Bridgton completes $25.7M upgrade of wastewater treatment facility
Photo / Courtesy USDA Rural Development
A major expansion and upgrades mean the original system, which only served a small portion of the downtown area and treated only gray water, will be decommissioned.
The town of Bridgton recently completed a major project to upgrade its wastewater treatment system.
Planning, engineering and construction for the project took nearly five years.
The municipal sewer line now serves 655 homes and businesses.
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development funded the much of the project with $11.4 million in grants and $11.8 million in loans through its water and waste disposal program.
“The pristine natural beauty of this area is something we all want to protect,” said Rhiannon Hampson, USDA Rural Development’s Maine state director. “This project does so while also supporting healthy neighborhoods and future economic development.”
The facility, on McKegney Way, began processing wastewater in January 2024.
Old system
Woodard & Curran in Portland consulted and provided engineering on the project.
The original wastewater collection and treatment system only served a small portion of the downtown area and treated only gray water, Woodard & Curran said.
Treatment was provided via systems at two locations that were unable to consistently meet their permitted effluent requirements. As a result of failing septic systems, poor water quality had been experienced in the town’s surface water bodies.
The existing systems were operating at capacity, so there was no room to expand in order to serve new users.
Upgrade
The collection system was significantly expanded to include many of the side streets along Main Street as well as extend down Route 302.
Existing pump stations were upgraded and four new pump stations were constructed. A new wastewater treatment facility was constructed off of Route 302 to provide centralized treatment for the entire user base and allow the existing systems to be decommissioned.
The new treatment system includes fine screening, biological treatment, secondary clarification and sludge storage for off-site disposal. Treated effluent is pumped to a series of subsurface pressurized drip dispersal fields
Total engineering and construction cost for the project was $25.7 million. In addition to the USDA grants and loans, the town received $1 million in grants and $1 million in loans from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. The town also contributed $443,000 from its wastewater fund.
Planning process
Engineering design of the project began in the spring of 2019. The collection system upgrades began in the spring of 2021 and were completed in the fall of 2023. The treatment facility and pump stations project began in the spring of 2022 and was completed in the summer of 2024.
The upgraded system was designed to support 655 users.
The improvements mean the new system operates more effectively and efficiently and with greatly reduced health and sanitary concerns. As homes and businesses connect to the new sewer line, more septic systems are eliminated, further reducing environmental and health concerns.
Rural Development’s water and waste disposal program helps to fund clean and reliable drinking water systems, sanitary sewage disposal, sanitary solid waste disposal and stormwater drainage to households and businesses in eligible rural areas.
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