Bath City Manager Peter Owen remembers canoeing down the Kennebec River in 1967. “It was clear it was not water you wanted to fall into,” Owen said. “Today, it is a totally different river.”

Owen credits the city’s wastewater treatment plant with improving the water quality of the Kennebec, but today, both the plant and the aging sewer infrastructure are in need of repair. In response, the city now plans to spend $9 million to upgrade parts of its sewer system.

The funding comes as a combined grant and low-interest loan from the USDA Water and Waste Disposal Loans and Grants Program. The city will receive $2.3 million as a grant, with the remaining $6.5 million as a loan.

City officials and representatives from most of Maine’s congressional delegation gathered at City Hall on Tuesday to celebrate the grant and loan, which will provide the funding to overhaul parts of the sewer system that are more than 50 years old.

“It’s imperative that we keep on top of all of this and understand how old this infrastructure is, and to keep it updated,” said City Council Chairwoman Mari Eosco. “It’s not only for the comfort of our constituents, but for sanitary reasons and for environmental reasons.”

Bath’s wastewater facility was put in place back in 1971. Prior to that, waste simply flowed untreated into the Kennebec River.

While there have been some upgrades, parts of it are now more than 50 years old — exceeding the expected lifetime of the equipment in some cases. The federal funding will be used largely to rehabilitate Bath’s wastewater treatment facility and upgrade some other related infrastructure.

“After 20 or 30 years, things do wear out and the funding will very much be needed to replace some of that critical equipment that operates largely 24 hours a day,” said Public Works Director Lee Leiner.

Upgrades to the treatment facility have been in the works for some time now. The city hired Wright Pierce in 2012 to begin evaluating the facility, and residents approved a $9.8 million bond in 2014 to fund the needed upgrades. The USDA federal grant and loan will cover much of the funding for that bond.

“This grant and loan from USDA Rural Development will allow Bath to not only complete basic necessary items that are actually on our list,” said Eosco, “but to go further and be more proactive with our future products as well.”

nstrout@timesrecord.com