STANDISH, Maine (NEWS CENTER) - A major upgrade to the Sebago Lake Water Treatment Facility, ten years in the making, is officially underway.
A groundbreaking symbolically started a $12.8 million upgrade to Portland Water District's treatment facility in Standish. It adds two UV reactors as well as an upgraded ozone treatment system. The Water District has been designing this system since 2002 and were able to meet new safety guidelines imposed by the EPA in 2006. Engineers with the water district say not only is this upgrade more energy efficient but also safer for it's roughly two hundred thousand customers.
The seventeen month project could raise residential monthly bills by about $1.60. But the water district hopes to offset much of that by retiring debt. Efficiency Maine also awarded the water district a three hundred thousand dollar grant.