Wastewater treatment plant get FEMA money for repairs two years after Irene
Plant in Au Sable Forks being built up better than before
Two years after Tropical Storm Irene, many communities are still rebuilding some essential services. After haggling with FEMA ever since the storm, one town is finally able to start rebuilding its wastewater treatment plant.
The plant had been limping along ever since one of the worst storms the region has dealt with.
"The National Weather Service had called Don Jaquish, our emergency services director, and said, 'Do you know the town supervisor in the town of Jay?' And Don says, 'Yeah, he's sitting right here with me right now,' and he says, 'Tell him to prepare for the worst flooding in the history of the town of Jay,'" said Jay Town Supervisor Randy Douglas.
Bridges and roads were washed out, people had to be rescued and the wastewater treatment plant was overwhelmed. Floodwater washed more silt and debris into the system than it could handle.
"It plugged everything up, pump stations, sewer lines, as well as now the lagoons," said Jay Town Department of Public Works Director Chris Garrow.
The town patched up the plant enough get by. Properly fixing it was a roughly half-million-dollar project, plus another roughly half-million to clean out the remote pumps and lines.
The towns of Jay and Black Brook, which use the plant, had to take out a $3 million loan to deal with Irene's damage. The public works director applied for FEMA funding but couldn't get it at first.
"I had to appeal this one two or three times before they decided to say 'OK, it qualifies,'" said Garrow.
After two years of fighting, FEMA approved the funding, and the plant is being fixed and brought back to code, starting with the lagoons.
"Some of the aerators, there's a couple laying over on the other side, there's a couple lines that are broke which need to be fixed, and we're going to be in the process of fixing those on Tuesday," said Garrow.
Garrow says the plant would soon need an overhaul anyway. He says FEMA funding took a heavy burden off the towns, and enabled them to rebuild even better than before.
The plant now has five rebeds that will take solids that would normally have to be trucked away and disposed of, and breaks them down into compost. Between that addition and the servicing of the existing facility, Garrow and Douglas say the taxpayers would have footed a hefty bill if not for FEMA finally paying up.
"It was worth fighting for," said Garrow.