Wastewater Treatment

TREATMENT_FACILITYThe Town of Bucksport wastewater treatment facility is located at 205 U.S. Route 1. The facility is licensed for primary wastewater treatment, and does not provide secondary treatment at this time. Following is a description of the methods used to treat wastewater at this facility:

Influent sewage enters the plant and is combined with a polymer that helps the settling of solids. The mixture then flows through the head works and into a splitter box, which distributes the mixture into 2 clarifiers. The solids in the water are allowed to settle to the bottom, and then pumped to a sludge holding tank. This is a relatively small tank, so a dewatering process is conducted twice a week. Dewatering is the process of pumping the sludge onto a dewatering press, which squeezes the water from the solids. After dewatering, the solids are transported by truck to the town’s sludge storage facility on Upper Long Pond Road. After further dewatering at the storage facility, a private company removes the sludge for use in a compost product.

The water that runs over the top of the clarifiers at the treatment facility is sent to a contact chamber where, in warm weather, sodium hypochlorite is added to disinfect and kill all fecal coli bacteria. At the end of the contact chamber, the water is dechlorinated with sodium bisulfite. After the chlorine is removed, the effluent water is discharged into the Penobscot River.

Bucksport has an annual average flow of about 110,000,000 gallons or about 300,000 per day. The Town also accepts wastewater from the towns of Orland and Verona Island under a contractual agreement. Orland contributes about 6 to 6.5 million gallons, and Verona Island contributes about 4.5 to 5 million gallons. Both towns have 2 pump stations, which are maintained by the Town of Bucksport. Bucksport has 6 pump stations, for a total of 10 pump stations maintained by wastewater personnel.

Bucksport also has a new swirl concentrator located in a building at the corner of Route 1 and Route 15. The facility processes stormwater overflows with a primary process called a vortex. The vortex processed 5,000,000 gallons last year. With the addition of this processor, the town has had no untreated wastewater discharges to the Penobscot River.

The employees operate and manage the wastewater facility, the water treatment facility, the swirl concentrator, and also maintain 10 sewer pump stations, 3 water pump stations, and 2 water storage tanks.

Contact Information

David E. Michaud,
Plant Manager
The Maine Water Company
Cell:  207-974-6970
dmichaud@mainewater.com 

Address:
P.O. Box X
205 US Route 1
Bucksport, ME  04416

Telephone:  207-469-6288
Fax:  207-469-7369

Related Documents

Click on the links below to learn more... - Sewer Ordinance