Town of Scituate Massachusetts - Department of Public Works: Sewer Division

Responsible for the operations and maintenance of the Scituate Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), 6 pump stations and 32 miles of sewers, which make up the Scituate Sewer Collection System.The WWTP was operational in November 1967 and was designated to treat an average daily flow of 1.0 million gallons per day (mgd). The WWTP was designated as a secondary treatment plant utilizing the extended aeration mode of the activated sludge (microorganisms) process.

The purpose of the WWTP is to remove and treat settleable and floating solids, to reduce suspended solids and dissolve organic material, and to disinfect the final effluent (treated water leaving the WWTP) to reduce the possibility of water-borne diseases.

A septage receiving station, aerobic sludge digesters and a sludge dewatering building were added during an upgrade in 1984. The additions allowed further treatment of the sludge (settled solids), which was dewatered by a belt filter press and disposed at the Town's sanitary landfill.

A second upgrade was completed in 2000 increasing the design of the WWTP from 1.0 mgd to 1.6 mgd along with upgrading the secondary treatment to an advanced treatment capable of nitrogen removal (nitrification/denitrification). The use of ultraviolet light (UV) has replaced chlorination (residual chlorine can be toxic to aquatic life) as the means of disinfecting the final effluent.

Since the closure of the landfill the sludge generated (over 1100 wet tons/yr.) by the belt filter presses in the dewatering building has been hauled off site by a contractor for beneficial reuse.

Phase I of the Sewer Collection System Project was the expansion into the Greenbush/Reservoir are in November 2005. In Phase II of the sewer expansion project, Third Cliff was sewered in October 2006, with First and Second Cliffs to be sewered in the summer of 2007.

In June 2006 the Town started a ‘Sump Pump Amnesty Program’ which helps residents to redirect their sump pump discharges out of the sewer system. Please call for information on this program.