School board mulls wastewater management options

New Upper Freehold Regional middle school will either hook up to the surrounding community’s waste disposal system or build its own facilities.

By: Lauren Burgoon
   UPPER FREEHOLD — School board meetings here usually draw only one or two people, but the Feb. 16 meeting was more heavily attended with 10 people coming out, all armed with questions about the new middle school’s wastewater management plan.
   The mix of parents and Ellisdale Road residents were interested in learning if the middle school, expected to open in 2007 on Ellisdale Road, will hook up to the surrounding community’s waste disposal system or build its own facilities. Each decision will have different implications for the neighborhood and the district. The night ended with no absolutes as the district is still waiting for key information before making a decision.
   The district needs to have a plan in place within a year in order to get the approval process completed before going out to bid for construction. Approval review can take up to a few months each at state, county and state levels.
   The holdup is happening now because the Board of Education has no definite figures as to how much it will cost to hook up to the existing wastewater management plant and where the wastewater would end up. The report on that information is expected in two weeks from Applied Wastewater Management, the firm that handles the wastewater needs for the Heritage Green and Four Seasons active adult communities.
   The board and public did get a clearer picture of the district’s options even without final information. The new middle school, to be construct on 41 acres adjacent to Four Seasons, could build its own plant and drainage field for the school’s sole use. Using preliminary estimates, it would cost about $3.4 million to build, maintain, and pay for sludge removal, insurance and the necessary chemicals, plus about $43,000 set aside each year to replace the plant after 30 years.
   One issue with building a separate plant is summer maintenance. The fields used for water absorption have insects that help in naturally preventing odors in the area. The bugs are more likely to die without a constant source of water, causing neighborhood odors to crop up. The smell can be treated with chemicals but it is easier and less expensive to let the insects handle the task.
   Another option that seems to be gaining early favor is tapping into the Ellisdale Road wastewater system while making improvements to the whole operation. Hooking up to the community’s system would require facility upgrades so the plant could handle the extra waste volume. It likely would also require another depository field to absorb treated water. Four Seasons currently has one large field to cover the community’s needs.
   Paul Pogorzelski of Van Cleef Engineering said the district could build an extra field on school property that would serve both the middle school and the surrounding communities.
   "If you switch off sending treated water from field to field, it prolongs each field’s life," he explained. "Plus it adds a contingency factor that doesn’t exist now" in case either field becomes unavailable because of maintenance problems. If that happens when only one drainage field exists, trucks must be called in to constantly haul stagnant water away.
   If the school taps into the current system and builds a second drainage field, it wouldn’t be restricted space, Mr. Pogorzelski explained. The drainage system occurs far underground with layers of sand, stone and piping to absorb water about 9 feet below the surface. He said the field could be used as a homeowner treats land over a septic tank — no trucks could pass over it and athletic fields would be inappropriate, but the space could be used for an outdoor assembly or something similar.
   Based on Department of Environmental Protection estimates the district can expect 30,000 gallons of wastewater output on schooldays. But Superintendent Robert Connelly clarified that actual output at other district schools is far less than DEP estimates. The other schools on the High Street campus use Allentown’s public sewer system, but that isn’t an option for the new middle school.
   Dr. Connelly promised to stay in touch with community leaders and especially Four Seasons residents who have expressed concern about the wastewater management plan. He said the district will contact those people specifically when Applied Wastewater Management’s report comes in and there is more information on which to base a final decision.
   The board invited the public to continue to weigh in with its opinions about various options. Mr. Pogorzelski will return to a later board meeting when more information is available.