Village Awaits Chesapeake Bay Standards

RFH 2010, Featured Articles, Village of Hamilton

Wed, Aug 03, 2011

What happens in Hamilton doesn't stay in Hamilton, especially when it comes to the end products of its wastewater treatment process.

Flush a toilet or do a load of laundry in the village, and eventually, the effects are felt hundreds of miles downstream where one of America's largest rivers -- the Susquehanna -- meets the Atlantic Ocean forming the Chesapeake Bay. This fact of nature has the village preparing to meet new regulations aimed at cleaning up the bay; and that means spending money to comply with the new rules.

A major federal effort to clean up the 64,000 square-miles of the Chesapeake has been under way for more than 25 years. Finally, the village is close to learning what its role will be in the clean-up and how much it will cost.

Sean Graham, the village's director of public works and municipal utilities, says he is waiting to hear from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) how much the village will have to reduce two key ingredients of its waster water. Graham says the new, lower levels of nitrogen and phosphates allowed in the water discharged from the treatment plant are expected from the DEC shortly.

Graham says it is difficult to know what the new limits on nitrogen and phosphates will be, but the amount the village will have to reduce "appears to be significant."

Hamilton sits at the northern edge of the watershed that feeds the Chesapeake. Once waste from the village's sewage system is processed, the remaining treated water flows into Payne Creek. That enters the Chenango River, which joins the Susquehanna in the City of Binghamton.

Hamilton's place in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Graham says the village is being mandated to clean up its outflow before it enters Payne Creek. That means changes, upgrades and possible expansion of the wastewater treatment plant. The extent of those changes -- and the price tage for them -- remains to be seen.

Until the village knows how much it must reduce its levels of phosphates and nitrogen, Graham says it is difficult to know how extensive and expensive the upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant will be.

"It could be simple and cheap," says Graham. "Or it could be complex and expensive." He was only half joking when he said he thought it most likely could be the later.

He said the village will seek grants and/or low-cost loans for any project. Graham did say that increased sewer rates could result depending how much the changes cost.

Composting What's Left Behind

The village is also considering a new solution for solid waste materials left behind after the water is sent on its way to the Chesapeake.

Graham says the village now dries the solids from the wastewater treatment process and trucks them to the Madison County landfill. It pays $61 a ton for the disposal.

If it makes sense financially, Graham says the village could begin composting its solid wastes and making them available to residents for use on non-food plantings.

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