When you live in a city, sewers are a critical need which is often taken for granted. I’ve always wondered what the sewers were like under the streets of South Portland, and how the system works in conjunction with the sewage treatment plant. I thought it would be interesting to document the history of sewage collection and treatment in South Portland. My thanks to South Portland’s team at the Water Resource Protection Department for meeting with me to help us better understand the present-day operation.
Sewer construction on Burwell Avenue in April, 1968. South Portland Historical Society photo
Our current system is made up of three important components: collection (which encompasses the sewer system and pump stations); treatment (which takes place at the sewage treatment plant on Waterman Drive); and engineering (the people who monitor all assets of the system).
This is a lot to cover, so let’s start this week with a look at the first part: collection.
Before sewers were constructed in South Portland (then known as Cape Elizabeth) in the 1800s, most households used outhouses and/or septic systems (there are still some houses in South Portland today using septic systems).
For those who lived close to the waterfront, installing a private sewer to the water’s edge, at one’s own expense, was possible. As more people settled in close proximity with one another, on smaller house lots, the need for a common sewer started to increase.
For our community, this meant that the early public sewers in Cape Elizabeth were installed in the more populated villages of Ferry Village, Knightville, Pleasantdale and Turner’s Island. In our search for the earliest sewers, we found town-constructed sewers in place around the time of the Civil War. In 1866, the town report showed expenses for digging and building a sewer at Vaughan’s Bridge.
In 1867, the town placed ads requesting proposals from contractors for construction of a sewer. The town had to spend money in 1868 to fix the sewer in Ferry Village (according to the town report, “We found the pipes leading to the Main Sewer in a very defective state this spring, caused by the frost, in consequence of said pipes being laid too near the surface of the ground; but the Sewer has been repaired in a thorough manner.”).
In 1870, the town was seeking to construct another sewer in Ferry Village and one at Turner’s Island. At a meeting in Portland in 1873 where the idea of annexing Ferry Village with Portland was being discussed, an opponent of annexation had these strong words to say: “Ferry Village has bled the town for sewers all she can, and now she wants to bleed Portland. Four thousand dollars have already been expended for sewers there, from which the town has received no benefit.”
Early sewers were often made of wood. The pipes could be as simple as long, hollowed-out logs, or they could be wooden plank sewers which consisted of long wood planks, cut and put together almost like staves on a very long barrel. According to Mark Lorello, who retired from Water Resources in 2017, over the years they’ve also found remains of old wooden box sewers here, as well – essentially sewer lines made from four pieces of wood, nailed together to form a square, long, box-shaped pipe.
In the late 1880s, complaints about the sewers in Knightville indicated that the sewers there were only three feet below the street. An article in 1889 stated that “there is no doubt but that the two cases of diptheria [sic] at Knightville were the result of bad sewers.” Also in 1889, a Knightville resident took matters into their own hands: “A private sewer has been put in from the house of the late Mrs. Illsley to the shore on West B street. The town ought to have built it. They don’t forget to tax.”
When a sewer was installed by the town, all abutting homeowners would receive a sewer tax to help pay for the installation.
In 1893, Hezekiah Pittee was hired by the town to construct a sewer at Preble Street. He hired 10 men to dig and install the sewer. That same year, Wooster & Wilson was hired to install a sewer on Chapel Street. The pipes for both sewers came from the Portland Cement Pipe and Artificial Stone Company. This was certainly an improvement over wooden pipe sewers.
At the annual meeting of the town of South Portland in 1896, much discussion was made regarding appropriating money for the construction of sewers. Some spoke about the need for a higher-quality construction. “Mr. Knight took the floor and spoke … of the Stanford street sewer in particular. He said that this sewer was built about 12 years ago (built in 1885 by Hezekiah Pittee and others) and was now in a very rotten and dangerous condition. It was unfit for use as it would not carry the collected matter off in proper shape.” In 1897, the town voted to reconstruct the Stanford Street sewer. A civil engineer, Mr. Jordan, had presented a plan for the creation of a permanent and well-planned sewer system; the Stanford Street sewer was the first sewer constructed under this plan. The 2,600-foot sewer line on Stanford Street would consist of a 24-inch pipe on the upper portion, from Broadway to High Street, and the lower section from High Street to the water would be three feet in diameter, constructed of brick.
Another important requirement of this new sewer line is that it be set below the water supply system. Construction of that sewer was completed by November, 1897, by contractor John Flannagan. The town selectmen proclaimed the new sewer to be the finest ever constructed in the town.
The sewer system across the city has been built over many years in many different stages. In the 1800s and into the early 1900s, sewer construction and maintenance seemed to be something looked at only when some issue or complaint brought it to the city’s attention.
In 1925, in order to have greater attention and care paid to our sewer system, a separate entity was created, the South Portland Sewer District, and the entire sewer system was sold to it for $1. From 1925-1963, it was the SP Sewer District that oversaw the operation of the entire sewer system, evaluated its assets, planned and implemented improvements to the system, and performed cleaning and maintenance.
Funding for the district came through annual appropriations from the city, bonds, assessments on abutters, and through state and federal funding. In the Depression years of the 1930s, additional funding was obtained through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Works Progress Administration. Trustees of the sewer district were elected by voters. At a special election in November, 1963, South Portland citizens voted to have the sewer system transferred back to the city and it was folded into the Public Works Department as the “sewer division.”
Through the 1970s, plans were underway for the treatment plant, which opened in 1978. Mark Lorello started as a lab technician at the Pollution Abatement Department at the treatment plant in 1979. In 1980 he was promoted to assistant to the director and took over the collection systems operation.
In 1988, Mark hired Dave Thomes. The collection department now has 10 employees and Dave is still there, now serving as the Collection Systems Manager. You can see collections employees out around the city working on the system: raising manhole covers, inspecting sewers with video equipment, and cleaning out the system with hoses and vacuums.
When they need to go down a manhole, there are a lot of safety protocols involved. They also answer calls from residents about backups (which are often caused by tree root intrusion). In earlier times before the sewer separation project, the department would sometimes receive calls from residents about rats. When you live near the water, rats are a part of life and they do tend to find their way around sewers (food going down disposals is a good food source for them).
On rainy days when the system would overflow with storm water, rats would sometimes try to avoid drowning by heading up residential pipes for safety (one more reason to appreciate the separation of our storm water sewer).
Our city might only be seven miles long, but the current system is composed of about 120 miles of sewer pipes. This is made up by pipe of various sizes and types – anywhere from residential street pipes of 8 to 12 inches, up to a 48-inch main line made of reinforced concrete, plus they have a 72-inch storm-water pipe. Vitrified clay pipes installed in the 1930s are still in place and working; newer pipes are made of PVC. All of these form a vast, interconnected system, leading to three main “trunk lines” that carry sewage to the treatment plant.
The system is largely gravity-fed, assisted by 28 pump stations around the city that raise sewage back up once it gets too deep. The depths of the sewers vary. A 30-inch pipe around Elm and Pearl streets is 20 feet underground. The lowest point in the system is a wet well at the treatment plant.
We’ll continue with our look at the sewer system (and what happens to the sewage) in next week’s column. The South Portland Historical Society can be reached at 207-767-7299, by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com, or by mail at 55 Bug Light Park, South Portland, ME 04106.
A note to historical society members: The February event by Seth Goldstein, “The Lobster and Aquaculture Industries of Maine,” has been postponed to Thursday, Feb. 16. More information can be found on our website or Facebook event page.
Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society. She can be reached at sphistory04106@gmail.com.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
