Officials move on cleanup

City prepares for work on reservoir

In a project the city hopes will resolve a longstanding regulatory headache, Peabody is preparing to clean up its Lower Spring Pond reservoir and upgrade the nearby Coolidge Avenue water treatment plant.

The $960,000 project will enable the city to comply with a 2006 consent agreement it reached with the state concerning the flow of residuals from the water plant treatment process into the south Peabody pond.

Peabody has paid a $6,000 state fine for the problem, and faces further fines of $1,000 a day if it does not complete the project by Oct. 1.

The work will involve dredging the pond and adding features to the plant to reduce the amount of residuals that reach the pond, according to Richard Carnevale, public services director.

City officials maintain that the residual buildup resulted from factors beyond their control - a lawsuit among state and federal agencies that precluded the city from discharging any of its water plant waste stream into the sewer for nine years.

And they say the residuals - mainly dirt and aluminum sulfate, a chemical commonly used in water treatment as a settling agent - pose no danger to public health.

But they say they are pleased to be able to move forward with the work.

Mayor Michael J. Bonfanti said the city is undertaking the project not only because the state requires it, but to "ease any concerns residents may have about the safety of their drinking water."

Carnevale, pointing to the plant upgrade, said, "I think we are coming up with a system that really benefits Peabody in the long run."

The start-up of the project was set in March when Bonfanti's plan to bond the full amount of the costs met resistance from some City Council members. The council ultimately authorized the borrowing in May after Bonfanti argued that his plan was the most cost-effective way to fund the work.

The city is seeking bids through July 28 from contractors to carry out the dredging.

It is also seeking price quotes from landfills, including a private site in Peabody, to accept the estimated 1,300 tons of solid material that will result from the dredging.

The dredging and disposal are expected to take about a month.

The city plans to seek bids in mid-August from contractors for the treatment plant improvements.

Due to the delay in council approval, Carnevale said the city will be hard-pressed to make the October deadline for that part of the project, but he hopes the state will hold off on imposing additional fines in view of the city's good-faith effort to comply.

Lower Spring Pond, on Lynn Street, connects to two other adjacent reservoirs, Upper Spring Pond and Fountain Pond. The treatment plant, which draws water from Upper Spring Pond, was built in 1905.

A water filtration system was installed as part of a renovation completed in 1997.

Carnevale said the state-approved filtration design called for half of the plant's waste stream to be discharged into the sewer system, and the other half pumped into two lagoons.

Within the lagoons, solids would settle on the bottom, ensuring that only relatively clean water would overflow into Lower Spring Pond.

But in 1997, Carnevale said, the state effectively required the district to halt any discharge into the sewer system pending the outcome of a lawsuit brought by the South Essex Sewerage District against the state Department of Environmental Protection and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

In the suit, the district challenged conditions the two agencies were placing on its discharge of treated sewage into Salem Sound.

Carnevale said the city examined several alternate disposal options before settling on the only feasible one: discharging all of the Coolidge Avenue plant waste stream into the two lagoons. That overtaxed the lagoons, causing a significant amount of the dirt and chemical residuals to flow with the water into the ponds.

"We had no other recourse," Carnevale said, noting that until the lawsuit was resolved in 2006, the city could not resume use of the sewer.

When the state moved at that time to fine the city for the residual buildup, Peabody officials objected, contending it was the state's requirements that led to the problem.

The city also said it had an overall good environmental record.

Ultimately, the state agreed to reduce the fine from $28,000 to $6,000 that October, when the consent agreement was signed.

Carnevale said the upcoming project follows other steps the city has taken since 2006 to address the problem. In addition to resuming use of the sewer, it refined the treatment process to reduce the amount of chemicals needed.

As part of the planned plant upgrade, the city will install a type of underwater vacuum cleaner system designed to remove solid materials settling on the bottom of the holding tank in the plant, and to discharge them into the sewer.

Another new device will skim the relatively clean water at the top of the tank and pump it directly into the lagoons.

Carnevale said the overall intent is to minimize the amount of solids entering the lagoons, and hence the amount of those residuals that could flow into the pond.