SHOREHAM — The state Legislature this past biennium made some headlines for decisions that led to increases in various fees and taxes, for purposes ranging from childcare expansion to vehicle registration.

But it could have been a lot worse for folks in the town of Shoreham, who — thanks to support from local lawmakers, an engineering firm and state environmental officials — were spared from having to make an estimated $1 million upgrade to the community’s tiny wastewater facility.

That upgrade was to be triggered by new phosphorous-reduction rules for wastewater facilities. Bill S.213 of 2024 (also known as the Flood Safety Act) mandated that “No person directly discharging into the drainage basins of Lake Champlain or Lake Memphremagog shall discharge any waste that contains a phosphorus concentration in excess of 0.80 milligrams per liter on a monthly average basis.”

While Shoreham’s small wastewater system has only 81 users and currently discharges around 10,000 gallons per day into a nearby swamp (and not directly into Lake Champlain), it was at risk of triggering S.213’s phosphorus rule. That would have required not only a roughly $1 million equipment upgrade at the Shoreham facility, but also thousands more in annual operating costs.

“Shoreham produces around 85 pounds of phosphorous per year at the plant. That’s a couple of fertilizer bags. It’s not a huge contribution to that area,” noted Robert Clark, a senior project engineer with Otter Creek Engineering who’s been helping the town evaluate its sewer facility for improvements. The community launched the facility in 1998, thanks to state and federal grants, with an eye toward attracting measured residential and business growth.

Shoreham’s small wastewater system currently costs around $94,000 annually to operate, according to Steve Goodrich, the town’s selectboard chairman. He and his colleagues feared the phosphorus mandates in S.213 might make the municipal system too expensive to upgrade and run.

“It would have required them to change the entire treatment process,” Clark said of the state’s phosphorous rules. “Right now, (Shoreham) uses a recirculating sand filter. It basically mimics what happens in our natural environment. We recirculate the wastewater through sands and gravels that have biological activity happening in them.”

Added Clark: “This system itself is not really designed to remove phosphorus; it provides phosphorus reduction, but not at the levels the state needed.”

In addition to putting Clark on its team, the town hired Montpelier-based environmental attorney David Mears to help Shoreham plead its case for relief from a costly project that seemed more applicable to larger municipal sewer plants.

Folks within the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and local lawmakers — including state Sen. Chris Bray, D-Vt. — agreed to go to bat for Shoreham. The parties agreed to a compromise that will exempt Shoreham from a million-dollar retrofit, yet still require the town to make more modest phosphorus reduction and monitoring fixes to its facility.

The “Shoreham exemption,” passed as part of S.213, relates to “municipally owned secondary sewage treatment plants” that “discharge less than 35,000 gallons per day … using recirculating sand filters in the Lake Champlain drainage basin, permitted on or before July 1, 2001, unless the plant is modified to use a technology other than recirculating sand filters.”

While Shoreham dodged a costly bullet that could have placed its wastewater system in financial jeopardy, local officials said they realize the future need to connect more customers to reduce operating expenses. The community continues to explore possible development of the Farnham property, consisting of 312 acres of town-owned land in the village. The land is being sized up for possible residential, business, gravel and parkland uses.

John Flowers is at [email protected].