Johnston gets new sewer line

JOHNSTON – About 80 homes in Johnston will soon have access to sewers for the first time, thanks to a line being installed by the R.I. Resource Recovery Corporation.
The manager of the state’s landfill will lay a roughly 1.5-mile sewer line down Central Avenue and Old Pocasset Road to accommodate an anticipated landfill expansion. The project is expected to break ground later this year, said Bill Anderson, the corporation’s engineering manager.
Residents along the line will be able to tap into the main line if they want. Anderson said the cost of connecting a home to the sewer line can vary, but generally runs between $2,000 and $5,000. The Resource Recovery Corporation is picking up the entire tab of laying the main line.
The corporation presently has the capacity to send 400,000 gallons of sewage a year to the Cranston Municipal Treatment Center. The vast majority of that comes from pipes at the bottom of the landfill that capture rainwater running through the garbage. Presently, the water – known as leachate – heads to the Cranston plant.
The corporation has proposed a 103-acre expansion of the landfill, which will generate up to another 250,000 gallons a day in leachate. Anderson said the Cranston plant cannot accommodate that amount without significant upgrades.
The new pipe will connect to pipes leading to the Narragansett Bay Commission’s wastewater treatment plant at Field’s Point in Providence. The facility can process up to 200 million gallons a day of sewage.