flow monitoring with Terry Severy.

It was noted that river testing cannot be done by volunteers. The testing that is done for the White River Partnership is not complete enough. It would have to be done by a certified person, such as Steve Revell, a hydro-geologist from Lincoln. He would test above, below and in the middle of the site. Abe Collins volunteered to look for other geologists. Collins, who has been studying Holistic Management, also proposed assisting this group in working toward evolving a sort of mission statement as a constant reminder of their focus.

Frank Severy agreed to look for and present a few alternatives, noting that the Planning Commission has a goal of keeping the village as the focus of development.

The committee decided to meet alternate Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. at the town office. The next meeting will be Thursday March 21.

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