FORT FAIRFIELD – The Army Corps of Engineers, which designed the levee built to protect Fort Fairfield’s business district, has admitted it made a mistake when the pumping station pipes were placed too close to the surface, allowing them to freeze during the winter.

That admission came Wednesday during a meeting between U.S. Rep. John E. Baldacci and corps representatives in Washington D.C., Baldacci said after the meeting.

“The corps admitted that there was an error on their part,” the congressman said in a telephone interview.

A month before the spring thaw, work stopped on the levee when it was discovered that the outflow pipes in the pump station were built at water level and appeared to be frozen.

At the same time, the Army Corps of Engineers said the town must bear 35 percent of the added cost to fix the problem. Last week, town officials contacted the congressional delegation regarding the situation.

As a result of Wednesday’s session, Baldacci said that he, along with the other members of the delegation, would introduce legislation that would relieve the town of any further financial responsibility.

“It was wonderful,” Dan Foster, Fort Fairfield’s town manager, said after Baldacci called him at home with the news. “You know they’re [the delegation] taking you seriously.”

Meanwhile, all of the ice has been cleared away from the pumping station, allowing for a testing of the equipment next week, according to Foster.

“We should be good to go this spring,” said Foster, referring to the levee and pumping station handling any potential threat of flooding.

Later this summer, the pumping station and the outflow pipes will be redesigned and repaired. The cost of the redesign and reconstruction has not been estimated, according to local and federal officials.

The corps proposed that the town’s share of the repairs be taken from money already paid by the town for its share of the levee’s construction, Dave Lackey, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, said earlier Wednesday. Since the project, estimated to cost $7.2 million, ran under budget, there were funds that were to have been returned to the town, Lackey said.

According to Foster, the town was expecting $109,000 to be refunded.

“We’ve made it clear that we don’t feel that way,” Lackey said, referring to the corps’ use of the town’s surplus funds.

Either the corps finds the money in its New England, or regional, allocation or Snowe’s office will do it at the national level, the senator’s spokesman said.