Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — On Dec. 19, the Loring Development Authority of Maine (LDA) and the Limestone Water and Sewer Department (LWSD) signed an agreement to unite the two facilities. Under this agreement, the current LWSD wastewater treatment plant will be idled, the wastewater from Limestone will be transferred to Loring, the LWSD will assume ownership and operation of the LDA plant, and LDA will become a wholesale customer of the new LWSD.
Neal Leighton, director of Limestone Water and Sewer Dept. signs the agreement uniting the waste water facilities at the LDA with the Limestone Water and Sewer Dept.
The agreement is in response to growing needs of both wastewater facilities.
“The Limestone Waste Water and Sewer District discharged into the Limestone Stream, which is no longer environmentally viable,” said Carl Flora, President of the Loring Development Authority, “Loring’s plant, although it’s sized adequately for us and for Limestone, it’s not in a condition to continue to function well over the next five, ten, or fifteen years. We began looking at the costs of upgrades; it’s a good marriage from that point of view. With the improved plan and the broadened user feed base, the plant will be more viable and better poised to attract businesses that we will hopefully locate in the area,” Flora added.
The agreement allows the two areas to operate through one newly upgraded facility.
“Combining the two entities into one facility saves about $10 million, and that’s not even including operational costs, ” said Nick Archer, Regional Director for the Department of Environmental Protection, “to build two separate facilities would have been between $10 and $15 million, and so it saves a significant amount of money. It’s a matter of efficiencies and offering environmental protection and economic development also, so it’s a unique situation,” Archer added.
Though the signing of the agreement is a milestone for LDA and LWSD, the multi-phase project is far from completion.
“Signing the agreement between the Loring Development Authority and the Limestone Water and Sewer District allowed us to receive funds from the United State Department of Agriculture,” said Jim Leighton, Superintendent of the LWSD, “now that we’ve signed the agreement, we can move ahead with the project. The engineers are in the process of making the plans so that hopefully we can get them out to bid this spring and make phase three of the project possible,” Leighton added.
Once the project is completed, the benefits will be numerous. Instead of discharging into the Little Madawaska River and the Limestone Stream, all of the discharge from Limestone and Loring will be done into the Aroostook River, where it will have less of an environmental impact.
The improved wastewater infrastructure will also allow Loring to expand the number of businesses operation at the LDA, which will support the creation of new jobs.
The legal transfer of the plant is expected to be finalized within the next few months; once that is accomplished, the wastewater plant at Loring will be under control of the LWSD.
President of the Loring Development Authority Carl Flora helps Neal Leighton, director of the Limestone Water and Sewer Department, and Milton Ross, with USDA Rural Development, support a massive sum of money. The United States Department of Agriculture presented the Limestone Water and Sewer District with a check for $4.95 million after the signing of an agreement that united the waste water facilities of the Loring Development Association with the Limestone Water and Sewer District.
