By Joseph Edgerton
Staff Writer

Because the Suncook Wastewater Treatment Facility has reached capacity, Pembroke and Allenstown residents are forbidden from adding new sewer hookups.

The wastewater plant, which was erected in 1975, has a design capacity of 1.052 million gallons per day, and for six of the last eight years has been operating at 80 percent capacity.

Dana Clement is the superintendent of the plant, and said ending the moratorium on hookups depends on a variety of factors.

"The plant hydraulic capacity is exhausted," he said. "The moratorium will continue until a few things happen: We need a design for improvements, a warrant article approving expansion of the plant, and funding."

Until expansion or construction of a new facility is approved, residents will be forced to use private septic tank systems.

Clement said the cost of a new treatment facility would be $7,760,000.

"It would be funded through whatever grant funding we can secure, as well as bonding," he said. "As far as I know, 20 percent of the funding would come from DES (the state Department of Environmental Services)."

Clement also said he is unsure whether the remainder of the cost would be obtained through additional taxation or user fees for the system.

While the cost of a new facility is certain, the construction schedule and timeframe is not.

"If we had the warrant article on the ballot in March, which is unlikely because the design phase is not substantially complete, it would be three to four years," said Clement. "But since that might not happen, it (the construction timeline) might be even longer."

The new facility is vital to citizens of both Pembroke and Allenstown because state pollution guidelines pose a unique dilemma to wastewater treatment facilities. The Suncook facility currently pipes filtered water into the Merrimack River.

"The facility removes approximately 85 to 95 percent of pollutants from the wastewater that comes into the station," said Clement. "With the new state regulations, we're going to have to do better than that. The state says that we cannot increase our loading into the river. To double our flow, we would have to cut the output of pollutants in half."

The design plan for the new facility calls for an output capacity of 2.1 million gallons per day, which is double the current output of the plant.

"In order to meet these results, we would have to follow engineer recommendations to expand the facility through the use of a sequencing batch reactor treatment plant," said Clement. "It a totally different type of treatment plant from the one we use now."

Until new wastewater disposal options are in place, there are a few remaining options.

An Aug. 26 letter from the Department of Environmental Services to Allenstown said DES may authorize limited additional wastewater connections pending three provisions: the towns must rescind expired or unused wastewater connection approvals, document extraneous flow removal from the sewer connection system, or execute a contract for construction of DESapproved improvements.

Selectman James Rodger has been working with the Allenstown sewer facility, and said the long-term effects of the new facility are crucial to the town future.

"It not the immediate future we're planning for, it for the next generation," he said. "Without (wastewater) expansion, development will come to a halt."

The biggest hurdles facing expansion include drafting a municipal agreement between Pembroke and Allenstown and coming up with information for a warrant article, he said.

"It taking a little more time than we expected, but we're getting there," Rodger said. "It will be a historic occasion when both towns sign the agreement."