The town is seeking federal grant money, which if approved, would cover half the estimated $1.9 million cost of replacing aging sanitary sewer lines at the town-owned Fairfield Hills core campus, with the town covering the balance.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said July 31 that some sewer lines at the campus, which opened as a state psychiatric hospital in the early 1930s, are nearly 90 years old and thus need to be replaced.

Mr Hurley said that Christal Preszler and Kimberly Chiapetta at the town’s Economic and Community Development Department already have submitted a preliminary application for the Fairfield Hills resewering grant to the US Economic Development Administration. If the town receives the federal grant, the town would cover its share of the cost for the project through bonding, according to the town’s Water & Sewer Authority.

Across time, the large-diameter cast iron pipes, some of which are buried 15 to 20 feet underground, deteriorate and crack, resulting in the sewage that they carry escaping into the soil, Mr Hurley said. Some of the water that escapes from sanitary sewers may find its way into buried stormwater sewers, which then convey the sanitary sewer water to stormwater sewer discharge points at streams, he commented.

In some cases, tree roots attack sanitary sewer lines, causing the lines to crack, Mr Hurley said.

Besides sewage leaking out of underground sanitary sewers, groundwater may infiltrate those sewers if they are ruptured. Such groundwater infiltration then puts excess flow through the sewage treatment plant.

There are more than 8,700 linear feet of large-diameter sanitary sewer lines buried at Fairfield Hills, ranging in diameter from 10 inches to 18 inches, Mr Hurley said. The project also would replace the 52 cast iron manholes at the campus.

In 2004, the town purchased the 189-acre Fairfield Hills core campus and many buildings from the state for $3.9 million. The state hospital closed in 1995, after having been in operation for more than 60 years. At its height in the late 1960s, the facility housed more than 4,000 patients.

Fairfield Hills formerly had its own sewage treatment plant in the area now occupied by the town’s dog park. The Commerce Road sewage treatment plant, which started operation in 1997, handles sewage flow from both municipal sanitary sewers and Fairfield Hills sewers, as well as Garner Correctional Institution.

Physical deterioration is not unusual when sanitary sewer pipes are more than 80 years old, Mr Hurley said. The town has used specialized cameras to inspect the condition of the pipes, he added.

Mr Hurley said the town started considering sewer line replacement at Fairfield Hills about a decade ago. He said he expects that the town would not do a sewer replacement project unless it receives the grant money that would cover half the costs of design and construction.

New sewer lines would be made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a rugged industrial-grade plastic. Also, the layout of new sewer lines would be simpler and shallower than the original installation. In the 15 years that the town has owned the core campus, it has demolished a number of buildings that formerly stood there.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) would review the town plans to redesign the Fairfield Hills sewer line layout, Mr Hurley said. Such a project is expected to last 24 months, including design and construction.

“Sooner or later, these (sanitary sewer) pipes are going to fail,” Mr Hurley said.