Smell at wastewater plant in Fairfield prompts gripes
FAIRFIELD — Officials say they are working to solve a problem that has caused a bad smell to emanate from the wastewater treatment plant, leading to complaints from residents.
“We’ve been getting emails over the last couple weeks from residents regarding the odor down there,” First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said at a recent meeting. “We usually hear from residents because we don’t put enough deodorizer or things like that... but this has been particularly unpleasant.”
Kupchick told the Board of Selectmen that the digester has broken at the Richard White Way facility in the Fairfield Beach area. She said the town has had multiple meetings about the issue, are working to fix it, and the health director has checked out the wastewater treatment plant.
John Bodie, assistant superintendent of the water pollution control facility, said town staff is cleaning out the digester, and then the hatch to it will be closed. He said the town has also put together a bid package for the repairs needed for the equipment, adding he hopes to get that out this week with a potential bid opening on Dec. 15.
“The WPCA Commission is aware of the odor complaints and the problems that it’s causing, so they came up with the idea of having a special meeting next week (to appropriate) the funds out of the fund balance and get the board approvals done in the month of December,” he said.
Bodie said the hope is to get a contractor working on the repairs by the middle of January.
Kupchick said the primary digester is a 600,000 gallon tank that accepts sludge. It’s believed to be failing because of high pressure due to a clogged outlet pipe. She said the first step is cleaning the sludge from the tank, which should be completed by Nov. 23. She said she was going to ask for the Representative Town Meeting to have a special meeting to help accelerate the approval process for repairs.
Kupchick said state and local health officials say there is no increased risk of adverse health risks from the issue.
Bodie said some of the odors will go away after the cleaning is done.
“Once that stops, some of it will be gone,” Bodie said. “Not all of it, and probably not to the level that they’ll be happy with. But that will be one part of it.”
Once the tank is repaired the odor should really go away, Bodie said, later adding that cleaning out and repairing the equipment is about 20 years overdue.
Selectwoman Nancy Lefkowitz said that, based discussions at a recent WPCA meeting, some municipalities do not clean such equipment and instead respond as they break, because cleaning can cost up to $1 million.
Bodie said there are some towns that do that, but he is not a fan of that idea based on what he’s going through right now.
Selectman Thomas Flynn said the town should have done a better job notifying residents of the impending smell, and that was going to happen whether the staff went into the tank for cleaning purposes or because it failed. Bodie said the timeframe for the tank being open would have been shorter if the town had cleaned it more regularly.
Kupchick said she feels terrible for residents.
“There’s kids standing at bus stops smelling this,” she said. “People can’t even take their dogs for a walk. It’s not good, and I just wanted our residents to know that we are doing everything in our power to get this done as quickly as possible.”