Soaking rains and high winds from recent storms caused as much as $48,000 in damages to roads and equipment belonging to the Great Salt Bay Sanitary District.
LeeAnna Hutchins, the Sanitary District’s wastewater manager, said the major item on the damage list was repairs to 1200 feet of road leading to the district’s water supply and pumping station at Little Pond.
“The ground was so saturated (from rain) that the road turned to mush. We had to scrape the gravel off just to be able to get to the pump station,” she said.
Hutchins told the GSB board March 10 a preliminary estimate of repairs to the road could be as much as $35,000.
In addition, a part failed on the district’s new ultra violet purification system that could cost $1000. There was also some damage to the system’s computers, she said.
As the storm progressed, district workers were required to put in as much as $1000 in overtime as electric power failed at wastewater pumping stations in Damariscotta Mills and Damariscotta.
“The wastewater was coming into the pump stations, but the power was off so we had to bring a back up generator to each station. We had to keep shuttling the generator between the stations until the power came back on,” she said.
Hutchins told the board federal officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency toured the district recently and are in the process of preparing a formal damage estimate.
There is a chance federal funds will be available to cover the costs of storm damage, she said.
