By KENNEDY GRIFFIN
(Greenfield, MA) At last week’s City Council meeting, the council voted to approve repurposing $3.5 million from a proposed anaerobic digester project to a sludge dewatering equipment for the Greenfield Wastewater Treatment Plant. This equipment will save the city enough money in four years to pay for itself through reduced hauling and disposal costs.
Mayor Roxann Wedegartner commented saying; “Soon after I began my term, it became clear that the anaerobic digester project was going to cost taxpayers significantly more than first projected, so in consultation with the Department of Public Works, we decided to put it on hold. Repurposing this money for dewatering is a wise investment that will save the City millions over the next two decades.”
Greenfield currently hauls 2.1 million gallons of sludge every year from the wastewater treatment plant to the wastewater facility in Lowell, 95% of which is water. The dewatering equipment will reduce this amount by pressing the water out and creating a solid referred to as “cake” which the city can haul out, compost, or dry out for fertilizer.
“This project represents a big step in reducing the City’s carbon footprint and taking control of our waste disposal costs,” added DPW Director Marlo Warner. “In 2016, we paid just shy of $169,000 for sludge hauling and disposal. This fiscal year, those costs are projected to top $700,000. It’s simply not a sustainable path. This method is expected to save the City approximately $350,000 per year.”
The dewatering project includes installing the equipment that will press water out of the sludge as well as demolition old equipment on the second floor of the wastewater treatment facility in order to house the new equipment along with electrical upgrades, demolishing an outside overhang, and constructing a new steel building.
The project is set to being work in March of 2023 and is estimated to be complete and operational by September of 2023.