Politics & Government

KP School Committee Moves to Resolve Wastewater Treatment Issue

Wastewater plant discussed at Monday's school committee meeting.

The King Philip School Committee decided, at its meeting Tuesday night, to once again put the replacement of the high school's wastewater treatment plant out to bid.

The new request for proposals would omit the decommissioning of the current field in an effort to bring costs down. The inclusion of that part of the project was cited as one of the reasons the last bids were so high.

The system has received odor complaints from nearby residents, and the district is under a Board of Health order to fix the problem. Officials said a lack of flow creates the odors.

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Carlos Quintal, of the Methuen engineering firm CAQ, spoke to the committee about its options. He said the town government has approached the school about building flow by adding residents to the system.

"The Board of Selectmen has shown interest in continuing the operation of the plant, and have contributors from outside the building itself," he said. "You have Lake Pearl, and you have a bunch of systems polluting Lake Pearl. Does it make sense? Of course it does."

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Quintal said, though, that doing so would require the creation of a sewer district, a legal hassle, and that the subsequent delay could result in substantial fines.

"You're not in the business of treating wastewater," he said.

Committee member Edward Goddard agreed.

"They're not going to come up with a community solution in a reasonable timeframe," he said.

Quintal suggested the board put the project out to bid in order to show the Board of Health and state Department of Environmental Protection that the district was making a good-faith effort to remedy the problem.

He also said the committee could send a letter to the selectmen about moving the sewer district process forward.

The board moved to put the project out to bid and write the letter to the town boards, advising them of their options.


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