For several months, homes neighboring the Warner Sewage Disposal Plant have coped with a sudden and persistent odor issue. The facility has identified the root of the problem — the microbes that help break down sewage — but it is still working on a solution.
“This is not a science. People think you can close a couple of switches and it’s done, but it’s not like that,” said Ray Martin, the plant’s administrator. “It’s an art form to get the balance back together.”
Martin said the issue came about in May because of a lack of dissolved oxygen in two open tanks, called ditches. This shortage killed off many of the bacteria used by the wastewater treatment plant to break down sewage.
The operators have been adjusting the dissolved oxygen levels since then, he said, but because they’re dealing with living organisms, it takes close to a week to determine whether each change has improved the number and activity of the bacteria.
“It’s better … but it’s not perfect,” Martin said.
The odor issues have drawn some complaints from nearby residents, both online and offline.
“It’s just frustrating that they haven’t figured it out. Not only figure it out but not tell us what’s going on. The fact that you have to get it third hand from a selectman is frustrating,” said Jonathan Noble, a Warner resident of 15 years, in a recent interview.
Martin said officials from the state Department of Environmental Services have been to the plant helping determine a solution.
The sewage treatment plant is owned and operated by the Warner Village District, independent of the town. It has 215 customers in Warner’s downtown area, 180 residential and the rest commercial, including a few apartment buildings and developments near I-89.
It handles about 40,000 to 60,000 gallons of sewage a day and is licensed to handle up to 110,000 gallons daily, Martin said. The Village District has an annual operating budget of $530,000 for both water and sewer.
The treatment plant opened in 1975, one of many wastewater treatment plants built around the county following the creation of the federal Clean Water Act. Sewage flows into the plant by gravity, then goes into the ditches for bacteria to do its work, then to clarifier tanks where solids settle out.
The plant trucks away about 12,000 gallons of the resulting slurry each month. After that, the liquid gets chlorinated to kill remaining bacteria and then de-chlorinated before it is released into the adjacent Warner River.
The district is nearing completion of engineering upgrades designed to remove copper from sewage due to stricter EPA standards imposed a few years ago. Martin said that issue is unrelated to the bacteria problem.
