By Ashley St. Michel
Staff Writer
    The Kennebunk Sewer Plant project was approved Nov. 30 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for a public assistance grant of more than $2 million in an effort to return the facility to pre-disaster conditions after the plant was damaged by the April 2007 Patriots' Day flood.
    Town Manager Barry Tibbetts said the grant will provide the money necessary to move forward with the project. Willis Emmons, district manager for the Kennebunk Sewer District, agreed.
    “We worked with FEMA on this and the funds they have agreed to give us are a huge portion of the total cost,” Emmons said during a Dec. 3 phone interview. “We would have had a lot more work to do in terms of funds if they didn’t give this to us. It lessens the impact to the residents of the sewer district.”
    Although the total cost of the project is more than $4 million, Emmons said the more than $2 million awarded to the plant will come from Federal Share, while the remaining amount will be from a non-federal matching grant.  
    The Kennebunk Sewer District was established in 1955 to preserve and protect public health and the welfare of Kennebunk’s citizens and to protect the water in the Kennebunk and Mousam Rivers.
    After the Patriot’s Day flood slammed Kennebunk, Emmons said the sewer district began talks with FEMA outlining what was necessary to repair the damages. Emmons said another important aspect of the project is the mitigation control. The mitigation will protect the plant from future floods.
    Emmons said the project could mean elevating some of the buildings that were flooded high enough to guarantee future incidents. Part of the mitigation plan includes the construction of a ring levee which will surround the facility using a manmade floodwall. The levee will raise the elevation of protection around the plant to two feet above the water level reached during the storm.
    The sewer district and FEMA used a Cost Estimate Format (CFE), which provides details of each area and specific damages incurred to machinery and utilities. A CFE is used to create consistency among the plant for the different sites.  
    “We had about four feet of water in our yard and eight out of the 10 buildings we have were flooded,” Emmons said, he adds all the buildings had significant damaged to machinery, pumps for heating and ventilation.
    Two of the buildings had more than 1,000 gallons of fuel oil that spilled after the basement partially flooded and the tanks, which were lifted due to the amount of water, began leaking.
    More than 36 hours after the storm hit, Emmons said access to the plant was still limited and the plant made the decision to cut the power temporarily. Emmons said there were safety concerns about leaving the power on with the amount of water that was in the buildings.
    “We had a ground mounted transformer,” Emmons said. “So that could have been quite a problem for the town.”
    Other areas hit hardest by the storm at the facility include 12 feet of water in the Control Building, the main facility of the plant, which damaged heating systems, piping insulation, pumps, electrical and lighting systems, doors, hardware, painting and flooring. The pump house’s heating system and ductwork, mechanical pumps and motors, doors and wall covering were all damaged in the storm. Although the buildings were the hardest hit areas of the facility, the pavement, concrete, fence and gate around the exterior part of the grounds were also damaged.
    Emmons said the plant offices were moved to the Kennebunk Town Hall for two to three weeks after the storm hit.
    “Everyone with the town was fantastic,” he said. “We were out of commission for three to four days with little or no treatment. Basically whatever came into the plant flowed right out into the rivers.”
    But Emmons said the flood didn’t do much environmental damage to the rivers or the water quality.
    “The magnitude of the flood diluted things quite a bit,” he added.
    The plant has already moved forward with some of the construction to get the plant online enough to complete their day-to-day tasks. Emmons said the plant asked for temporary financing with the Maine Municipal Bond Bank. According to the Web site, the bank and the General Bond Resolution Program were created in 1972 in an effort to provide low cost funds through the sale of highly tax-exempt bonds.
    The program assists with construction of schools, roads, water and sewer districts by providing money needed to begin or finish projects.
    But Emmons said the re-building of the facility may not begin for quite some time. Since FEMA delegates the funding for the projects directly to the state, it is the state's responsibility to ensure the eligible projects receive the funds.
    “There is still a lot of work to do,” Emmons said. “We have a timeline of anywhere to two to three years until the completion of the project.”