Having received a list of the equipment that is required to upgrade the Sandy Hook Center sewage pump station, the town will be acquiring that gear with the goal of completing the improvements before the end of the year.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said the Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) has received the equipment list for the improvement project from its consulting engineers. The town’s purchasing agent will acquire the equipment for the project. The pump station is located at 5-A Glen Road.

Mr Hurley has estimated that increasing the sewage pump station’s sewage-handling capacity will cost somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000. Such funding would be financed by the WSA, not the municipal government, he said April 24.

The public works director said he hopes that installation of new equipment at the pump station starts by July.

Besides installing two new higher capacity pumps to replace two existing pumps, the project would include installing a new electrical generator outdoors at the pump station to replace an existing indoor generator. Some plumbing and electrical improvements would also be made.

WSA consulting engineers Fuss & O’Neill have submitted a 67-page report on the need to expand sewage pumping capacity. The pump station is one of four such stations that power the central sanitary sewer system, which started operation in 1997.

A 240-square-foot building that sits on an 0.11-acre lot at Glen Road has two pumps that are used to pump sewage westward and uphill along Church Hill Road via a pressurized force main to the town’s sewage treatment plant on Commerce Road. Past development in Sandy Hook and anticipated new development have resulted in the pumping station reaching its limits, requiring that its pumping capacity be increased, according to the WSA.

Twice in the past, the Sandy Hook pump station almost overflowed with wastewater. In one case, the Newtown High School swimming pool was drained, and all the pool water rapidly traveled through the sewer system, nearly flooding the pump station. In the other case, a major grease blockage in the sewer system was located at Newtown Shopping Village at 5 Queen Street. When that blockage was cleared, a great volume of wastewater traveled through the sewer system, again nearly flooding the pump house.

The three other pump stations in the central sewer district are located at 47-A Hanover Road, 33-A Taunton Lake Drive, and 17-A Baldwin Road. The Sandy Hook station is in a commercial area, with the other three stations located in residential settings.