FITCHBURG — A small group of interested parties recently a toured Fitchburg’s former West Wastewater Treatment Facility on Princeton Road.
It’s a “number two” topic that needs to be addressed to keep Fitchburg running, even though it is not dinner table conversation.
Taking the unglamorous “crappy” work seriously, Fitchburg city officials are focusing on the future when our landfill closes in a few short years, working on keeping costs down for ratepayers, using city assets wisely and effectively and making sure we do not end up in a cycle of expensive, long-haul disposal.
This site has big “already-built” potential. City officials were first discussing this in 2018, then in 2020 Fitchburg put out a request for expression of interest and heard from multiple companies with ideas for biosolids treatment, different approaches, different tech, some with energy or fuel concepts.
Since then, the Department of Pubic Works has continued tracking a practical path forward for sludge disposal via anaerobic digestion at the West Facility. It is basically a controlled way to break down sludge and capture useful byproducts
The city is working to take an underused facility and turn it into a high-performing asset. It could mean less long-distance and wicked expensive poop hauling, more resilience, better long-term biosolids strategy and a plan that is totally solid.
The city is planning to put out a new request for proposals soon, focused on development in and around the West Facility area, with sludge-related work seen as the highest and best use of that core property.
The city is also looking at city-owned land nearby for complementary proposals.
City officials are flushing out the details early, including truck traffic, odor control, noise, water quality protections, permitting, community impacts and obviously trying to wind up with a public benefit.
We need lower long-term costs, smarter infrastructure and to make sure Fitchburg handles what every city produces with a plan that doesn’t stink.
It’s efficient engineering with a win-win — a win-win-win if you include the bathroom jokes.
Built in the 1970s to process industrial wastewater from area paper mills, the plant was shut down in 2010 when that industry declined. It’s been functioning as a pump station since then, but the core infrastructure is still there.
Since 2015, the city has been working on a plan to repurpose the facility as a regional anaerobic digestion site. The idea is to take our sludge from the Easterly plant and use anaerobic digestion to break it down in an oxygen-free environment.
The byproduct is biogas (mostly methane), which can be used for heat or electricity. There are already several similar public and private systems operating in Massachusetts, including in Pittsfield, Clinton and at Deer Island (in Boston). The state is pushing for more of these because they reduce landfill use, cut greenhouse gas emissions and can generate energy or useful byproducts like fertilizer pellets.
Officials have known for a while that the city needs a long-term plan for managing sludge, especially with the municipal landfill nearing capacity.
Incineration is basically off the table, and hauling waste long distances is expensive. This project could solve multiple problems at once: reduce costs, generate renewable energy and extend the life of local infrastructure.
The city is continuing work with technical and private partners on site assessments and financial modeling to see what it would take to accomplish this. This site location and setup make it a good candidate for anaerobic digestion, a practical reuse of existing assets.
Sam Squailia is the mayor of Fitchburg.
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