Waste Water Treatment Plant - Yarmouth? (Unity, Plymouth: buying a house, neighborhoods, buying)

[maja]

Anybody have any information on the Waste Water Treatment Plant in Yarmouth on Princess Point road? Any impact on the surrounding neighborhoods? Odors? TIA

[Maineah]

That treatment plant is at the end of a long access road and is close to the Royal River. There can be some odor from it in the summer though it is usually minimal. There are open effluent and settling tanks there so the chance of catching some odor is ever present. It's not much worse than the mud flat smell at low tide. (Yes mud flats stink)
The solid waste used to be used by the town as a fertilizer/mulch but I think they have stopped the practice as there are just too many indigestible seeds in human waste. There were tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers,eggplant and other assorted veggies growing out of every conceivable place in town where the dried solids had been used as a mulch/fertilizer!
I wouldn't let the Treatment Plant keep you from buying a house on Prince's Point Road itself.
There are some homes further down on the point I think it's called Royall Point Road where the smell of the plant may be more of an issue.
A friend of mine used to live right beside the gate to the place and I never remember smelling it when visiting them. I have ,however, caught an occasional whiff of the plant while passing it in a boat.
As I said it is minimal, occasional, and not much worse than the smell at low tide.

[BrokenTap]

I can't give you much of an update on living next to the Sewer Treatment Plant, but they still use the sludge as fertilizer. It's trucked to a location in Plymouth, Maine and New England Organics in Unity, Maine where it is mixed with wood ash and lime slurry from some of the paper mills. This is composted and then given to farmers for use as a lime product.

The key word here is GIVEN as it is free. As a farmer myself, I can obtain this stuff and use it on my land, but I'm not a big fan of what is called sludge. Up until last year we could just get the wood ash and lime slurry from the paper mills, but because so many people were taking the ash and not the sludge, they bundled them together as a way to get rid of the sludge. Farmers need the lime product to neutralize the acidic soil here, but not necessarily the human waste (we have cow manure) so its a take the good, along with the bad thing.

Myself, I refuse to use the stuff even though my neighbors all do. In fact now is the time they haul it to the fields and "stack it" as its called and you will see big black piles in corn fields everywhere right now. That is waste water treatment sludge. It's probably fine to use a fertilizer, but even though I am a conventional farmer, it's off-limits on this farm.

(This post had nothing to do with the original poster intent, I just happened to know a bit of information on it still being used as fertilizer).

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

I can't give you much of an update on living next to the Sewer Treatment Plant, but they still use the sludge as fertilizer. It's trucked to a location in Plymouth, Maine and New England Organics in Unity, Maine where it is mixed with wood ash and lime slurry from some of the paper mills. This is composted and then given to farmers for use as a lime product.

The key word here is GIVEN as it is free. As a farmer myself, I can obtain this stuff and use it on my land, but I'm not a big fan of what is called sludge. Up until last year we could just get the wood ash and lime slurry from the paper mills, but because so many people were taking the ash and not the sludge, they bundled them together as a way to get rid of the sludge. Farmers need the lime product to neutralize the acidic soil here, but not necessarily the human waste (we have cow manure) so its a take the good, along with the bad thing.

Myself, I refuse to use the stuff even though my neighbors all do. In fact now is the time they haul it to the fields and "stack it" as its called and you will see big black piles in corn fields everywhere right now. That is waste water treatment sludge. It's probably fine to use a fertilizer, but even though I am a conventional farmer, it's off-limits on this farm.

(This post had nothing to do with the original poster intent, I just happened to know a bit of information on it still being used as fertilizer).

Good info Thanks! See any weird plants growing out of it?
Maybe they heat it to kill off the seeds now but it sure was funny walking through the parks in Yarmouth and seeing eggplant and tomatoes growing all over the place. The tomatoes looked pretty good too!

[broadbill]

I would think the heat from of the sewage decomposing would destroy the ability of those seeds to germinate. That, and I would guess that the seeds would be waterlogged too.

[maja]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Good info Thanks! See any weird plants growing out of it?
Maybe they heat it to kill off the seeds now but it sure was funny walking through the parks in Yarmouth and seeing eggplant and tomatoes growing all over the place. The tomatoes looked pretty good too!

LOL! That is truly a surrealistic image!

[beforethis]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

I can't give you much of an update on living next to the Sewer Treatment Plant, but they still use the sludge as fertilizer. It's trucked to a location in Plymouth, Maine and New England Organics in Unity, Maine where it is mixed with wood ash and lime slurry from some of the paper mills. This is composted and then given to farmers for use as a lime product.

The key word here is GIVEN as it is free. As a farmer myself, I can obtain this stuff and use it on my land, but I'm not a big fan of what is called sludge. Up until last year we could just get the wood ash and lime slurry from the paper mills, but because so many people were taking the ash and not the sludge, they bundled them together as a way to get rid of the sludge. Farmers need the lime product to neutralize the acidic soil here, but not necessarily the human waste (we have cow manure) so its a take the good, along with the bad thing.

Myself, I refuse to use the stuff even though my neighbors all do. In fact now is the time they haul it to the fields and "stack it" as its called and you will see big black piles in corn fields everywhere right now. That is waste water treatment sludge. It's probably fine to use a fertilizer, but even though I am a conventional farmer, it's off-limits on this farm.

(This post had nothing to do with the original poster intent, I just happened to know a bit of information on it still being used as fertilizer).

I am from Central Maine and would like more info on the plant in Plymouth Maine that processes these wastes.

I would appreciate any help you could give me.