“You aim for the palace and get drowned in the sewer.” – Mark Twain, American humorist.

The Windham town councilors were recently briefed with an update from the Windham Wastewater Management Planning Advisory Committee. I have no doubt that either the state of Maine or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will step in and require some type of sewerage treatment facility wherever it’s deemed necessary.

As the North Windham business district grows, I suspect that day is going to come sooner rather than later. However, the $2 million or so sewer project for South Windham was done on the promise of seeing a dilapidated and contaminated Keddy Mill torn down and replaced with 85 condos. Of course that project died and Windham taxpayers and sewer users in the South Windham area got stuck with the bill. As far as I am concerned, that $2 million should have been voted on by the people and not the town councilors.

I guess what worries me is that the sewer advisory committee is totally stacked in favor of some type of sewerage treatment to be located in North Windham. The voters of Windham have already turned down one sewer proposal by the town that would have placed the financial responsibility on all property owners in town. Thank God that $100-plus million plan was turned down.

I have to think that any sewer proposal is probably years away as it should be. The sewer committee wants to look into some sort of enhanced treatment of sewerage in North Windham, which is fine. I am sure I am not alone in stating that the cost of any type of sewerage treatment has to be placed on those located in North Windham instead of every property owner in Windham. But what I really worry the most about is that government is always willing to go the extra mile to figure out a way so that voters will have no say at the ballot box like what happened in South Windham.

What we should be worrying about is the reason at the present time why enhanced treatment for sewerage in North Windham has come about in the first place. Here is some of the language used by the sewer committee that was in their report to the town council:

“Trends suggest that concentration levels in North Windham are elevating at an increasing rate. The wastewater problem is not going away and it appears to be getting worse. The systems are not effectively removing nitrates and essentially “failing,” even though there is no physical evidence of failure. Eventually these systems will experience physical failures.”

Those are not my words but words the committee chose to use evidently to prove North Windham needs some type of further sewerage treatment.

But if anything could be scarier, consider the report of increased concentrations of sodium and chloride that threaten the groundwater quality, especially the aquifer located under much of North Windham. I would guess that most of this contamination comes from the treatment of roads and parking lots with rock salt along with calcium or magnesium chloride.

This stormwater problem is something else because it is entirely a different issue from the treatment of sewerage and if one looks at the money being spent in Portland to separate the storm runoff from the sewer system, it is extremely costly. Portland now has a stormwater runoff fee based on the square footage of impervious area on one’s property. I would hate to see that happen in North Windham, which does have an ever-increasing amount of impervious area.

I suggest that Windham study what and how much chemical it uses to treat the roads. The problem is people won’t slow down, which is the highest cause of traffic accidents. I watched drivers on the River Road in Windham speeding although the road was already covered in snow. Some western states have ceased using chemicals on their roads and maybe it’s time Maine does the same.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham wants you to know that the 2016 Chinese New Year is the Year of the Monkey. He wonders if that coincides with this year’s crop of politicians.