Wastewater Division

The Wastewater Division of the City of Milford is charged with the task of protecting the health of the people of Milford and the environment by transporting and treating the wastewater generated in homes and businesses in Milford to insure that the wastewater pollutants do not enter the Housatonic River which is the point of discharge for both of Milford treatment facilities.  Milford’s Wastewater Division consists of two treatment plants the Housatonic Treatment Plant and the Beaverbrook Treatment Plant, 39 pump stations and 260 miles of sewer lines, all maintained and operated by 30 employees.

In 2006 this division treated 3.2 billion gallons of wastewater.  The system begins with the collection system, which consists of miles of pipelines buried in the streets that collect the wastewater from homes and businesses throughout the city.  These lines carry the wastewater by gravity from individual properties to one of the 39 pump stations.  The pump stations pump the sewage uphill through piping called forced mains; the wastewater may travel through more than one pump station, but eventually reaches one of the city’s two treatment plants where treatment begins.

In the treatment plants the wastewater goes through several settling and biological treatment processes.  First primary treatment removes a large portion of the solids in the wastewater.  These solids are pumped into the digesters where it is stabilized and reduced in volume by a biological process, before dewatering and transporting for incineration.  After these solids are removed the liquid portion goes into the aeration tanks where the remaining pollutants are broken down and nitrogen is removed biologically.  The liquid from the aeration tanks flow into the final treatment tanks where the solid portion settles and is returned to the aeration tanks, and the clear supernatant or final effluent is treated with chlorine and discharged to the Housatonic River.

Both treatment plants are currently under going major upgrades as part of the City of Milford’s facilities plan upgrade to increase capacity, increase our ability to remove more pollutants, and make our system more reliable.  There are also plans to do upgrade work in the collection system in the near future.