Last September, Brandy King, manager of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) at Maine Department of Environmental Protection, told Wiscasset Newspaper a seawall instead of a move is "totally out" as an option for Wiscasset's wastewater treatment plant. That stance holds in a new letter to Town Manager Dennis Simmons.

King's May 19 letter cites New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) Technical Report practices that King said CWSRF applies to all facilities. "Several key buildings and processes would need to be raised to comply with (the technical report). This includes the headworks building, garage building, blower building, storage shed, aeration basins, clarifiers, chlorine tank, splitter box, scum tank, transformer base, generator base, utility poles, influent meter pit, effluent meter pit (and) sampler pad. As such, the wastewater treatment facility, which is currently in need of a major upgrade, would require the facility to move locations for SRF assistance," King wrote.

She wrote to Simmons in response to her conversation with the town's consultant on the plant, Olver Associates. King's letter reiterated, "the CWSRF program cannot support upgrading the facility at its current location and can only provide funding to relocate the facility."

The letter also cites the Natural Resources and Protection Act and Wetlands and Waterbodies Protection Rules King said "guide the Department in its determination of whether a project's impacts would be unreasonable. A proposed project would generally be found to be unreasonable if it would cause a loss in wetland area, functions and values and there may be a practicable alternative to the project that would be less damaging to the environment." King said, for the Wiscasset plant, a reasonable alternative would be moving it.

"Wiscasset voted to build a new WWTF in a better in-town location out of the flood plain (at the current Town Public Works facility), while moving Public Works to the ... transfer station site in November 2024. The Selectmen were universally in favor, and the vote was 1,416 for, 832 against, a reasonably substantial margin," King continued. "The current site floods during storm events and is expected to continue to have future flooding impacts."

That 2024 town vote, which also supported moving public works to the transfer station, faces possible rescinding next month. After last year's citizens' petition, voters June 9 will consider rescinding their nod of the move. The petition fell just short on validated signatures, but selectmen spared organizers from gathering more, and agreed to offer voters the rescind question. 

King's May 19 letter notes the $10 million loan CWSRF offered, along with forgiving $1 million of that. CWSRF interest rates are a "stable" 2.5%, versus municipal loans of 5% or more, she wrote. "These CWSRF rates are a substantial savings to municipalities on infrastructure projects." King added, the town accepted the award but will forfeit it if does not finalize the Maine Municipal Bond Bank application by Sept. 30.

"If Wiscasset elects not to proceed with the wastewater project, the $10,000,000 allocation will be revoked and reallocated to another prioritized community on the State's environmental infrastructure list. The town has also submitted an application for more CWSRF funding in the 2026 allotments which is still under review.

"In conclusion, the CWSRF program will support the financing of the Wiscasset WWTF relocation project. By providing subsidized, low-interest municipal loans and (forgiving) $1,000,000 ... minimizing the long-term economic and debt-service impacts on the Town and its ratepayers."

Wiscasset Newspaper asked for and immediately received the letter from Simmons May 20, after he mentioned it in a selectboard meeting the night before. A resident in the public hearing on the June 9 town meeting warrant asked about the rescind question. And Simmons noted he had just received a letter that day that had new information.

In light of the letter, does Simmons anticipate continuing to try to get agencies to accept the seawall and/or other upgrades as something they would help fund, and which would make the plant one they would continue to license? Simmons replied May 20, "Because I received the letter just before the Board meeting, I haven't had a chance to get their feedback."

Asked the same question, Selectboard Chair Sarah Whitfield said: "I've only scanned the letter and we've had no board discussion so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to speculate on what we do next. It will need to be discussed likely at the next board meeting."

Which way would she hope the town vote goes June 9? "I don't care to say my opinion ... We felt it was appropriate to put on the ballot because of the effort by the public, but it's now up to them to decide. I just encourage folks to read the information we've put out about the ballot issues so that they know what they are voting on."

The information sheet, at wiscasset.gov and wiscassetnewspaper.com and in the Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper's May 21 print edition, states a "yes" vote on the plant move question "rescinds the prior authorization. A "no" vote leaves the November 2024 authorization in place. Regardless of the outcome, the Town will still need to address the long-term vulnerability of the existing wastewater plant."

Also May 19, the board announced the town report's dedication to Wiscasset Ambulance Service on the Service's 50th anniversary. "From its earliest roots as a basic volunteer service to the advanced life support service it provides today, Wiscasset Ambulance reflects the very best of this town," Whitfield read from the report.

Selectmen nodded a liquor license for Treats, 80 Main St.; a business license for Maine Ocean Buzz Coffee House, 564 Bath Road; and a pier vendor permit for Sheepscot Enterprises LLC, doing business as Sheepscot Boating.

The board accepted James L. Kochan's resignation from the waterfront committee. In his May 13 letter, Kochan attributed his decision to the board's recent "arbitrary decision to selectively reduce rental fees for certain vendors and other special considerations not afforded to all." April 21, when the board nodded Sprague's Lobster's pier vending permit, selectmen did not charge rent for the picnic area they said Sprague's keeps clean and does not gate off from the public. The waterfront committee had proposed charging Sprague's rent for that space. Whitfield said at the time, "It is not a restricted, Sprague's-only area. If it was, then I would say 100% they should pay for that. But we basically get the benefit of having maintained tables and a cleaned area for sitting on the pier at no cost."