RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) – From Rutland to St. Albans, the Scott administration is working to curb pollution by upgrading wastewater treatment facilities. In Rutland, that means using $30 million to reduce the estimated four million gallons of combined sewer overflow that goes into the Otter Creek each year.
Rutland’s waste treatment plant can hold about 22 million gallons of wastewater, but that’s not enough during big storms, when rain and creek water overwhelm the system, leading to combined sewage overflows, or CSOs, that result in a slew of public health issues.
“It’s got sewage in it, it’s got solids in it, it’s got garbage in it. You know? Nobody wants that,” said Rutland Public Works Director Bob Protivansky. “It gets real busy at the plant when it’s raining out. There’s lots to the treatment plus process and a lot of running around and keeping pumps unplugged and dealing with the high flows.”
But now the facility is facing a different kind of flood — its been inundated with with $7.2 million in state and federal funding to prevent CSOs. “It’s an absolute game changer. I mean, to ask the citizens of Rutland for $7 million is not something we could do,” Protivansky said. He says they’ll add valves to the end of pipes to prevent the river from flowing back into the system. They’ll also build a one million-gallon storage tank underneath nearby Monsignor Thomas Connor Memorial Park to hold excess waste and stormwater until the facility is able to treat it. Protivansky says the work is expected to begin next summer.
While the funding will enable major improvements, there are still 144 facilities statewide that will need millions more to fully curb overflows, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
“I would like to be able to celebrate $30 million but it’s like being given a paddle in a sinking canoe,” said James Ehlers, a clean water activist. He and others say they hope the state continues to support CSO prevention in the face of rising extreme weather events.