Orono committee adds purpose section to sewer ordinance, asks staff to measure university flows

The Orono ordinance-review committee on Monday reviewed new "purpose and policy" language added to Chapter 36 (wastewater utilities) and agreed to seek additional data before proposing any charge or rate changes. Town Manager Clint Machin said the revised opening section clarifies why the ordinance exists and asked staff to break the document into sections for committee review.

Councilor Dan Demerra pressed staff to evaluate fairness between residential and institutional customers, citing the previous meeting's impression that some institutional users—most notably the university—produce substantially more sewer flow than the water they take in. "I left last month's meeting with the impression that the state of the infrastructure at the university was such that they were putting through, you know, significantly more volume on the back end than they were taking in," Demerra said. Committee members and staff disagreed on the magnitude of the difference; Chris (speaker) said it was substantial in some conditions but not necessarily "double."

The committee asked staff to prepare a one-page comparison that shows, for the upcoming meeting, how much flow is coming from large users versus how much water is billed to them. Chris explained remote telemetry that once provided near-real-time meter data had been removed because the equipment lacked a firewall and was flagged as a hacking risk; staff will either restore secured telemetry or physically download the data. Machin said the ordinance-review committee will return any flagged issues to full council with recommendations for further research or ordinance edits.

Why it matters: the committee is trying to ensure rate structures distribute the cost of operation, maintenance and improvements fairly across residential and large institutional users; the requested meter data will guide whether the town needs targeted metering or differentiated billing.