Sewer Department Sewer Department

In 1961, Bellows Falls began construction of its first wastewater treatment and sludge disposal facility. The original treatment plant provided primary treatment and chlorination for most of Bellows Falls' sewage. Primary treatment removes 60% of suspended solids (SS) and 25% of the biological oxygen demand (bod) from the wastewater. However, because the plant had a by-pass sewer, sewage flows greater than 1.4 million gallons per day (MGD) were by-passed directly to the Connecticut river without any treatment. The sludge which was generated by the treatment process was digested and open air dried. The procedure produced a sludge cake which could then be taken to a landfill or farmland. 

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Bellows falls installed new storm sewers to separate the storm water from the sewage flow. This separation of the relatively clean storm water from the sewage flow greatly reduced the amount of water which had to be treated at the wastewater facility, and which had to be by-passed directly to the Connecticut river. 

The current project is providing Bellow Falls, Walpole and North Walpole, and sections of Westminster and Rockingham with secondary treatment and chlorination of their sewage. Secondary treatment removes 85% of both SS and BOD. The new treatment facility has no by-passes; all wastewater flows which come to the treatment plant and are treated. The plant is designed to handle 1.4 (MGD) million gallons per day as and average flow and 4.3 (MGD) as peak wet weather flow. By the time Walpole has finished its sewer connections, the average flow is expected to be near 0.7 (MGD). 

The secondary treatment process produces approximately twice as much sludge per gallon of wastewater as primary treatment process. Therefore, new sludge treatment facilities have been provided.    

The wastewater facility It is currently a class 3 wastewater facility. We have a team of 4 full time employees to oversee two wastewater facilities in the Village of Bellows Falls and Saxtons River. In 2006 the wastewater facility was needing some serious upgrading the treatment and process within the facility, and the age of equipment and the efficiency of the plant was in serious decline. The Village of bellows Falls came up with a three-step plan for the upgrades to be developed to the state-of-the-art facilities that we currently have. 

In 2008 a headworks upgrade was done with a lake side fine screen to remove large solids, and a grit removal system was put in. There are two primary clarifiers followed by three trains of rotating biological contactors (RBC) that were replaced in 2012. we also have two secondary clarifiers going to the effluent contact tank for disinfection process. In 2018 we had an upgrade to replace the belt filter press to a PW TECH screw press producing 28% solids included was a chemical disinfection building with a 24hr generator that was also Installed for the facility. 2020 a Biosolid dehumidification process was added to minimize solid waste disposal to land fill to produce a Class A fertilizer from the dried solids 90%+ to be reused on farmland or other applications. We also use methane gas storage to heat our head works building. The facility has a 250,000-gallon anaerobic digestor and two 70,000 gallon holding tanks for solids storage. 

The Village of Bellows Falls is also contracted to oversee the SBR facility in Saxtons River. The wastewater plant was a completely new plant put in 2018. The plant has two tanks that are full process tanks with ultraviolet (UV) for disinfection. Both facilities have SCADA which allows communications for all the operators to have 24/7 availability to see the plants on our phones to maximize response time for emergency response for calls and minimize protentional failures or issues.