Burlington moves toward $30 million wastewater bond vote

A succession of beach closures this summer in Burlington due to potentially harmful bacteria has prompted the city to seek a $30 million bond for upgrades to its aging sewer and stormwater systems.

City Council is expected to vote Sept. 24 to place the bond before voters on the November ballot.

Average monthly residential rates for waste- and stormwater would rise by about $5.30 per month after 2022, according to the Department of Public Works

Despite steady improvements in performance in the past several decades, Burlington’s wastewater treatment plants are chronically strained by flushes of sewage combined with rainwater during high-intensity storms, said Megan Moir, who directs the department's Water Resources Division.

Where the $30 million will go

Other reasons for re-investment cited by Moir:

• Equipment failures and obsolescence.
• Deferred maintenance and under-budgeting.
• Ever-tighter state and federal regulation of water-borne pollutants, including phosphorus (a nutrient that degrades fish habitat and fuels cyanobacteria blooms).
• The need for improved infrastructure planning in a rapidly changing city.

About $20 million of the bond would primarily address wastewater treatment:

• More modern, reliable monitoring equipment.
• Pipe replacement, repair and re-lining (some conduits date back a century, and are made of brick).
• Revising disposal methods for the local beverage industry, which has at times overwhelmed the biological processes at the treatment plants.

About $10 million of the bond specifically targets stormwater:

• Repair, replacement or re-lining of existing pipes (about $5 million).
• Diverting stormwater away from dual-purpose storm/sewer drains — by adding to Burlington’s “green” infrastructure of street trees and rain gardens.
• Slowing the flow of stormwater to wastewater plants by installing more underground storage tanks.

The time is now

The last major improvements to Burlington’s wastewater and stormwater infrastructure were made in 1994, in the wake of a $52 million bond vote.

Those improvements resulted in a reduction in the volume of untreated sewage by about 97 percent, according to the Public Works Department.

 “The time is now for the current generation to make our investment,” DPW Director Chapin Spencer told Board of Finance members on Sept. 5.

Spencer said about 30 percent of the bond would be paid for through existing revenues. Reduced-interest loans would further temper the bond's impact on ratepayers, as would dedicating some capital-spending funds into debt service, he added.

Other possible sources of revenue the DPW intends to pursue:

• State grants and subsidies.
• Support from projects funded by tax-increment financing (TIF).
• The city's general fund — for treatment of impervious surfaces (streets, parking lots) in public rights of way.
• Additional connection fees.

Contact Joel Banner Baird at 802-660-1843 or joelbaird@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @VTgoingUp.