Town, Rand Whitney, WPCA Deal May Be Inked Tonight

Following the promised approval of the state bond commission for a $5 million grant to upgrade Montville’s wastewater treatment facility, tonight’s joint executive session of the Montville Town Council and the Water Pollution Control Authority may just be the official blessing of the plan.

According to the agenda, the executive session tonight is to discuss the implementation of the deal between the Town, the WPCA and Rand Whitney “the purpose of which was to resolve all legal disputes concerning water treatment and supply.”

At the meeting, Water Pollution Control Authority administrator Brian Lynch said he was looking forward to partnering with Rand Whitney Containerboard: “A new beginning with the WPCA and Rand Whitney.”

A consultant presented a detailed plan to pre-treat Rand Whitney waste water using an anaerobic digestion treatment process. Rand Whitney would operate the system at a cost of $362,000 annually – a significant cost, the consultant wrote – but there would also be a significant reduction in the user fees the company pays to the town, to the tune of around $1.19 million, according to the consultant’s report, obtained by Montville Patch.

According to the document, WPCA staff said if the project between the town and Rand Whitney didn’t move forward, the agreement on user fees between the two would have expired and that would cost the town even more, around $200,00 to $250,000 in lost revenue.

The report states that based on cost analysis, the project “may” disproportionately benefit Rand Whitney over the town.  

Montville will be required to make the first $1.35 million bond payment to cover the Rand-Whitney Containerboard $11.7 million settlement. That deal was struck after years of legal wrangling.

According to Rep. Kevin Ryan, D-Montville, the treatment plant overhaul “is necessarily (sic) primarily because of wastewater outflow from the Rand Whitney Containerboard plant in town.”

According to a January press release from Ryan, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will administer the plant upgrade.

The Rand Whitney Containerboard facility on Route 163 manufactures flexible packaging materials, and dry laminate and film lamination products.