Island Life Isn't Easy: Early Identification of Stakeholder Concerns Leads to Success in Portsmouth, NH

The City of Portsmouth, NH was issued a Consent Decree by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to upgrade the existing chemically enhanced primary treatment Peirce Island Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF). The upgrade was required to provide secondary treatment and total nitrogen (TN) removal to 8 mg/L on a seasonal monthly average basis between May and October. The $92 million upgrade project is currently more than three years through its four-year construction period. The two-stage Biological Aerated Filter (BAF) designed to meet the NPDES permit requirements began operation in early 2020 while other facets of the project will continue throughout the remainder of 2020. Due to its popularity, and the impact that a 4-year construction period would have on the ability of citizens and tourists to access Peirce Island, there was significant public interest and, in some cases, public opposition to the project moving forward. In recognition of the disruption caused by an extensive and lengthy construction project, there were numerous unique features added to the project to address the concerns about the project and minimize the impact to the users of Peirce Island, the surrounding neighborhoods, and the archaeological resources. Changes to the project to address some of these factors added significant costs to what was already the most expensive capital project in the City’s history. However, the effort made during design to seek out and address stakeholder concerns has led to an overwhelmingly successful project. The cooperation of and sensitivity to these concerns by the construction contractor, Methuen Construction, has been outstanding as evidenced by the fact there have been fewer than one dozen citizen complaints during the nearly four-year construction period despite continued heavy recreational use of Peirce Island. Early identification of stakeholder concerns, coupled with the development of mitigating measures as part of the design effort and the cooperation of the construction contractor has allowed for continued public use of Peirce Island and minimized undue impacts of the project on surrounding neighborhoods.