Portland, SoPo invest $6 million in curbing sewage pollution

Between Portland and South Portland, D&C Construction is wading through nearly $6 million worth of sewage projects that will help keep local waterways clean. But there will be still more work ahead as the cities correct an environmentally damaging practice from a century ago.

The city of Portland is roughly midway through its $60 million slate of sewer separation projects that will keep sewage out of Casco Bay, and one of those is a D&C Construction job at Northport Business Park near the intersection of Washington and Allen avenues. Like other cities, Portland is correcting what was once a common practice.

The problem is that cities in the late 19th century built combined sewer systems that discharged sewage into waterways such as Back Cove, Capisic Brook, Fore River, Presumpscot Estuary and Portland Harbor. Today, the systems carry sewage to the treatment plant and runoff to nearby waterways, but those systems can combine when too much runoff floods the system.

At Northport Business Park, for example, D&C Construction fixed a combined sewer overflow system that polluted Casco Bay during heavy rains.

"You had sewer and drainage going there, every time you had a rain event, the sewage plant would get overloaded, and raw sewage would dump out into the bay," noted Bradford Cleaves, president of D&C Construction.

The company, based in Portland, is finishing this $1.98 million project, which includes a box culvert and 48-inch drain line and about 2,000 feet of storm drain, parallel to the existing sewer line, he said. Work started in April, and it's one of almost a dozen similar jobs on the 2010 schedule. All told, this year's jobs add up to $9.7 million.

Portland bonded $61 million for the projects, said city spokesperson Nicole Clegg. Combined sewer overflow projects are scattered throughout the city, on streets such as Read Street, Bay Street, Glengarden Street and Canco Road; Clifton Street; Forest Avenue to Mount Sinai Cemetery; Ocean Avenue Elementary School; Mona Road and the Bernard Neighborhood; and Fall Brook II, which involves reconstructing Maine Avenue.

"We are identifying the greatest offenders and working on those first," Clegg said.

In South Portland, D&C Construction started work in December on a $4 million project to prevent sewage overflow into Long Creek. The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — better known as the stimulus fund — provided $749,716 in a combination of loan and principle forgiveness, the city reported last fall, when the project was unveiled.

The company is also upgrading the Long Creek pump station near the Maine Mall and installing new pipe on Broadway between the intersection of Cash Corner and Bringham Street to accommodate the increased flows, Cleaves explained. Next summer, this job should be completed, he said.

In Portland, the city is scheduled to continue sewer separation projects through 2013. The city will come into compliance with  the federal Clean Water Act and update a system that in many cases dates back a century, Clegg noted. And waterways should show a measurable difference in sewage pollution, she said.

"Once you take that discharge away, it's going to have an impact," she said.