Stonington -- The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has cited the Mystic sewer treatment plant with a litany of violations including violating its permit, changing its method of operation without permission and discharging fecal coliform into the Mystic River on numerous occasions last summer.

The town’s three sewer plants are run by Suez Water Technologies and Solutions of Paramus, N.J., which has 20-year contract with the town that pays it about $2 million a year and expires next year. The town then has a option to renew the contract for five years.  

On Monday, Water Pollution Control Authority Chairman Richard Cody said he used harsh language to make it very clear to Suez that the authority was dissatisfied with what occurred. Both he and First Selectman Rob Simmons stressed that all the deficiencies outlined by the DEEP have now been corrected by Suez at no cost to the town. A final report that details the corrective measures taken by Suez is expected to be submitted to the DEEP by Thursday's deadline.

Simmons received a formal administrative order by the DEEP to correct the problems on Oct 23. The order was based on an Aug. 9 inspection of the Mystic plant by the DEEP. It found that a grit, oil and grease removal system has been out of service for a year while the BioMag system used to help process wastewater has been out of service for 100 days. An ultraviolet system used to kill coliform bacteria had experienced malfunctions with some portions of equipment that have been out of service for an extended period of time.

It also cited Suez for poor housekeeping at the plant with problems such as heavy vegetation around the building, tripping hazards and lack of nitrification which resulted in high ammonia levels in discharged water.

The DEEP ordered Suez and the town to take a long list of corrective actions such as submitting an assessment of its operational and maintenance procedures, an analysis of minimum staffing levels and written confirmation that all deficiences have been corrected.

An addendum to the order shows that on 10 occasions from July 5 to Aug. 30 of this year, fecal coliform levels as much as 72 times the allowable limit and on two occasions enterococci bacteria levels as high as 20 times the permitted level, were contained in treated water being discharged from the plant.

Cody said Suez responded rapidly and professionally to correct the problems outlined in the DEEP order. He and WPCA director Douglas Nettleton said recent technological improvements to treating wastewater at the plant have posed some challenges to Suez, resulting in permit violations. 

Cody said that Suez changed some processes at the plant but did not tell the WPCA.

“They will never do that again,” he said. “We made it more than clear that we disapproved of their actions.”

Asked if the company had made personnel changes  at the plant, Cody and Simmons referred that question to Suez to answer. But Cody said high ranking Suez officials had taken notice of the problems and put the necessary resources into rectifying them. 

Simmons said the town will also be taking additional measures to make sure the problem of the Mystic plant exceeding its permit levels does not continue. 

He said that in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 capital improvement budget the town and the WPCA will request that the Board of Finance include $300,000 to study inflow/infiltration into the sewer lines that feed the Mystic plant. There will also be a $1.6 million request split over the two years to upgrade an existing but unused sewer line between the borough and Mystic treatment plants, equipment in the plants and a pump station along the way. 

The upgrades would allow the WPCA to send sewage from the Mystic plant which is near its capacity and struggling to operate within its permit limits to the borough plant which is operating inefficiently because it does not receive enough sewage to process. This transfer of sewage would also create more capacity in the Mystic plant to accommodate future development. It would also give the town the ability to divert sewage to either plant in the event of an emergency at one of them.