OXFORD — Residents will vote Thursday on a sewer ordinance regulating a to-be-built treatment facility.
The 47-page document, which is required under the terms of the town’s agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, spell out when and under what conditions residents must connect to the state-of-the-art treatment facility, which is scheduled to go online next spring.
A special town meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, at the Town Office on Pleasant Street. Selectmen will hold their regular meeting afterward.
Broadly speaking, the regulations create two types of users — industrial and residential or commercial — with greater restrictions on businesses with more toxic sewage.
The law would require residents with a failed septic tank or other wastewater system and whose properties are within 150 feet of the sewer pipes to connect.
Residents whose land or buildings are 150 feet or more away will not be required to hook into the system. Within the boundary, residences with functioning septic systems will be permitted continued use, though no new septic systems will be allowed.
Oxford is in the first of a two-phase, multimillion-dollar project to install a membrane treatment system, designed to meet an expected population and business surge.
Water eventually will be pumped from miles of sewer lines passing through a business-advantageous Tax Increment Financing district along Route 26, forced through a series of filters and sterilized by ultraviolet light before flowing into the Little Androscoggin River.
Sewer pipes have been laid from Rabbit Valley Road north along Route 26 close to the intersection with King Street. The next phase of development, which taps into loans and grants from the USDA’s Rural Development office, will see piping extended along King Street into residential neighborhoods.
The ordinance also creates a fee structure for users, including a one-time base connection fee, plus a usage rate based on water consumption. That rate, which has not been determined, will be set by selectmen after engineers estimate the number of households likely to be connected.
The fees will help pay the town’s debt service on the loans, and for future projects, operations and maintenance on the sewer.
ccrosby@sunjournal.com
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