Boothbay Harbor Sewer District Begins Major Coastal Resiliency Upgrade

The Boothbay Harbor Sewer District officially launched Phase 1 of its Coastal Resiliency Upgrade, a comprehensive $8.5 million effort to safeguard wastewater infrastructure from the long-term impacts of climate change. This investment comes after the facility experienced significant flooding during storms in 2024, underscoring the need to fortify critical systems against rising sea levels, extreme tides, and severe weather events.

Phase 1 improvements include:

• Electrical Service Upgrade – Construction of a new electrical building, installation of an emergency generator, and the conversion of overhead electrical and telecommunications lines to underground service for better storm protection.
• Pump Station No. 6 Modernization – Relocation and replacement of existing pumps, controls, wet-well, and valve vault to improve capacity and reliability.
• Effluent Pump Station Installation – A new station at the end of the chlorine contact tanks to enhance operational flexibility and resilience.
• Integration of Pre-Purchased Electrical Gear – Equipment procured through an earlier Electrical Preselection Contract will be incorporated into the project.

The construction contract was awarded to Apex Construction of Somersworth, New Hampshire, a firm specializing in water and wastewater projects across Maine and New Hampshire. Apex is handling new construction, system modifications, and installation of piping, equipment, and instrumentation.

Apex awarded to AEC Engineering of Freeport, Maine, the sub-contract to design and build new control and VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) cabinets. The control system will feature PLCs, cellular modems for remote monitoring, HMIs (Human Machine Interface aka touchscreens), redundant power supplies, network switches, UPS backup systems, and instrumentation such as float switches and level transducers, etc. The VFD cabinets will include drives, keypads, line reactors, and circuit protection to ensure efficient, reliable pump operation. AEC will also develop the custom PLC and HMI programming and perform system integration.

AEC Engineering has been supporting BBHSD’s wastewater treatment plant and more than a dozen pumping stations for many years. Earlier this year AEC upgraded the sewer district SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) software to VTScada.

Phase 2 of the Coastal Resiliency Upgrade will focus on constructing a protective sea wall. This next phase will require additional planning and permitting but will further enhance the district’s ability to withstand future coastal hazards.