Background: Hampton received an Administative Order-on-Consent (AOC) from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) related to the amount of copper that is being discharged from our Wastewater Treatment Plant. At high concentrations, copper is toxic, affecting metabolic processes of marine organisms. An AOC is an agreement between an entity (Hampton in this case) and the regulatory body (EPA) in which they agree to address damages caused by violations, and to cease the activities that caused the problem.
What it means: This project will investigate various ways to remedy the high copper output from our Wastewater Treatment Facility. The plan is to evaluate the existing outfall location, site-specific water quality criteria, and and to look at outfall relocation alternatives including a dilution study.
The cost of this project is covered under a Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which means we will receive a 100% loan forgiveness for the cost.
Those in favor say: The discharge location for the WWTP has limited dilution, causing the copper limits leaving the plant to be unacceptable. Full-scale pilot testing demonstrated that total copper reduction to discharge permit levels is not achievable via chemical addition without significant infrastructure modifications (e.g. construction of tertiary treatment/filtration systems).
Those opposed say: No one spoke against this Article at Deliberative Session.
Fiscal impact: Cost per $1,000 valuation is $0.025. A household valued at $400,000 would see a tax increase of $10.00 for 2024, a cost that would be reimbursed to the Town.)