For this entry of Wright-Pierce’s 2026 Calendar Series, which highlights projects featured in our yearly calendar, we focus on the evaluation, funding, design, and construction of a new wastewater treatment facility for the Fort Fairfield Utilities District in Fort Fairfield, Maine.
Project Background
To continue providing essential wastewater treatment services to the community, the Fort Fairfield Utilities District needed to replace its 1960s-era wastewater treatment facility, which had reached the end of its useful life. Wright-Pierce prepared a facilities plan and preliminary engineering report to identify the most cost-effective long-term solution.
The evaluation considered upgrading the existing facility, replacing it with a new mechanical plant, moving toward regionalization, or constructing a lagoon treatment facility at four potential sites. The analysis indicated that a new lagoon treatment facility was the most feasible and cost-effective approach.
Project Team Services
Wright-Pierce provided preliminary and final design services from 2019 through 2021, followed by construction management. Designed for a cold-weather climate and potential future discharge limits, the facility includes a new influent pump station, screening equipment, aerated lagoons with fine-bubble diffusers, flow controls, chemical feed and sampling systems, and remote monitoring and controls. The design also provides storage and electrical capacity for a potential future irrigation system and additional aeration equipment.
Constructed across the river from the existing plant, the new facility features a 28-million-gallon, three-cell lagoon system; an operations building; and a chlorine contact tank. The work included a river crossing, a new outfall, demolition of the former plant, and removal and dewatering of accumulated digester sludge. Interim operating strategies kept treatment running through equipment failures until the lagoons came online in August 2023. By June 2024, the new systems were fully operational, and project closeout was underway.
Project Manager Ben Stiles had this to say about the project: “Greenfield sites don’t come along often, and this one gave us the space to design something that can adapt over time. We sized the lagoons for a range of future scenarios, including tighter permit limits and changes in industrial loading. The goal wasn’t just to build something new. It was to give the District a system that was adaptable and would last.”
About The Photo
The photo featured on the calendar is an aerial view of the new lagoon wastewater treatment facility. Senior Discipline Design Specialist Ryan Beisaw, who took the aerial photo, said, “I had the unique opportunity to be there in October 2019 performing the existing conditions survey when this site was no more than just an open field with an abandoned farm building on it. It was nice to be able to take a step back with the drone and capture what the site had transformed into five years later in November 2024.”
Project Impact
The project delivered a modern wastewater treatment system designed to preserve an essential community service for the long term. Wright-Pierce worked with the District to secure $9.42 million in federal and state grants and principal forgiveness, $2.7 million in low-interest loans, and $500,000 from the Utility’s cash reserve. In total, the project included $12.62 million in funding to support construction of the new lagoon facility.
Contact us to learn more about wastewater facilities planning, funding assistance, design, and construction management services.