Federal environmental regulators are ordering the town of Epping to make changes at their wastewater treatment facility, after the town put partially treated wastewater into the Lamprey River.
Epping has been intermittently bypassing its wastewater treatment process since late 2021. Town officials say they installed new wastewater treatment equipment that year, which didn’t work as anticipated and started to cause operational issues.
The town installed a new membrane bioreactor filtration system which then had a major failure, according to federal regulators.
According to an order from the Environmental Protection Agency, Epping first started collecting wastewater in two lagoons at its treatment facility. But when the lagoons became full, the town started intentionally diverting part of its waste stream and discharging a mix of fully treated wastewater and partially treated, disinfected wastewater into the river.
As part of the order, the EPA is requiring Epping to tell state regulators how they plan to fix the situation by the end of the month. That includes providing the public with notice for whenever bypasses are happening at the treatment facility. The town is also required to test the river to ensure bacteria levels have not increased.
By the end of the year, the town is also required to stop discharging partially treated wastewater and to submit a long-term plan to federal and state regulators.
Tracy Wood, the administrator of the Wastewater Engineering Bureau at New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services, says it’s important to protect the water quality in the Lamprey river.
“It's a public water supply of the Lamprey River,” she said. “There's a lot of people that recreate on the river, including swimming and fishing.”
Wood said the town of Epping alerted state regulators about their bypasses, as their permits require.
The University of New Hampshire and Durham sit downstream from Epping and use the river water for drinking. But those communities temporarily stopped using the Lamprey for drinking water when the town was discharging partially treated water.
Residents should err on the side of caution, Wood said, and not swim in the river when bypasses are occurring.
