Plans move forward on new Millington wastewater plant

MILLINGTON — Plans are underway to demolish the Millington wastewater plant and rebuild a new one.

Daniel String, Delaware Practice Leader of KCI Technologies, project manager for the operation, informed Kent commissioners at their regular scheduled meeting of the progress.

Also in attendance was Jo Manning, town administrator for Millington and Millington council member Wayne Starkey.

President of the County Commission Ron Fithian said it’s important to keep the confidence with the developers and landowners of the future site of the plant.

“The sooner we get a shovel in the ground the better.”

Alongside String was Director of Kent County Public Works Department Dan Mattson. He’s been working with the Town of Millington on the plant as a joint project.

This project is something that needs to be expedited, an impression felt by everyone in the room. Their progress will rely on various departments, like Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).

The Millington Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is located on the Queen Anne’s County side of the town on Sassafras Street and discharges into the Chester River. It serves the town and outside areas under a utility agreement with the County.

Built in 1966, it’s a package sewerage treatment utilizing a contact stabilization process. As Manning put it, it’s a Biological Nutrient Removal plant (BNR).

That uses a process used for nitrogen and phosphorus removal from wastewater before it’s discharged into surface or ground water.

The plant was built on a flood plain — a major problem, and the reason it needs to be replaced.

In 1999, Hurricane Floyd ravaged the town, flooding the area. The plant was shut down for five days. Two years later, Hurricane Irene did extensive damage, downing trees, flooding Millington.

Millington Mayor Kevin Hemstock noted flooding at the plant has been an ongoing problem, citing examples from 2011 and 2012.

Through the years many solutions were offered.

One proposal suggested all wastewater could be pumped to Sudlersville where they’d handle it.

That project was scrapped.

In 2022, the County received $2,900,000 from the Upper Shore Regional Council (USRC) to go towards infrastructure and business development project. The Town of Millington received $1,081,000 for their wastewater treatment facility.

Manning explained.

“We couldn’t expand our permit unless we went to an ENR plant. The consensus is why would we do an ENR plant where it floods, so that’s when we called the County and said we need to do a joint project and get this out of the flood plain.”

Like Galena and Betterton’s plant, ENR plants feed microorganisms the wastewater on a timed basis, leaving effluent water, clean enough to return to the river.

String fielded questions from the commissioners explaining their progress.

He produced the site process drawings, noting they are 60% complete.

The other 40% will come from the picking out of equipment, the electrical engineers, instrumentation, structural design and other pieces, he said.

Meetings with the landowner are ongoing, and since the new plant requires only five acres, there are discussions where exactly the plant will be built on the premises.

String’s optimistic about all that however.

“In general the site is looking good,” he said.

The next major hurdle will be receiving permits from the Maryland Department of the Environment.

A discharge permit is rarely given out, but they’ll need one in this case. Since they are replacing and not building completely new, he’s hoping the State sees the value of that and moves accordingly. “For a project like this you have to get permission from a lot of people,” String told the commissioners.

Fithian said the plant is better for everyone.

“It’s downstream which makes it better. It’s not in a flood zone. I’d think someone from (the State) would say that’s a good idea and they should hurry up and get that done,” he replied.

If all goes according to plan, String said it’ll take a couple years to build the plant. But he told the commissioners there’s excitement and urgency.

“We’re pushing hard to make sure to get that as soon as we can,” he said.

He expects to put the project out to bid early 2025 — spring time, would be opportune.

KCI will present to Maryland Department of Environment in the fall, and for expediency purposes, everything from the site plan, to acquiring the permits and other tasks are all operating parallel of each other.

Later that day at the Millington Town Council, Manning echoed String’s statements in her Town Administrators report.

“It’s slow going but just to let you know we’re still at it,” she assured the council.

Find information about the Town of Millington, their building projects and their comprehensive plan on their site: https://millingtonmd.us/.