Date: Fri 17-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Riverside-septic-system

Full Text:

Plans Proceed For Riverside Neighborhood Septic System

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The town plans to install a community septic system in the Riverside

neighborhood to serve six residential properties, some of which have failing

septic systems.

The project will serve six homes on Bungalow Terrace in the area where I-84

crosses through the neighborhood.

The work is being financed with loan subsidies from the US Environmental

Protection Agency's clean water fund, according to Fred Hurley, town director

of public works.

Those are the loan subsidies that the federal government also is providing to

help property owners in the sewer district pay off the capital costs of

building the municipal sewer system.

At a bid opening Tuesday in Edmond Town Hall, only one construction bid for

the community septic system was received, Mr Hurley explained. That bid came

from Hubbell Construction of Burlington. Hubbell submitted a base bid of

$141,000 for the project. Fuss and O'Neill, Inc, of Manchester, the town's

consulting engineer on the sewer project, had estimated a project cost of

$140,000.

If all optional work on the project is done, construction costs would be

$185,000, Mr Hurley said.

Although it is a formality, Fuss and O'Neill was slated to check out Hubbell's

references, he said. Hubbell helped build the town's sewer system, installing

sewer mains off Route 302 in the area with the "presidential" street names.

Mr Hurley said he expects that Hubbell will be awarded the construction

contract on the Bungalow Terrace community septic system.

"The soils are incredibly poor" Mr Hurley said of the area that will be used

for the leaching fields in the community septic system.

The galleys into which the septic system's effluence will drain are very deep,

according to Mr Hurley. Also, there are steep slopes on the very small area

that will be used to cleanse wastewater.

One of the houses to be served by the community system will require that its

wastewater be pumped uphill to the septic tank and leaching field, Mr Hurley

said.

The public land on which the community septic system will be built has been

deemed excess land by the state, Mr Hurley said. That property is off Bungalow

Terrace, near its intersection with Alpine Drive.

The town will own the septic system and will develop some arrangement under

which its users pay for system maintenance, he added.

The community system has been "over-designed" using conservative engineering

methods to make sure that it will work, according to Mr Hurley.

Construction work on the project is slated to start later this month.

Besides the six houses that plan to hook up, the community septic system has

been designed so that other properties can connect to it.

The Bungalow Terrace community septic system can serve as a "model" that the

town might use in the future as an example of how localized pockets of septic

system failures can be corrected without resorting to the installation of

conventional sewers, Mr Hurley said.

Beyond the two percent loan subsidies provided by the federal government to

help property owners pay off sewer system capital costs, about $660,000 of

such subsidies were designated to help property owners outside the sewer

district help pay to repair and rebuild their septic systems, including the

Riverside community septic system.

Approximately 50 individual failing septic systems were repaired through the

subsidy program.

The town created the septic repair program after voters agreed in August 1996

to use $660,000 of the $34.3 million in sewer construction bonds to help

repair septic systems outside the sewer district.