The Mount Hope town board approved the hiring of a wastewater services firm to run the Hidden Valley sewer plant on April 29.
The decision came after the recent resignation of longtime town employee and plant operator Mike Brock.
“We brought in a professional firm that can offer more resources than just an individual person,” Mount Hope Supervisor Paul Rickard told The Epoch Times on May 2, noting that the company came with a strong background in the membrane bioreactor technology used in the Hidden Valley plant.
H2O Innovations, a Canada-based company, currently manages 10 similarly designed sewer plants, including one in the nearby town of Mamakating, according to Mr. Rickard.
The monthly cost of the hire is $4,000—about $500 higher than when Mr. Brock was employed—and will increase to $4,500 next year, followed by an annual increase of between 2 percent and 4 percent in 2026.
The company will satisfy the two-hour per day requirement set by a state permit; emergency visits will trigger extra expenses.
Mr. Rickard said at the town board meeting that the company would also identify necessary capital investments for its professionals to appropriately run the plant, with all equipment purchases subject to town board approval.
At the meeting, Hidden Valley Sewer Advisory Board members urged the town board to have stronger oversight over plant operation and related purchasing activities; they also asked the town board to regularly update them on the performance of the new firm.
When it was revealed at the meeting that some of the plant’s past consultation services were initiated without prior town approvals, advisory board members urged officials to find out what had happened so that they could prevent such things from happening again. Mr. Rickard replied that he had put in place stronger financial oversight since January.
On top of ensuring daily operation, Mr. Rickard also looks to tackle the water infiltration at the sewer plant, having already identified one major infiltration point near an abandoned pump.
All sewer plant costs are to be borne by district users.
To this day, the 100 or so households in the Hidden Valley sewer district are still paying down a $1 million-plus loan taken out in the 2000s to build out the current plant.
Though billed at the time as an innovative municipal plant using advanced technology, the system went down almost immediately after it went online in late 2009 and has since been plagued with operational issues, according to town meeting minutes.
In October 2023, the town was cited by the state for at least four plant violations, including that staff time on-site was not sufficient, ammonia for treating water was expired, and sewer work was performed by people without proper licensing. The town has since submitted a correction plan, according to a February town board meeting.
