What is “Clean Rivers, Clean Harbor, Sound Norwich”
And, why is it so important?

“Clean Rivers, Clean Harbor, Sound Norwich” is a community wastewater project that addresses the impact our city’s wastewater plant and pipeline network has on the future and the quality of our harbor and rivers. The project involves changes to the wastewater infrastructure that will:

• Bring Norwich current with state and federal environmental mandates
• Upgrade the city’s aging wastewater infrastructure to reduce treatment plant odors
• Minimize the discharge of untreated waste into local rivers during wet weather
• Reduce nitrogen from sewage discharge, making our rivers, harbor and Long Island Sound cleaner
• Power the sewer plant using recaptured methane gas, reducing Norwich’s energy costs
• Prepare Norwich to meet current growth and future business development needs

In early September, nearly 100 local residents and community leaders turned out to learn about nitrogen removal, odor control, combined sewer overflows at the Wastewater Treatment Plant Open House.

To read more about the Open House, please click here.

Download the latest presentation here:
Part I (1.9 MB PDF)
Part II (3.0 MB PDF)
If you don't have Adobe Acrobat to read PDFs, you can download it for free here.

Back to Top

If you have specific questions about this project contact us at 860-887-2555 or send an email to communitymatters@npumail.com.

Back to Top

Why is This Project Necessary and Why Now?

A wastewater plant is often taken for granted. People know it exists, but they don’t want to think about it  as long as the process works correctly and does the job. But sooner or later it becomes necessary to think about the plant and the benefits a municipal sewer system provides to the community. When deciding to upgrade the Norwich Wastewater Treatment Facility Plant (WWTFP), like all decisions made that involve a lot of money, it’s important to know why it is necessary — and why now is the time to start.

The volume of waste is projected to increase
Norwich's WWTFP must comply with volume requirements (amount of flow to the plant) and treatment levels set by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Projected growth, due to regional and local development and population increases, is expected to substantially increase the volume of waste coming into the plant. Current treatment processes need to be expanded to accommodate this increase. 

Odor control measures are needed
Current measures to reduce or disguise wastewater odors are insufficient. In order to provide adequate odor control, substantial capital improvements must be made to the facilities, especially in light of new development projects downtown.

Long-Term Control Plan is required by CTDEP
By October 2009, Norwich must submit a comprehensive Long-Term Control Plan for approval under order of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.  This plan will address combined sewer overflows which occur during wet weather, when the combined system gets overloaded. Combined systems are designed to transport both sanitary sewage and storm water through a single pipe to the treatment facility. When this pipe overflows, the wastewater dumps into the nearest water body. In the mid-1970s there were 43 active combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in Norwich; as of today there are 15 active CSOs remaining.

Energy opportunities
A by-product of secondary wastewater treatment is methane. With this upgrade, the methane gas can be used as an energy source for the plant — as a fuel for heating the digester and other plant buildings, and for generating electricity. 

Nitrogen credits and the Long Island Sound Nitrogen Reduction Program
Coastal ecosystems and local waterways suffer from serious problems that can be directly linked to nutrient over-enrichment (nitrogen) from the rivers and streams that feed into the coastal waters. One identified source of these nutrients is discharge from wastewater treatment plants.

In 2002, new regulations were enacted in Connecticut that limit total nitrogen discharge from wastewater treatment plants; these limits become more stringent each year up to 2014. Our WWTFP does not meet the current limits; therefore we pay “credits” for discharging nitrogen. As limits become more stringent, we will be required to purchase more credits each year at an ever-increasing cost per credit. To achieve compliance with the total nitrogen regulations, new equipment is required and existing facilities must be modified.

Aging infrastructure
Much of the equipment and infrastructure at the WWTFP and the pumping stations have been in continuous operation for over 30 years. Despite the fact that these systems have been regularly and responsibly maintained throughout the years, inevitably they will reach the end of their useful life. 

Back to Top

Potential Funding Sources

State of Connecticut Clean Water Fund
The Connecticut Clean Water Fund (CWF) provides financial assistance to municipalities for planning, design and construction of wastewater collection and treatment projects. The CWF provides a combination of grants and loans for municipalities’ water pollution control projects at the direction of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Long Island Sound Restoration Fund and Aid to Distressed Communities
Funds are available to communities for planning and design costs leading to nitrogen removal upgrades. Distressed municipalities, like Norwich, can apply for up to 50% of planning and design costs as a federal grant and the remaining 50% in State grants and loans.

Connecticut Governor’s Economic Diversification Fund
Possible grant funds may be made available to municipalities promoting regional diversification projects. Norwich applied for a $24.5 million infrastructure upgrade grant in November of 2006 that would allow NPU to be a lead partner in the State’s diversification program.

Capital Connection Fee Regulation
This fee is collected from new sewer users and those users who make changes to their homes or businesses that increase the burden on the sewer system.  Funds from this fee are set aside to cover plant capital improvements and upgrades.

General Obligation Bonds
These are bonds issued by the City and are paid for by all taxpayers in the community.  Some of the costs of the upgrade, especially those portions directly contributing to improving the Harbor area and benefiting the whole community, could be covered by this funding source.

Back to Top

Nearly 100 local residents and community leaders attended an open house at NPU’s wastewater treatment plant this September. Attendees received information on a 15-year, $100+ million project plan to upgrade Norwich’s wastewater treatment facilities and were given an opportunity to see the plant first hand.

Participants were asked to evaluate the importance of the project's objectives in a follow-up survey. The chart below illustrates the results of the survey.

Participants also shared these comments:
“The tour was extremely helpful in how the wastewater treatment works and how it needs improvement. Thank you!”

“NPU has a good approach to this project. I would like it to also become more active in encouraging harbor related water recreation activities; canoes, kayaking etc.”

“I believe very strongly that upgrades to our infrastructure are critical to our community’s economic health and applaud NPU for its efforts.”

“I live on the Thames River in Gales Ferry, so I know the value of the project…”

“These infrastructure improvements are critical to continuing the economic growth and urban revitalization we are now experiencing in the Rose City.”

“Thanks for providing millions to our city.”

“We usually only think about the DPU as just another bill to pay, without considering all the services we actually receive. I think you are doing a great job for the present and the future, and you have great personnel!”

“Thank you for an informative tour of the facility. I now have a better understanding of all that involved with providing and ensuring clean water/treating wastewater.”

Back to Top

About the Norwich Wastewater Treatment Plant

What happens to our waste when we flush, do laundry or run the garbage disposal is something most of us prefer not to think about. But wastewater treatment facilities are the backbone of every thriving community. Norwich is no exception.

Norwich Public Utilities operates and maintains the city’s 8.5 million-gallon-per day wastewater treatment plant located on Hollyhock Island in downtown Norwich. The original facilities date back to the 1900s and have a long history of affecting our waterways to varying degrees. While today our local rivers are cleaner than ever, making sure that the treated discharge (effluent)--which flows into the Thames River--doesn’t hurt the health and beauty of our Harbor area is especially important.

Thirty-one pump stations and 120 miles of sewer mains transport waste to the treatment plant. The facilities were last upgraded to meet Norwich’s needs in the late 1970s. Simplified, the current wastewater treatment process includes the removal of waste solids for incineration outside of the city and the treatment of liquids through biological and then chemical disinfection processes. The remaining effluent, which presently includes nitrogen and trace quantities of chlorine, is discharged into the Yantic River.

Eventually, wastewater plant discharges from Norwich and other Connecticut treatment facilities reach Long Island Sound. The wastewater treatment process has implications far beyond our local waters.

Today, concerns about nitrogen have changed the treatment process across the United States. In Norwich, 30+ year-old equipment, nitrogen discharge and remaining combined sewer overflows* have led the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to mandate that changes be made. While these issues are not unique to Norwich, they are Norwich’s issues to address. Our city’s wastewater facilities have reached their long-term capacity and are now in need of upgrade and expansion for the benefit of our environment and future.

*Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) are points within Norwich where the storm drain network combines with sewer mains. During heavy rain, this creates an overflow of diluted, untreated waste into the rivers.

To date, 28 CSOs have been eliminated; 15 remaining CSOs must be addressed in a plan to be completed by 2010.

Back to Top

The Treatment Process and its History

The idea of cleaning wastewater wasn't even considered until the late 1930s. Before then, wastewater was simply piped directly into local rivers, which led to the ocean. The vastness of the ocean seemed more than capable of handling all of that sewage — no matter where or what it came from.

In 1938, Norwich began removing solids from waste that went to its treatment plant. In the 1950s the size of the plant was increased after the State of Connecticut found Norwich in contempt of an order that mandated the addition of new treatment facilities.  

The 1970s marked the most recent major change to wastewater treatment when a "secondary" treatment was added. This method removes more solids through a biological process that relies on microorganisms. These hungry microorganisms consume even more solids during this stage, resulting in cleaner discharge. What still remains in current discharge, is nitrogen. While NPU staff rigorously maintain and repair the more-than-30-year-old infrastructure, much of it is past its expected useful life.

Back to Top