CORINNA – Those living on Sebasticook Lake and along the East Branch of the Sebasticook River have waited more than 10 years for Corinna’s wastewater treatment plant to stem the flow of raw sewage into their waters.

The $9.3 million facility, which went on line last week, was created to serve a residential population rather than the industrial uses the former facility served.

“For years, our old system was geared towards industrial use. But we have no mill anymore,” Corinna’s Town Manager Dalton Mullis said this week. “We were still sending dirty waste downstream. Now, the water we send downstream will be near drinking water quality.”

That statement is music to the ears of those charged with keeping Sebasticook Lake healthy and clean. For 24 years, the lake has been drained annually in an effort to reduce phosphorus in its waters. This program has been very successful, but the removal of Corinna’s waste is the final piece of the puzzle.

“Corinna was the last single point source of phosphorus addition going into the lake,” John True, a senior environmental engineer at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said this week. True has been working on the Corinna wastewater issue for the past 10 years.

“When the mill left, the flow to the former treatment plan lessened,” True said. Town officials were left to refocus and downsize. True said the facility went from eight active basins to one basin, and from treating more than 1 million gallons of effluent a day to less than 100,000 gallons a day.

A combination of state grants totaling $117,000 allowed the old facility to install more efficient pumps but it was clear that was a temporary fix.

“The decision to replace the facility was ongoing for years,” he said.

By combining state grants from a variety of departments and federal grants secured through Maine’s congressional delegation, the facility was able to be constructed.

True said that construction on phase one of the project – sewer rehabilitation to repair leaks – began in the summer of 2001, and construction of the new wastewater treatment facility began in July 2004.

“On September 15, flow was diverted from the old treatment facility to the new one,” True said.