Wastewater Treatment Facility
Sturbridge, Massachusetts
Sturbridge Retirement Cooperative is a mobile home park with 175 existing and 55 proposed trailers serving residents over the age of 55. The park has five community drinking water wells and had eleven separate septic systems located in the Zone I of the wells. The Cooperative entered into an administrative consent order with MassDEP to construct a new wastewater collection system and treatment facility that would effectively remove the septic systems from the zones of influence.
BETA prepared a groundwater discharge permit that involved extensive site investigations including: soil borings and testing, groundwater modeling, and a hydrogeological investigation.
BETA designed a 39,500 gallon per day advanced wastewater treatment facility, consisting of a pre-treatment tank/trash trap, flow equalization, a 4-stage Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC), circular clarifier, a de-nitrification filter, a low-pressure ultraviolet disinfection system, and odor control.
To minimize the financial burden on the owner, the project was divided into phases. The first phase included the pretreatment and flow equalization tanks. Under the second phase, a new leaching field for subsurface effluent disposal was constructed. Both phases 1 and 2 are complete. Construction of Phase 3, which includes collector sewers and the treatment facility, has not begun. BETA coordinated with the Town Administrator and Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to assist in securing a Community Development Block Grant through HUD.
