Johnson wastewater facility operating again

Bailey described wastewater treatment as a bio-electrical chemical process in which beneficial microbes are farmed to break down waste. It’s also a process that acquires increased effectiveness with maturation.

“The process is young, and needs to mature, so we’re not getting everything we need right now, but you’ve got to grow your farm,” he said. “I think we’re further ahead in that than we’d expected to be.”

The process for treating wastewater implemented in the aftermath of the flood is more labor intensive, more prone to failure and less efficient than the automated treatment that took place prior to the flood.

Bailey said the current process is about 35 percent more expensive than the process prior to the flood destroying the facility. Many of these excess expenses are eligible for Federal Emergency Management Administration reimbursement, but the funds will not be quick to come, and a state-run bond bank to provide bridge funding may be in the offing, according to the village manager.

The facility, located on the banks of the Lamoille River, took on 8 feet of water and every part of the building’s interior was destroyed or made unusable, and Bailey has been a strong advocate for rebuilding the facility elsewhere in the aftermath of the event, estimating that it will likely be a $30-$50 million project.

A new wrinkle has further called into question the repairability of the current site. Water that leaked into the foundation of the facility in the flood, which was built out of an architectural block material and not poured concrete, has caused it to crack and leak insulation. This will likely lead to mold development, worker safety issues and structural integrity issues, according to Bailey.

The village of Johnson is currently seeking the services of an engineering consultant to provide further analysis of the issue.

Bailey has urged the state and FEMA to finish their assessments of the financial loss to the village that could qualify the municipality for special federal assistance in repairing their losses, which would likely require a special appeal to President Joe Biden.

“We need the state to finish crunching the numbers so the governor can ask the president for this to be a 90 percent emergency, because this wastewater facility, even at the current agreement between state and federal funding, that's still leaving the ratepayers hanging for about $4 million, and we just don't have the user base,” Bailey said. “Our people are largely low-income. We can’t handle that.”

He said he’s appealed to Vermont’s federal delegation to push for assistance on the issue.

Bacteria issues

In the aftermath of the flood, the amount of potentially dangerous E. coli bacteria in nearby rivers was measured, which could be indicative of how the wastewater flowing through the failed Johnson facility actually affected water quality in the area.

Sampling in the Gihon and Lamoille Rivers upstream of the facility was relatively low, while sampling in the Lamoille near Willow Crossing showed there was nearly 300 times the amount of the bacteria present. Sampling near Jeffersonville showed there was over 800 times the amount present than upstream of the facility, Johnson wastewater chief Dan Copp said at an August meeting of the village board of trustees.

There were likely other sources contributing to the extremely high E. coli levels found near Jeffersonville, such as septic systems compromised in the flood or manure runoff from nearby fields, and, as Bailey pointed out at the trustees meeting, the amount of the bacteria that resulted from untreated wastewater from the failed Johnson facility would have been diluted the further it flowed away from the facility.

Copp said at a July trustee meeting that wastewater is far more diluted than most people realize.

Regardless of the exact source or the multiple sources contributing to the problem, the result is the same: The Lamoille River between Johnson and Cambridge has an E. coli problem.

“Our (facility failure) was definitely in the minority as far as any of the current water quality issues,” Bailey said.

Infrastructure

While the village of Johnson waits to see how much of the tab the federal government will pick up for its infrastructure needs, money for replacing a moldy village garage made it into the village budget.

More than $824,000 in the form of a Congressionally directed spending grant has made it into the Congressional spending package, courtesy of Sen. Peter Welch.

If the budget passes with the funding intact, that money will go a long way toward replacing the garage, along with some other grant money and American Rescue Plan Act funds that were essentially converted into no-strings-attached village funds.

If all goes according to plan, this will allow the village to replace the garage without having to borrow money in the form of a bond.

The building was originally intended only for cold storage, and insulation added later took on enough moisture to develop a nasty mold problem that will essentially require tearing the structure down to its foundation to be rebuilt. In the meantime, village road workers haven’t been able to occupy the building regularly despite it housing much of their equipment.

It was also announced last week that the town of Johnson received a grant for more than $861,000 from the Northern Border Regional Commission, a federal-state partnership that funds economic development in Vermont and other states.

The funds will go toward building out infrastructure at the town’s long-discussed light industrial park, also known as the Jewett property. This will include a paved access road, foundational sewer collection lines, foundational water distribution lines, stormwater collection lines, treatment basin, and electric and telecommunication lines.

The cost of building in the area has been the primary barrier to the development of the potentially economically useful section of town.

The town of Johnson plans to pursue other grants and put a portion of its American Rescue Plan Act funds toward meeting a required match for the Northern Border grants and will likely eventually hold a vote on a bond to cover the balance.

“We are thrilled to be awarded a grant of this magnitude,” selectboard chair Beth Foy said. “It will enable us to take the next steps and build new opportunities for Johnson.”