Dignitaries dedicate North Windham Wastewater Treatment Plant

By Ed Pierce

It’s been said that success in life is about project management in determining deliverables, making milestones, and always pursuing the critical path. For years, the Town of Windham has sought to find a solution to effective wastewater treatment and on Oct. 8, all those efforts were achieved with the dedication of the new North Windham Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Dignitaries watch as U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine
cuts the ribbon to open the new Windham Wastewater
Treatment Plant on the grounds of Manchester School in
Windham on Oct. 8. From left are Scott Firmin and Bill Lunt
of the Portland Water District, Senator Collins, Windham Town 
Council Chair Mark Morrison, RSU 14 Superintendent of
Schools Christopher Howell, and Windham Town
Manager Robert Burns. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE   

With U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine on hand to cut the ribbon marking the new facility becoming fully operational on the grounds of Manchester School, Windham Town Council members and representatives of the Portland Water District and RSU 14 spoke about the collaboration it took to bring the $48 million project to fruition at no expense to taxpayers.

After decades of proposals, studies, and rejections from voters at the ballot box, Windham residents resoundingly approved sewer and wastewater treatment project for North Windham in a special referendum in June 2022. Partnering with the Portland Water District and RSU 14 to create the massive infrastructure project, the Windham Town Council covered the remaining costs for the initiative through a combination of grant funding, a $38.9 million award by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and North Windham TIF funding supported by North Windham businesses.

Now completed, the new wastewater treatment facility will address environmental issues in North Windham by removing 25,000 pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants each year being dumped by septic systems into the aquifer and watershed. The installation of sewers is expected to stimulate significant economic growth in Windham and lead to development in the area by industries and businesses not willing to locate here because of associated septic system issues and costs.

Through an agreement between RSU 14 and the Town of Windham, in exchange for locating the new wastewater treatment site at Manchester school, the town built four new playing fields for youth sports at the school.

The new Windham Wastewater Treatment facility uses Membrane Bio-Reactor technology with innovative drip dispersal and will be the first system to use drip dispersal of this scale in Maine. This technology is designed to improve the quality of local groundwater and local waterways, and was selected for its reliability, flexibility, and cost effectiveness.

Portland Water District officials say that the facility will clean and filter community wastewater that is currently being discharged untreated into septic systems. The cleaned, high-quality water, which is extremely low in nitrogen and phosphorus, will be released into an advanced drip dispersal system that will be 2 feet underneath the new athletic fields at Manchester School. They say the sandy soils native to the area are ideal for this system.

Because of the lack of an effective sewer system in North Windham, over the years contaminants have continued to pollute the aquifer, threatening surrounding ponds and lakes, and stifling economic growth. For the past two decades increasing nitrate levels have been observed in the underlying aquifer that threatened local water resources including Sebago Lake. Current levels of nitrates in the ground water have exceeded drinking water standards and septic system pollution entering the aquifer directly impacts surrounding valuable water resources. This new wastewater treatment plant addresses the issue before the problem escalated and became irreversible.

Speakers at the dedication included Senator Collins; Windham Town Council Chair Mark Morrison; RSU 14 Schools Superintendent Christopher Howell; Windham Town Manager Robert Burns; Maine DEP Water Quality Division Director Gregg Wood; Bill Lunt of the Portland Water District Board of Trustees; and Portland Water District General Manager Scott Firmin.

Collins said she was surprised to learn that Windham did not have an existing sewer system but praised everyone who worked diligently to make this project a reality.

“I was shocked that an area this populated did not have a wastewater treatment facility,” she said. “It was essential that we help.”

Collins was able to obtain $2 million from Congress to contribute toward the project.

“It has the smallest carbon footprint, and this innovative technology will serve as a model for other communities in Maine,” she said. 

The project fits with an upcoming MaineDOT project for Route 302 redevelopment in Windham, the senator said.

“The two projects complement each other,” Collins said. “The vision of community leaders and citizens is truly impressive.”

Funding to support the Windham Wastewater Project included a $38.9 million Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund Award; a $3.25 million SRF Debt Forgiveness Grant, $1.7 million in American Rescue Plan Funds allocated to the town, $2 million in Congressional Direct Spending sponsored by Senators Collins and King, and $1.5 million from Cumberland County Government. <

Puleo settles in as Windham’s new Planning Director

By Kaysa Jalbert

The Town of Windham has a new planning director, Stephen Puleo, who plans to approach his job with transparency and high standards when it comes to reviewing and approving project developments in Windham and aims to help make Windham the crown jewel of the coastal communities in Maine.

Stephen Puleo is the new Planning Director for the Town of
Windham and he is responsible for coordinating Planning
Department activities and overseeing the review and 
approval process for the town's Planning Board and 
ensuring that developments in Windham comply with
the local, state and federal land use laws.
PHOTO BY ED PIERCE   

As planning director, Puleo’s role is to coordinate planning and developments in the town of Windham. Puelo says his approach to this new role, “is to bring an open and transparent review and approval process on the planning board and the staff review committee for developments in Windham, and to ensure that all approvals have gone through an exhaustive compliance analysis to comply with the local, state and federal land use laws.”

Puleo’s goal as planning director is to be sure that these laws are implemented and to achieve a very high standard for the projects that are approved by the town planning board and staff review committee.

“I have always felt that’s it is important that we have an open and transparent process that nobody in the community as well as the applicants as well as staff feel like any of the process is being hidden from them, that there are agreements that are being made some place that are not in the light of day, and that all of the standards are being met by the applicants,” he said.

Puleo and the planning board have been working to complete some of the conditions of approval on several developments in Windham, one being the Windham Village Apartments, a 172-unit apartment complex that is on about a 9-acre lot along Tandberg Trail behind the Shaw’s Plaza.

Associated with this apartment complex is going to be a town-owned sewer pump station that will be the collection point for much of the sewer collection system that is currently being installed.

According to Puleo, what's unique about this plan is that the disposal system of this sewer treatment plant is the first of its kind in the state being permitted by the wastewater disposal division. In addition, this system can treat water to a drinkable level when it comes out the other end of the pipe. The plan is not to drink the water, however, it is to drip it into the groundwater of Sebago Lake, stopping uncontrolled wastewater from going into groundwater and replacing it with clean water through the new system.

The Windham Town Council entered into an agreement with Portland Water District in 2021 to design a reliable, technologically advanced wastewater treatment system that will improve and protect North Windham’s water quality. The funding for this project comes entirely from state loans and grants and is set to be operational by January 2026.

Prior to working as a municipal planner, Puleo was a tree care specialist, then owned and operated his own small business until moving on to work as an apple orchard manager. Since then, he has held a position as municipal planner in South Portland as well as in Windham for about 20 years.

He has a degree in urban forestry, which is where he fulfilled his tree specialist work, and an environmental science and policy degree from the University of Southern Maine and a masters’ degree in community land use development from the Muskie School at USM.

“I am really excited for the future of Windham. I see us as the top of the crown here in Southern Maine and I want people to see Windham for what it has to offer,” says Puleo. “We have plans to make Windham an even more attractive and beautiful community." <

Windham resident elected president of Portland Water District Board of Trustees

At the Portland Water District Board of Trustees’ annual meeting this month, Louise Douglas of Windham was elected President and William Lunt was elected Vice President. 

Louise Douglas of Windham
has been elected as president
of the Portland Water District's
Board of Trustees.
SUBMITTED PHOTO

Douglas has been a member of the board since 2007 and has served on several committees, most recently as vice president.  She currently works at WEX in the Receivables & Recovery Management Department.

She represents Raymond and Windham on the board.

Lunt has been a member of the board since 1996 and has previously served on various committees as president.  He is a general contractor and is very active in local politics. 

He represents Falmouth and Cumberland on the board.

During the annual meeting, David Kane was re-elected as treasurer, and Donna Katsiaficas was re-elected as clerk.  Carrie Walker was appointed as assistant clerk. 

The Portland Water District is governed by a board of 11 trustees who are elected to represent the 10-member communities. <

Portland Water District’s support of national drinking water week offers tour of facility

By Craig Bailey

On Tuesday, May 7, over 20 people from the community attended a tour of Portland Water District’s (PWD) Sebago Lake Water Treatment Facility. The tour was offered in support of National Drinking Water Week to call the public’s attention to water quality and PWD’s approach to protection, treatment and testing of the water supply to 15% of Maine’s population.

The tour was kicked off by Kirsten Ness, PWD’s Water Resource Specialist, reinforcing her role in protecting Sebago Lake, the number of customers served, the reasons why the lake water is of such high quality and related challenges.

Ness began by stating, “PWD serves approximately 200,000 people across 11 communities. As such, Sebago Lake water quality is of utmost importance.”

Ness further shared, “The lake is over 300 feet deep and contains almost 1 trillion gallons of water, which is considered of excellent quality. The lake contains so much water you could fill enough Poland Springs tanker trucks to get to the moon and back - twice!”

The source of water in Sebago Lake comes from the Sebago Lake Watershed, which is more than 50 miles long, stretching from Bethel to Standish and includes parts of 24 towns including the towns of Windham and Raymond. As such, whatever happens in the watershed ultimately impacts Sebago Lake.

Ness reinforced, “One of the reasons for such high water-quality is the watershed is 84% forested, serving as a natural filter. The result: the lake water is clean enough to be exempt from the expensive filtration process required of most surface water sources.”

A key challenge to maintaining water quality is only 10% of the lake is restricted. This results from a law passed in 1913 prohibiting bodily contact within two miles of the intakes and prohibiting trespassing on District lands acquired "for the purpose of protecting the purity of the waters." Later amendments prohibit trespassing within 3000 feet of the intakes.

One of the visitors asked what Ness confirmed was a common question, “Why can we boat within the two-mile zone but not swim?” Ness responded by sharing, “Petroleum products ‘mainly’ evaporate off the surface and our water intakes are deep in the lake. The PWD is more concerned with what we humans carry and excrete.”

Ness further shared, “We have a beach monitoring program and have consistently found that E. coli levels are much lower within the two-mile limit than at swimmable beaches.”

Dave Herzig, PWD’s Plant Systems Foreman then shared an overview of his role in operating the treatment facility as well as additional factors contributing to the quality of water. Herzig mentions, “When we meet with people from other water-treatment facilities we hear common challenges including: shallow lakes, shallow water intakes, algae blooms and rapid changes in river flow. We simply don’t face any of these challenges. In fact, Sebago is protected thermally (via stratification or layers of varying temperatures and densities) nine months of the year. As such, high wind events, pollen bloom and other natural events don’t affect the lake as it does others.”

During the tour of the treatment plant Herzig shared, “In the peak of summer PWD treats approximately 30 million gallons of water per day and during winter around 19 million gallons per day. Treatment occurs in three ways: ozone, ultra violet light (UV), and chloramines.”

Further, Herzig reinforced, “Because our water is so ridiculously clean our treatment facility is a bit over-sized. As a result, we are prepared to effectively handle decreases in water quality should that occur.” The visitors agreed this is a good position to be in!

Mike Koza, PWD’s Lab Manager, shared an overview of his role and led a tour of the lab. Koza reinforced, “PWD tests and monitors the quality of water in the Sebago Lake Watershed, the output of the treatment system as well as numerous sampling sites within the distribution system, containing 1,000 miles of pipe supplying customers.”

Automatic instrumentation is in place which is monitored by lab technicians who also perform lab testing to confirm meter readings. In addition, there are over 45 sampling sites including: fire stations, convenience stores, town halls, post offices, and other readily accessible establishments.

A primary focus of distribution system monitoring is Coliform which, if found, can be an indicator of other bacteria. The good news is that, as Koza states, “we haven’t found any in years.”

Koza responded to questions related to emerging risks that residents along the watershed should be aware of. This includes micro plastics and pharmaceuticals, which can leech into the lake as a result of doing laundry (traces of microfleece have been found in fish from other bodies of water) and flushing (trace amounts of Advil have been found in Sebago).

PWD’s highly qualified lab technicians use leading-edge technology (some of which is locally sourced from IDEXX).

In addition to the tour, PWD is offering a Brewery Collaborative where the public can learn about the connection between forests, water, and beer. Visit pwd.org for a full schedule of offerings and participating breweries.