Sewer mandates could cost city $140 million

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The federal government has started to tighten the screws, trying to force Bangor to meet the mandates of new clean water legislation, which could cost the city $140 million according to one estimate.

Negotiations have been moving along in fits and starts according to people involved. The City Council, in an effort to hurry the process, voted to bring in a Washington law firm — whose partners charge nearly $300 an hour — to supplement the work done by an in-state firm. Additionally, the federal government threatened to ask a court to levy a heavy fine against the city.

The timetable most participants give is that the settlement, a consent decree, will be signed within two to four months.

This time around the issue is combined sewer outfalls, CSOs as they are known in the field. Nearly 75 percent of the city’s sewerage carries both waste water and storm water, and 97 percent of the time the system works without overflowing.

But, City Engineer John Frawley said about 3 percent of the time, with a heavy rain or during the spring melt, so much water courses through the system that some of it gets shunted aside. The diluted runoff overflows directly into the Kenduskeag Stream or the Penobscot River.

The cost of eliminating CSOs from the system comes on top of the cost of paying for the secondary treatment plant, about $20 million. To pay for the treatment plant, sewer rates are increasing 10 percent twice a year for five years.

The $140 million figure for the CSOs came from an estimate provided by the state. Local officials say it will be well into the next century before the city completely meets the mandates.

The Clean Water Act mandates that municipalities eliminate the outfalls.

Negotiations between the U.S Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency on the one hand and the city on the other seeking a consent decree have been underway for nearly a year.

In a move to get the city’s attention the Justice Department said that it may consider asking a court to impose a fine of $90,000 on the city.

A Portland law firm, Pierce Atwood Scribner Allen Smith & Lancaster, represented the city, as it had during the negotiations leading to the construction of a secondary treatment plant.

A partner in the firm, Daniel Boxer, who has extensive experience in environmental law, had done the city’s negotiating, or had until recently.

Councilors met with two partners from Lord Day and Lord, Barrett Smith, the Washington law firm that handles the city’s dealings with the Federal Aviation Administration. By all accounts they have been very succesful on the city’s behalf.

After the meeting, the council decided that City Manager Edward A. Barrett should negotiate an agreement with the firm to carry on talks with the EPA and Justice Department.

Joanne Young, who handles the city’s airport work, and one other lawyer flew up from Washington for the presentation to the council. They did some city work, but also charged the city for reviewing documents pertaining to the CSO issue and for making the presentation.

Some councilors called the meeting a sales pitch paid for by the city. Others called it a summary of the situation and worth the money.

According to city officials they have not received a bill yet, but they thought the firm’s partners received about $275 an hour.

Councilor Jane Saxl was one of the prime pushers for the change.

“I’m certainly interested in seeing the issue resolved,” she said. “The horizon of the case kept widening.”

Some members of the council felt that dragging out the process could affect the city’s reputation with regulatory agencies on other matters, she said. “Looking at a cost as high as $140 million, the question becomes over what stretch of time do we do it and what’ll the impact be.”

People supporting the change say they are not taking to task the Portland law firm.

“Pierce Atwood is a very fine environmental law firm in the state,” Saxl said. “They are well connected in the state. But as they are in Maine, Lord Day is in Washington.”

Other councilors said that they thought the talks were at a stalemate, and that a couple of new faces at the table could move things along.

Members of the staff at City Hall said they felt the city was near the conclusion of negotiations. And while none of them would comment on the record, for fear of exacerbating a council division, they questioned the timing of bringing in a new law firm.

The initial proposal submitted by Lord Day calls for further negotiations to take between six and 10 weeks with legal bill of between $70,000 and $120,000. Sources say that the Washington law firm could provide no cap to the cost nor could they guarantee results.

At Lord Day, Young referred all questions to City Hall. At Pierce Atwood, Boxer said, “The work has been spread out to two firms. The Washington firm will become involved in that end of it. We’re optimistic that it’ll get worked out with the government in a couple of months.”

City Solicitor Robert E. Miller would not comment on the council decision to seek an additional law firm for the negotiations. But, he did say, “We’ve reached an agreement in principal with regulatory agencies for secondary treatment.

“Since then there’s been talk about pretreatment of the sewage, but that’s slid into the background and now its CSOs,” he said. “It’s potentially very expensive and it is very complicated from an engineering standpoint.”

The talks seemed to be going well, Frawley said. “I just feel we were quite a bit closer than what some of the others may feel. I’m concerned that we don’t lose our momentum.”

Barrett said, “We think we understand what we can and cannot do. There are gray areas involving timing and dates. We need legal advice to ensure that our standards are set no higher than those of other communities across the country.”

In meeting the EPA’s mandates, the city must remove its untreated sewer outfalls. Frawley said that two of them dump into the Penobscot, one near Railroad Street and the other just downstream of the Veteran’s Remembrance Bridge. And along the Kenduskeag Stream between Interstate 95 and downtown are eight outfalls.