Residents could see a big hike in user fees

By Kurt Steele

Norfolk faces a major challenge in planning a complex project to rehabilitate its 100-plus-year-old sewer system that could cost $3 million according to a preliminary estimate.

While the sewer system has certainly stood the test of time, time is running out. Built in the late 1890’s, it is one of the oldest in the state. A report by WMC Engineers of Newington describes it as “rapidly failing and in need of improvement.”

WMC’s September, 2011 preliminary report found much of the 1890’s clay sewer piping has deteriorated to the point where large amounts of rainwater infiltrate the piping that the treatment plant, last updated in the late 1960’s, can’t handle.

The good news is that the repair of leaking sewer pipes will be done by mostly relining instead of digging them up and replacing them outright. This will both reduce costs and minimize disruptions to traffic due to roadway excavation. 

According to Ronald Zanobi, who chairs the Norfolk Sewer District Commission, “we’ve turned up the heat on our planning efforts and want to start project construction as soon as practicable, although that will take several years.”

The commission is under pressure from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to present a sewer system remediation plan for approval. WMC Engineers and the commission are at work on that.

The commission is also pursuing project-financing sources. The most likely source is a program offered by the United States Department of Agriculture that could both make a grant of up to 45% of the project’s cost and provide a low-interest, long-term loan for the balance.

The town would have to guarantee any such loan, which would involve approval by the town’s voters.

Getting an accurate idea of the cost to sewer system users will have to wait until the project is bid following DEP approval. Zanobi says “a rough estimate now would be in the range of several hundred dollars annually on average for each user. The district already has user fees that average about $850, one of the highest in the state because of its small size.”

The Norfolk Sewer District owns and operates the system as an independent political unit that is run by Zanobi and two other commission members elected at an annual public meeting of district users. It served about 300 households in the early 1900’s, and there has been little change since then in the coverage area. Today, although the district includes 377 users in a land area that is only four percent of the town’s total, the users represent more than one-half of Norfolk’s population.

Today’s sewer commission is indeed carrying the torch of Dr. J. C. Kendal, the town’s Health Officer in 1897. He was the moving force in convincing town officials to build the town’s first sewer system due to very poor sanitary conditions in central Norfolk. Not surprisingly, the price tag of $11,000 was significantly less than the estimated one for the upcoming rehab project.