A major upgrade to the Sebago Lake Water Treatment Facility has been started for the Portland Water District’s treatment facility in Standish at a cost of a $12.8 million. It adds two UV reactors as well as an upgraded ozone water treatment system. The Water District has been designing this system since 2002.
Engineers with the water district say not only is this upgrade more energy efficient but also safer for it’s roughly two hundred thousand customers. The seventeen month project could raise residential monthly bills by about $1.60. But the water district hopes to offset much of that by retiring debt. Efficiency Maine also awarded the water district a three hundred thousand dollar grant.
Many US drinking water treatment facilities are upgrading their plants to take advantage of new technologies such as ozone and UV to meet new EPA regulations for surface water treatment.