Finance Committee - 04/07/2021 Page 8
ON THE QUESTION
Mayor Donchess
Mr. Boucher?
Dave Boucher, Wastewater Superintendent
Thank you Mr. Mayor. Good evening, Dave Boucher, Wastewater Superintendent. The sodium hypochlorite is
a disinfection product that we add to the process. Currently we’ve used more this year than we have
historically used. Some of the things that cause us to use more are storms, if we have process upsets. This is
also the first year we’ve used it for our odor control system so we kind of weren’t sure how much we’d need for
it. So this change order is the estimate to get us through the rest of this year.
Mayor Donchess
Anybody? Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee
Thank you Mr. Mayor, thank you Madam Clerk. Mr. Boucher, so | know we’ve asked these questions before
but this is also for the public. At one point do we use this chemical, is it prior to it being released or is it just
through the entire process? Because we do release some of this water back into nature sort to speak, is that
correct?
Mr. Boucher
Well it is used just before the treated water goes to the river but we do add another chemical to remove the
sodium hypochlorite before it goes to the river, because we are not allowed to put this chemical in the river. It is
used in different parts of our wastewater plant for treating plant water and treating our odor control systems.
Alderman Klee
OK.
Mayor Donchess
Go ahead.
Alderman Klee
Thank you very much Mr. Mayor. That does answer my question, what | was getting to is exactly what you
said. This chemical does not get released into the Merrimack River or the Nashua River or anything else of
that nature, correct?
Mr. Boucher
Correct.
Alderman Klee
You are using something else, that is non-toxic, that removes all of this?
