Date: Fri 20-Dec-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewers-plant-management

Full Text:

Town Reviews Eight Firms For Sewer Plant Management

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) has received responses from eight

firms interested in operating the municipal sewage treatment plant.

The responses follow requests for qualifications sought by the town from

various firms to learn whether the companies are technically capable and

interested in operating the sewage plant.

After completion next fall, more than 20 miles of sewer mains will carry

sewage from central Newtown to a new sewage treatment plant at the end of

Commerce Road. The new treatment plant also will handle sewage now treated by

the state's treatment plant on the Fairfield Hills grounds.

The town plans to issue "requests for proposals" to the firm's deemed capable

of running the sewage plant. The document detailing the requests for proposals

will be subject to review by the state Department of Environmental Protection

(DEP).

Firms that have responded to the town's initial request for qualifications and

interest in running the sewer system include: OMI, Inc, of Greenwood Village,

Colorado; Earth Tech,. Inc, of Glastonbury; PSG of Houston, Texas; ST

Environmental Services, Inc, of Glen Cove, NY; United Water of Harrington

Park, NJ; Weston and Sampson Services, Inc, of Peabody, Massachusetts;

Wheelabrator EOS, Inc, of North Andover, Massachusetts; and Woodward and

Curran of Dedham, Massachusetts.

The town plans to send its requests for proposals to the companies by the end

of January. "Requests for proposals" constitute a form of bidding on the work.

The requests will seek the companies' business plans and strategies for

operating the sewage treatment plant, said Fred Hurley, the town's public

works director.

After receiving those submissions, the town will review them to assess which

firm is best suited to to operate and manage the treatment plant, and possibly

operate and maintain the miles of sewer lines which collect sewage, Mr Hurley

said.

The town may opt to maintain the sewer mains itself instead of having a

company do it, he said.

The treatment plant now being built at the end of Commerce Road will be highly

automated, he noted. The facility will be unattended at nights and on

weekends, he said. An estimated five to seven people would work there with

probably no more than five people working there at any one time, Mr Hurley

said.

Telemetry equipment will transmit information on the operation of four sewage

pumping stations and the sewage plant to a central computer. Computer software

will be used to automatically regulate the sewer system's operations, Mr

Hurley said. If major operational problems arise, alarms would sound and

automatic telephone calls would be made to alert staffers. Certain problems

could be remotely corrected via computers linked to the sewage plant by

telephone lines, he said.

By late spring or early summer, the town hopes to choose a firm to operate the

sewage plant, Mr Hurley said. It is yet unclear how much the plant's

management will cost.