TOWN FINED BY EPA
I enjoyed your article but I have some real concerns about
the manner in which the town is handling this situation. This reminds me of when I sued the town over
information. A competent Town Attorney
and a Town Manager with many years of experience should have known that I was
entitled and provided the information instead of taking it to court at a cost of over $10,000 tax
dollars in legal fees.
Now the town is faced with a similar situation. The Enforcement Division of the Bureau of
Land and Water Quality forwarded to the town a letter dated February 25, 2013
outlining the violations by the Sewer Department back in 2012 and an
appropriate fine
of $22,307.00. There were
three violations stated in the letter:
a.
On May
25, 2012 it was discovered that a blockage in the Huston Street cross-country
sewer was causing untreated wastewater to overflow from a manhole and discharge
to adjacent small brooks that flows to the Androscoggin River.
b.
On November 5, 2012 another spill occurred at
the Route 196 pump station of approximately 550,000 gallons of untreated waste
water that ended in the Sabattus River.
c.
The town is in violation of Special Condition H
of the wastewater treatment permit because the town does not have an O&M
plan (operation and maintenance) that includes a systematic approach for proper
operation and maintenance of the collection system.
There is no question that the town was at fault in each of
these situations. So why did the Town
not admit they were negligent, pay the fine and move on? The town would rather try and get out of
paying the fine instead of paying the fine and move on. Tell
me again about who has values and who does not. Remember, if
the town does not reach an agreement with the state this will end up in court
and cost the taxpayers a ton of tax dollars in legal fees.
All of these situations could have been prevented if the
town had a competent Town Engineer and a Chief Administrative Officer (Town
Manager) to oversee the Town Engineer. A
basic management tool is the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) or the O&M
(operation and maintenance) plan. If Mr. Leighton was qualified as a manager
the first thing he should have down is to prepare an O&M plan. If the O&M plan was in place the sewer
personnel would known to monitor the alarms and when to clean manholes
on a schedule.
This Town Council needs
to take direct action to prevent further occurrences of this nature.
Larry Fillmore