LEWISTON — The city will have to build a $35,000 vehicle wash filtration system, but officials are hopeful they made it through a federal environmental audit without being penalized for not having one yet.
“They seemed to be fairly reasonable,” Lewiston Public Works Director Dave Jones said. “They obviously found a few things here and there, but we are cautiously optimistic that we did OK.”
Inspectors from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency came to Lewiston on April 15 to check the city’s stormwater system and Lewiston’s compliance with federal clean water rules.
The EPA requires some communities to build stormwater treatment systems that are distinct from the sanitary sewer systems. Those communities are based on size, and Maine has 29, including Lewiston, Auburn, Bangor and Portland.
The EPA auditors are scheduled to be in Auburn next week.
It was a thorough audit and Jones said he expects to get a copy of the written report in May.
Jones said he was briefed at the end of the day and inspectors shared what they had come up with. “They still have to go through our documentation, but they just told us what they knew at that point.”
Findings included some minor problems with the city’s computerized maps of places where storm runoff reaches the Androscoggin River.
Auditors commented on Lewiston’s vehicle washing practices, as well. The city washes its public works vehicles at the Adams Avenue shop, letting the water run into a catch basin and eventually into the watershed.
“That’s not appropriate for us,” Jones said.
He said the plan is to build a filtration system under a concrete pad at the city shops. It will separate water from oil residue, sending the water to the sewer and the collected oils to a recycler.
“They could potentially fine us,” Jones said. “What they actually said, though, was we can’t do what we’ve been doing. But we do have a program set up to address the problem, so they made note of that.”
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