BREWER — Things are very sweet at the Brewer waste-water treatment plant.

The treatment plant staff, led by Superintendent Kenneth Locke, recently was presented with the Department of Environmental Protection’s highest honor, the 1995 Richard B. Goodenow Award.

The award, said Locke, was named after Goodenow, a retired Falmouth treatment plant operator who is considered one of the pioneers in waste-water treatment in Maine. It is presented annually for outstanding treatment plant operation.

What is remarkable about the Brewer facility’s accomplishment is that it went from being one of the worst polluters of the Penobscot River in 1992 to committing no violations in 1995.

Also, Eastern Fine Paper Co., which was considered part of the pollution problem in 1992, has received a state award for its pretreatment process.

After the DEP and Environmental Protection Agency cited the city for as many as 60 violations of pollution regulations in 1992, the state and federal agencies forced local officials to sign a consent agreement to correct the situation.

The problem, according to Brewer’s Consulting Engineer Bill Olver, was created by the deteriorating condition of the city’s sewer system and treatment equipment. Some of the equipment was more than 20 years old and many sewer lines had broken pipes that let ground water pour in to mix with the sewage. With the aid of a special television camera to inspect the city’s pipes, it was discoverd that one line was pouring more than 100,000 gallons a day into the system twice a day when the tides were high.

There were no emergency generators, so whenever there was a power failure all the city’s sewer line pumps ceased to function and untreated sewage bypassed the pumps and flowed into the river.

The city was ordered to conduct a treatment plant process study, and Eastern Fine Paper Co., the city’s biggest customer, was ordered to submit a waste-water pre-treatment plan to get pollutants out of the water that it contributed to the plant.

According to City Manager Harold Parks, $2.3 million already has been spent to upgrade the plant.

Parks said the award was made partly due to the expenditures of the city, which “allowed us to reduce the violations to practically nothing, but it was due to the commitment of the staff that it worked. They should receive this credit. They are doing a super job.”

Another phase in plant renovations is expected to begin in 1997 and will cost about $3.5 million, according to Locke.