Students tour wastewater facility
Facts of water treatment revealed to Bapst advanced placement class
Saturday, May 21, 2005

BREWER - Instead of taking a final exam, Bill Lopotro's advanced placement biology class at John Bapst Memorial High School got a reward instead.

It was smelly at times, but it still was better than taking a test, senior Marc Curtis, 18, said at the beginning of Friday's visit to the Brewer Water Pollution Control Facility.

All 42 students in his class took the advanced placement biology test for college credit, Lopotro said.

"It's amazing to have 42 [students] out of 42 take the AP test, but they did," he said. "It's the first time in 20 years that I have had 42 take the test. Usually schools have 14 or 15 take it."

The students were loaded into several 10-person war canoes. They disembarked on their day journey at the Penobscot Salmon Club, with Penobscot Riverkeepers as guides. Then, they canoed to a small boat landing just north of the treatment plant that was created as a stop for the Riverkeepers' educational tours.

After being split into three groups, they were led through the wastewater treatment plant by either lab manager Steve Butler, night shift operator Pat Crowley or chief operator Lou Colburn.

"We take them through the entire process from where it comes in to where it leaves and explain the process along the way," said Ken Locke, Brewer director of environmental services.

Junior Vanessa Weber, 17, said when she found out that the group was touring the facility she didn't know what to expect. "It was really worthwhile. It's good to know," she said after the hourlong tour.

Until 1973, most waste was dumped into the Penobscot River, which surprised senior Tom Beers, 17.

"I think it's important it's not going into the river," he said. "It's a step in the right direction."

Beers, who is from Dixmont, toured the Bangor Wastewater Treatment Plant as an eighth-grader at Etna-Dixmont School. He said the two facilities are similar, but Bangor's treatment plant is bigger. He added that in his hometown leach fields and septic systems are what homeowners use for waste disposal.

Between Bangor and Brewer, approximately 500 million gallons of waste was treated in the last month, Butler said. That volume is high, a result of the annual spring runoff, he said.

"Last month alone [Brewer] treated 126 million gallons of waste - that's one town in Maine with 9,000 people," Butler said.

Numerous daily tests are performed on the wastewater. They are designed to ensure the water that ends up in the river is cleansed of environmental hazards, Locke said.

"We're required to discharge an effluent with greater than 85 percent removal" of total suspended solids and contaminants, he said. "Ours is usually [in the] 95 to 99 percent removal rate."

The John Bapst students attended one of four tours that have occurred or are planned for this spring.

"We had Brewer [High School] last week, Bapst today and two tours next week," Locke said.

Glenburn Middle School and Hancock School are scheduled to tour the plant.

Even though the smell was noticeable, the tour was interesting and students learned a lot about how waste is handled, Vanessa said.

"I was amazed at how clean the process was and how well organized it was," she said.

A copyright article from the Bangor Daily News, Saturday, May 21, 2005.