Holyoke’s Wastewater Treatment Plant Featured in Estuary Magazine

HOLYOKE — As the first planned industrial city in the country, and one-time home to several large paper mills along the canals, Holyoke has a vast sewer system with combined wastewater and rainwater pipes, and it takes efficient management to keep things running smoothly.

This responsibility is handled by Veolia, a company providing state-of-the-art wastewater-treatment solutions designed to meet the highest environmental standards, protect public health, and preserve natural resources.

Veolia’s partnership with the Department of Public Works in Holyoke was recently highlighted in Estuary magazine, a quarterly publication focused on the history, health, and ecology of the Connecticut River. Last year, Holyoke was hit by an intense rainstorm that discharged more than 3 million gallons of untreated and partially treated wastewater and stormwater into the Connecticut River. “They got hammered,” reported Mike Williams, an on-site project manager for Veolia.

During heavy rainfall, overflow is diverted to Holyoke’s Berkshire Street CSO 9 Treatment Facility, managed by Veolia, where approximately 100 million gallons of wastewater and stormwater per day is screened, disinfected, and partially treated, before sending it out to the river. The facility can treat up to 37 million gallons of wastewater per day and reduces overflows to the Connecticut River by an estimated 250 million gallons a year.

In the Estuary article, Williams is described as “the personification of a professional water and wastewater operator,” with the highest level of certification for wastewater operators in the state. “Treatment plants are required to have an 85% removal rate of pollutants, and I’ve never been below that,” he said. “I would say our wastewater treatment plant averages 99% removal.”

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