Average ratepayer to save $200 a year

By Jonathan Cook
Turley Publications Reporter

STURBRIDGE - The wastewater treatment plant was center stage last Tuesday as a coterie of politicians led by Gov. Deval Patrick came to announce $15.1 million in low interest funding as part of $185 million in stimulus funding for water projects across the state.
The funding will create 4,000 jobs, Patrick said.
“It is one of 120 different projects that thanks to Recovery Act money we have been able to leverage,” Patrick said. “What would have been $400 million in SRF (State Revolving Fund) funding (is now) $800 million.”
Patrick said the funding is about more than jobs.
“It’s also about clean drinking water. It’s also about improved water quality in lakes and ponds and rivers and streams like the Quinebaug. It means green infrastructure improvements because there are cost savings associated with this project.”
A project once estimated at close to $40 million has been whittled down by more than half, first by utilizing cutting edge technology, and now by receiving a two percent interest loan plus 11 percent principal forgiveness on the $17 million project.
“A lot of us get caught up in the sort of alphabet soup of government programs,” Patrick said. “But this means very simply, jobs today, growth and savings tomorrow, a stronger Commonwealth. That is what we must be about.”
US Representative Richard Neal was also on hand to share in the good news, calling the money invested here a wise long-term investment.
“I’m still waiting for those who’d criticize stimulus to tell me which one of these dollars here today they’d send back. This is unglamorous but critical work,” he said.
Neal credits clean water with increased life expectancy.
“The question for our generation is simple. Were we good custodians of the environment?” he said.
Likewise, State Senator Stephen Brewer (D-Barre) noted these types of public works projects also created jobs during the Great Depression.
“This treatment plant is now going to be thinking smarter,” Brewer said about the first in the nation CoMag water filtration system to be installed.
Cambridge Water Technology has pioneered that technology.
“As an entrepreneurial start up we’ve been hanging on by our fingernails waiting for these projects to come through,” said CEO Charles B. Hamlin.
Hamlin said stimulus funding has driven more work his way and enabled his company to hire more people. “We’re able to take our innovations nationwide by virtue of the stimulus dollars,” he said.
The CoMag system is touted to be so effective that flow rate can be increased without increasing the size of the plant.
Tigh & Bond engineer Ian Cantwell gave credit to Selectman Ted Goodwin. “Ted’s pushed us in a positive environmental direction throughout the process. It’s been a great working relationship with the town. We’re starting a project that’s going to run for two years. The technology we’re using is exciting,” he said.
Cantwell added, “We know this works. We’ve piloted it here extensively and ultimately we selected it because it saves the town a lot of money in terms of both initial capital cost and also in terms of life cycle cost.”
He said the savings would prove to be more than $200 per year for the average ratepayer.
Cantwell also noted, “We’re up against a permit limit that’s going to get phased in very soon. So the phosphorous removal is really what’s driving us immediately. But the technology we’ve chosen is highly scaleable so it can ramp up to meet future flows.”
That prospect has Goodwin relieved. He said he hopes the town uses it’s gained capacity “more methodically and patiently” than it did in the past.
“It’s really frustrating to say no all the time,” he added. “You want to have capacity when good things come forward. It’s really exciting.”
Of the 4,000 jobs, about 100 are expected to revolve around the local project.
The governor also responded to a statement by new Senator Scott Brown that urged the rapid release of stimulus funding. Brown “is wrong about his facts,” said Patrick. “We are making the choices that favor more jobs.”
He added that “we are everyday all about creating jobs and we have been from the start.”
It was Brewer, however, who literally brought the sun through the clouds when he said, “you ain’t seen nothing yet relative to the economic prosperity that you’re going to be seeing in the very near future.”