In September, Lowell, Mass., City Manager Bernie Lynch and his administration pushed the City Council for approval of close to $63 million in loan orders to bolster the city?s water and sewer infrastructure.
Lynch cast the investments as necessary to continue efforts to reduce sewage discharges into the Concord and Merrimack rivers, as required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as boost the work to improve the water enterprise fund operation.
?I hope the council will see the value of these improvements taking place over time,? Lynch told the council?s finance subcommittee. Lynch is seeking council approval of $40 million in borrowing for wastewater work.
Lynch and Wastewater Utility Executive Director Mark Young told councilors the EPA is pleased with Lowell?s combined-sewer-overflow project in recent years, but it wants more discharge-reduction work undertaken. Much of the sewer separation work is expected to take place in the Acre, Highlands and Belvidere neighborhoods. ?
A breakdown of the loan order indicated $13 million would go toward sewer separation. Combined sewer systems are sewers designed to collect rainwater, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe. Other wastewater projects include a flood-pumping station expected to help reduce flood-insurance rates in the Lower Centralville neighborhood, replacement and rehabilitation of aging sewer lines, and the installation of centrifuges to reduce sludge-disposal costs at the wastewater treatment plant.
The sewer rate was already slated to increase by 27 percent between fiscal 2015 and 2020, and the proposed loan order would require an additional 13 percent increase, according to city officials. City Councilor Bill Martin said he believes the city has made considerable progress reducing its CSO discharges, but wondered if the city could take a more forceful tact with the EPA.
The officials highlighted that the current combined water and sewer bill for the average city ratepayer is $606, lower than many other cities in the state, including Cambridge, Springfield and Worcester.
Some information contained in this financial news update was taken from a news report appearing in the Lowell Sun.?
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