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Town consultants say high-school field test will require soil replacement, schedule set for spring test
Summary
Consultants told the board a pilot wastewater renovation test at the high school will require excavating restrictive soils in Zone A and replacing them with C33 sand; the test is planned for March–May with monitoring and contractor schedule penalties.
Consultants presented the latest findings and schedule for a pilot wastewater renovation test on the high school fields, telling the Old Saybrook Board of Education that initial soil probes show the surface soils are too restrictive for the originally planned drip tubing installation and must be excavated and replaced.
Kurt Mailman, a project consultant, said geo-probe samples showed very restrictive soils in Zone A that will require removal and replacement with cleaner, septic-type C33 sand to achieve the required permeability. "What we found was... the soils were very restrictive and so our original plan to just plow in these drip tubes now has to be a larger plan in zone A to excavate out the restricted soils and replace them with cleaner sand," Mailman said.
Consultants said limiting disturbance to Zone A (rather than multiple areas) reduces overall impact. They estimated moving several thousand cubic yards of material—roughly 3,500–4,000 cubic yards—and noted about 100 cubic yards of topsoil could be repurposed to improve the Goodwin School field. Presenters said the soil appears to be clean fill suitable for reuse rather than construction debris.
The team plans to install tubing and manifold pipes this winter inside a snow fence, run the three-month pilot test from March through May, and then monitor travel time to environmental receptors as required by a temporary discharge authorization from the state permitting authority. The presenters said a 21-day travel-time standard to environmental receptors is part of the permitting conditions they are using for modeling and monitoring.
Contract language under consideration would include a penalty ($2,000 per day) if the contractor fails to meet timing constraints—staff said that is intended to protect graduation and other scheduled uses of the field. Presenters said temporary components (tanks, pumps, meter pits) will be removed after testing; tubing would remain in-ground, and a permanent installation would require a formal operations-and-maintenance plan.
Board members asked about environmental oversight and alternatives if the test fails; presenters said the state permitting authority is partnering with the town and that the pilot is designed to permit post-test evaluation; if the system does not meet objectives, staff and consultants will return with alternate recommendations.
