LINCOLNVILLE — An aging sewer system at Lincolnville Beach needs upgrading, and the privately-run Lincolnville Sewer District hopes the town will help secure up to $500,000 in state grant money to get the project underway. Town selectmen will consider this evening at a regularly scheduled meeting whether to apply for the Community Development Block Grant on behalf of the district.

Currently, the existing sewer system is privately owned and serves two restaurants, stores and apartments across the street from Lincolnville Beach. It was built in 1991, and the infrastructure is approaching the point of replacement, as is the treatment equipment inside the plant.

And, the district said, it cannot take on any more users.

The district hopes to build a new system, and expand capabilities, for a project cost of $3,069,800. It is asking Lincolnville to help pursue funding for a portion of that final cost.

ThCDBG grant program, which is administered by the Maine Office of Economic and Community Development, is money that derives from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development and has been a mainstay in Maine municipal funding since 1982. The Lincolnville Sewer District is asking the town to apply for the grant because only municipalities can participate in the CDBG program.

Lincolnville has received one other CDBG, $6,500 in 1987.

The new system, which is targeted for late fall 2016 construction and October 2017 operation, would serve those properties from Shag Rock Point Road through the Beach area, and then north on Route 1 to Lively Lane.

“Under the proposal the present plant will be demolished and replaced on site with a new surface control building and the installation of an underground packaged treatment facility designed to treat the added flows from new customers,” the district said, in written project description. “Linked to the new sewer plant will be the installation of pressured sewer laterals in the corridor road right-of-way to collect the sewage from disconnected overboard discharge (OBDs) units discharging to the ocean, malfunctioning septic system and cesspools for transporting to the new facility where the wastewater will be centrally treated and the effluent discharged to the harbor in the existing outfall pipe. In order to keep the project costs under control, the existing pump stations, force main and outfall pipe will be reused.”

The district has already  received a $250,000 grant from the federal Northern Border Regional Commission and is applying to the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development Program for a combined loan and grant. Grant and low interest financing is tied to the setting of user rates; that is, the more grant and low interest financing the more reasonable the customer user rate.

“If constructed the new wastewater treatment facility will provide environmental benefits to the community and allow for expanded economic activity in the Beach Area and along the shore,” the district said. “Currently the Maine Department of Marine Resources has closed the Lincolnville shores to shellfish harvesting due to high bacterial levels and the lack of a sewer system. With the change over of OBDs, septic systems and cesspools from direct overboard discharge and individual on-site treatment to being centrally treated, closed flats and beach areas have the potential to be reopened for shellfish harvesting.

“The reopening of these areas will help to reverse the decline in the statewide shellfish industry as well as contribute to increased incomes for harvesters and clammers. Businesses in the Beach Area have expressed their desire to expand their operations and floor area in order to have more customers but are limited by private septic systems on small lots, often very close to well supplied drinking water. With a new collection and wastewater treatment system in place businesses will no longer be held back by private septic systems and will be permitted to expand resulting in increased employment, state sales tax receipts and local property taxes plus additional revenues for the District in which to lower the rates for the other users.”

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657