Matt Zarbo with Square Engineering discusses options for the North Chautauqua Sewer Plant located in Mayville. P-J photo by Gregory Bacon

MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County is eyeing a $10 million upgrade to one of its sewer plants, although it may close the plant all together.

During the county legislature meeting, Matt Zarbo with Square Engineering discussed the North Chautauqua Lake Sewer Plant, which is located in Mayville. The plant handles the waste from the village as well as part of the town of Chautauqua.

This is one of two plants run by the county. The other, which is in Celoron, is known as the South and Center Sewer Plant.

Zarbo said the Mayville plant is rated for 500,000 gallons and averages 320,000 gallons a day.

The recorded maximum flow is 2 million gallons. The maximum levels are generally reached when there’s a lot of snow on the ground and it melts quickly due to a heavy rain.

Zarbo said the plant needs some attention.

“The current plant is at or over capacity for nearly every major unit process,” he said.

Zarbo said there is no evidence that the plant isn’t working correctly or that it is sending improperly treated sewage to the lake, but it can’t handle much more.

“Compared to what it was designed to do, and compared to current regulations, it does not meet them,” he said.

A portion of the plant is antiquated as well and needs to be upgraded.

Zarbo said at times the plant operators have had to haul liquid sludge to Westfield by vehicle to get it processed there.

“That’s not really conducive long term,” he said.

The new housing project proposed at the former Chautauqua Point Golf Course will likely have its sewage sent to the South and Center plant, but there are other new developments that could impact the Mayville plant.

Zarbo noted that there’s a new housing project in Mandolin Ridge in the town of Chautauqua that is slowly getting built, which is connected to this plant. There’s other development possibilities as well.

“Flows to this plant are going to increase,” he said.

In terms of upgrades, Zarbo said they could do a $3.75 million project, an $8.1 million project, or a $10.1 million project.

He recommends the full upgrade.

The reason is that a partial upgrade won’t increase capacity. Also, regulations continue to become more strict.

“If you’re going to do a major upgrade, for the modest increase in cost, we felt it better suits the plant to go with a larger, more robust treatment system,” Zarbo said.

The county is seeking funding for the project and has said it won’t move forward without at least 50% of the costs covered through grants.

Taking that into consideration, Zarbo said annual users could see a $60-$121 increase annually to their sewer bills.

There is another improvement project currently underway. Combining both projects, users could see an annual cost of $636-$737 per year.

DECOMMISSIONING PLANT

One option that was not taken into consideration by Zarbo in his initial review was if the Mayville plant could be decommissioned and all of the waste be taken to the South and Center Sewer District.

The South and Center Sewer District reportedly has capacity, but Zarbo said a more in-depth study is needed.

He said the county has applied for a $50,000 grant to do a study to see if the South and Center Sewer District could handle everything that Mayville processes, plus future expansion.

For now, Zarbo recommends moving forward with seeking grants for the Mayville plant and if a future study shows that the Celoron plant can handle all of the waste then make a change then.

“Given the slow grant process, delaying action is not recommended,” he said.

County lawmakers agreed and unanimously approved an environmental review for the North Chautauqua Sewer Plant as well as authorized seeking grants to upgrade it.