Ex-councilor’s bottom line includes Windham project’s debt service

WINDHAM – One of the details emerging from Tuesday’s sparsely attended public hearing on the proposed Windham sewer project was the overall price tag for the project.

Publicized as a $67.8 million project when councilors first rolled out the estimated cost at a meeting in early August, former Councilor Bob Muir was the first to point out the actual price tag of the sewer, including debt service. After reading the document, Muir noticed in Table 7-1 that the actual cost of the project is listed as $132 million when debt service is calculated over the life of a 30-year loan.

“In the financial analysis, they are listing costs of the project of $67.8 million. The debt service is listed at $64,514,615. The total cost of the project over the 30-year period ends up to be $132,314,618,” Muir said. “And again I know these are preliminary figures, but I would say they’re in the ballpark based on work (the engineers) have done before.”

Muir, who was a two-term councilor before being defeated last November, said he thinks the cost of the sewer could rise as specifics of the project come into focus. He also said the council should make the specifics of the project better known so the people who would be paying for a sewer, namely businesses, residential users and taxpayers, could get in on the conversation “sooner than later.”

“I realize the figures given are estimates and subject to change. I believe they will change. I believe they will be higher,” Muir said.

According to Barry Sheff of Woodard & Curran, the engineering firm that was in charge of drawing up the preliminary cost estimate at the request of the Windham Town Council in April, the project costs are uncertain due to the nature of the project. Not knowing what’s underground – namely ledge that could have a dramatic effect on sewer pipe installation costs – Sheff said his design team was cautious in its estimates and that the price tag could be 30 percent less or 50 percent more than the current estimate.

The project would likely be paid for by a combination of users and taxpayers. The estimates don’t include yearly operating and maintenance costs totaling an estimated $460,000.

According to Sheff, using a total cost (including debt service) of about $144 million, users and taxpayers would pay about $4.8 million per year for 30 years. At that rate, the several thousand commercial and residential users who hook up to the system could expect to pay about $586 per year, which would yield an estimated $3.5 million annually. Windham taxpayers would pick up the remaining $1.3 million per year. Those estimates don’t factor in potential grants or federal or state aid.

Comparable rates in other towns vary greatly from a top rate in Castine of $1,352 per year to Westbrook, where users pay $350, Sheff also indicated.

The sewer is needed, Sheff said, because of higher levels of pollutants finding their way into North Windham’s groundwater, known as the North Windham aquifer, the largest sand and gravel aquifer in Maine. Since the soil makes for excellent drainage, septic systems have so far enabled heavy development in the North Windham commercial district. But the ground’s ability to filter run-off and septic waste before reaching the aquifer has its limits, and monitoring wells have begun to show increased rates of pollution in recent years, he said.

Sheff estimated that 740,000 gallons are currently making their way into the aquifer daily. According to Town Manager Tony Plante, results of test wells show water in the aquifer is currently at about half the federally allowed safe drinking water limit, but trending upward according to monitoring data.

While the price tag for the sewer will be high and most likely fall squarely on local users and taxpayers, environmentally speaking, proponents say the sewer would help protect the aquifer in North Windham, which is part of the Sebago Lake/Little Sebago Lake watershed, by moving wastewater from North Windham and the school complex in Windham Center through pipes to the Portland Water District’s Westbrook Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant on East Bridge Street.

And in terms of economic development, the sewer would also allow businesses to expand or develop. Adding another business park or major development to the commercial district would add to the septic load on the aquifer.

“Why now?” Sheff addressed the council Tuesday night. “You’re currently discharging 740,000 gallons of wastewater into the aquifer that comes through … treated wastewater in your individual private septic systems. You need to remove that source if you want to address your public health concerns. And you need to remove that source if you want to address your resource protection concerns.”

Sheff – whose Woodard & Curran firm has worked for Windham on sewer issues in the past, earned $25,800 to write the initial facilities plan and would likely be the leading candidate to move forward as the project’s design and construction engineering consultants, earning an estimated $9.7 million in the process – advocated for the town to move forward with the sewer project by echoing concerns for the environment and economic development.

“The lakes and ponds in Windham are expressions of groundwater. As groundwater becomes contaminated or is at risk of contamination, you put the lakes and ponds we have such great admiration for and what makes the town what it is, you put those at risk,” Sheff said. “And Windham is really an economic center and to continue on the path your comprehensive plan projects, economic development and community development are critical and will need the assistance of wastewater. The status quo of do-nothing is not an alternative … In our professional opinion, the status quo is not recommended.”