Chicopee welcomes $1M to fight nitrogen contamination at sewer plant
CHICOPEE — The city received $1.09 million in federal money Wednesday toward $80 million in ongoing improvements to its 70-year-old sewer treatment plant .
This phase is specifically to remove excess nitrogen from the city's wastewater before it hits the Connecticut River.
"Having nitrogen leave the plant at those high levels impacts aquatic life not only here but all the way to the Long Island Sound," said Chicopee Mayor John L. Vieau.
The nitrogen project is already in the design phase and will go out to bid this calendar year, said Elizabette F. Batista, Chicopee superintendent of public works. It involves holding tanks.
"We use biology to clean the water," she said.
The money is a congressional earmark, said U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, who announced the funding Thursday in City Hall with Shirley B. Arriaga, D-Chicopee, and Vieau.
"The mayor asked for this," Neal said. "The requests for earmarking overwhelmingly come from local government, colleges and universities, and our hospitals. Is there a public purpose here? You bet your life. Clean air and clean water."
This announcement makes a total of $12 million in federal funding for Chicopee's wastewater system over the past few years.
Neal also this week announced sewer funding for Spencer — $960,000 in federal funding for its collection systems — and West Brookfield. There will be a sewer funding announcement soon in Holyoke.
Massachusetts' Connecticut River communities — like Chicopee, Holyoke and Springfield — are all under renewed scrutiny from their Connecticut neighbors over combined sewer overflows . That's when, during times of heavy rain, overwhelmed plants send untreated, diluted sewage into the waterways.
Lawmakers in Connecticut have been raising the issue and asking for accelerated change, meeting with Holyoke Mayor Joshua A. Garcia and others.
Neal, a former Springfield mayor, said the issue has persisted despite millions in investment.
Efforts to combat combined sewer overflows are a separate and parallel project in Chicopee, said both Vieau and Batista.
Workers are wrapping up a sewer separation project to keep stormwater out of sanitary systems in the Fairview section of the city. Next up is Chicopee Center.
Stories by Jim Kinney
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