Trustees of the Boothbay Harbor Sewer District met Aug. 20. A number of items were on the agenda, among them the upcoming relining project and a recent grant proposal.

Bids for the Commercial Street relining project are due at the Sewer District office by 10 a.m. on Sept. 9. To prepare for the relining project, a repair was needed and made to 40 feet of pipe on Eames Road. The section of pipe could not have been relined without being repaired.

The repairs led to a discussion of whether or not Eames Road should be included in the relining project slated for this fall, or if relining that section should be delayed.

The same portion of Eames Road is slated for work by the Boothbay Region Water District in 2016. There was a concern expressed that the Water District repairs in two years might inadvertently disturb the section of sewer pipe along the opposite side of the street. With relining costs estimated at $50-$55 per foot of pipe, the Sewer District Trustees decided to include Eames Road in the current relining project. The relining work is expected to begin after Oct. 15, 2014.

Also on the agenda was a notice from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry that the proposal for a grant under the Coastal Communities Program, which would involve West Harbor Pond water quality, had not been approved.

The West Harbor Pond Watershed Association has been testing the quality of the water over the past six years and has found that there are increasing problems with the level of degraded water in the pond. It is believed that the siphon, which had allowed removal of water from the bottom of the pond, has completely failed. As a result, the best quality water (which is at the pond’s surface) flows out of the pond and into the harbor.

According to Gary Arnold, member of the Watershed Association’s Board of Directors, the purpose of the $18,000 grant request was to “determine the severity of the pond’s water quality issues. We would like to have a better understanding of what portion of the problem is attributable to the siphon and what portion might be attributable to an increase in population and area development.”