The district has its own web page — www.brunswicksewer.org — and Facebook page — www.facebook.com/brunswicksewer. We encourage you to visit both sites and use them to communicate with us.
This year, we started a quarterly newsletter that is included with the bills and can be found on the website.
We plan to place a number of articles in The Times Record at regular intervals that will cover a variety of topics including staff, special projects, cost-cutting initiatives and future plans. We would like to use this initial article to tell you a little about the district organization and its mission.
The Brunswick Sewer District was created in 1947 by the Legislature under Private & Special Law 1947, c.77.
Per its charter and 1982 revision, the district “…is a quasimunicipal corporation …created for the purpose of providing and maintaining, within the territorial limits of the District, a sewer system for the collection, treatment and disposal of sewage.”
The territorial boundaries incorporate approximately the inner one-third of the town.
The district is governed by a five-member Board of Trustees, selected by the Town Council.
The volunteer members serve staggered three-year terms to maintain the continuity of the board. The Board of Trustees meets each month. Our meeting calendar is included in the town’s community calendar. Our meetings are open to the public, and we encourage you to attend.
Our facilities include some 60 miles of pipe, 1,300 manholes, 19 waste water pumping stations and the waste water treatment plant, which is capable of treating up to 11 million gallons per day at peak flow.
The treatment plant is designed for an average daily flow of 3.85 million gallons per day.
We treat all of the municipal waste water from the town of Brunswick, including Brunswick Landing; and municipal wastewater from the town of Topsham. The plant is also licensed to handle up to 25,000 gallons per day of septic tank waste.
For the year 2012, we treated a total of 742,651,000 gallons — the equivalent of 1,125 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The treatment plant operates under a renewable five-year Maine Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit — Permit #ME0100102, issued by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The sewer use rate is $4.685 per 100 cubic feet, which is approximately 748 gallons. This is a rate of $0.0062 per gallon — or 62 cents per 100 gallons. That covers the cost of operating and maintaining the treatment plant, the 60 miles of pipe and 19 pump stations, and all the labor and equipment involved.
We have a full-time staff of 18 employees, including six in each of the two operations divisions, three in the office and three senior managers.
The next article will cover costcutting measures that we have taken over the past few years to substantially reduce our operating expenses.
LEONARD BLANCHETTE is general manager of the Brunswick Sewer District.
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