Woodstock Sewer Commissioners Tuesday night approved spending $2,500 to have areas along the Ottauquechee River re-mapped to establish new flood zone and flood plain boundaries. They’re hoping to have the science and documentation to show the Federal Emergency Management Agency that their new flood boundaries for the fields near the Woodstock sewer plant are wrong.
Town Manager Phil Swanson explained it’s of great concern to counter FEMA’s new mapping since the maps would mean having to find some place else for all our poo. Several fields currently used to spread the waste have not, in the past, been described as flood plain. These areas where the town deposits a large amount of our treated solid waste in addition to other areas in South Woodstock. And let’s be clear: solid waste meaning what’s left of all the stuff we flush down the toilet. It all has to go somewhere. But NOT in a flood plain for obvious reasons — water pollution.
Swanson was quite succinct in describing the issue to the Woodstock Selectboard acting as Sewer Commissioners: He explained our Woodstock sewage plant separates out the solids from the liquid waste. The water is treated and released clean into the Ottauquechee River. The solid waste is then treated and spread on nearby fields. However, FEMA’s new maps would eliminate the Town’s ability to deposit treated poo there. So then, if we don’t doo something to have the maps re-done — as John Doten described it — it becomes a very expensive problem.
Julia Carlisle
Woodstock Early Bird 