KINGFIELD — This spring will see the start of a much-needed overhaul of the town’s aging and deteriorating wastewater system, after selectmen awarded the first of two contracts at their meeting Monday.

The tops of three pump stations and the pump control building on Route 27 that serve the downtown and village district are below the 100-year flood elevation and have nearly flooded during past storms, including Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The wastewater district only has a small, residential generator for backup power, so the lack of an industrial-grade generator could result in untreated sewage backing up into businesses or out onto the ground and into the Carrabassett River

‘s watershed.

Lacking sufficient funding, selectmen have split the original construction project into two phases, according to Administrative Assistant Leanna Targett. Selectmen awarded the contract for Phase I construction to Apex Construction of New Hampshire. The project will start in May, with completion in late September.

“The town has been using a spare public works plow truck retrofitted with a 1,000-gallon holding tank for summer pumping,” Targett said. “However, in the winter, it is turned back into a plow truck.”

That truck services 18 pump stations during power outages to prevent back flows into septic tanks and overflows to the pump stations and manholes. Sewer gases, confined space entry, and the lack of safety netting over the small hatch openings put employees’ safety and welfare at risk.

The purchase of a larger-capacity truck means tanks and pump stations could be pumped out more frequently, preventing the overflow risks, and the installation of new equipment will allow tanks to be removed, pumped and returned to their underground storage sites without employees entering the units.

“(Apex Construction) will raise the three pump stations and the pump control building 1 foot above the 100-year flood plain,” Targett said. “They also will install slide-away couplings and guide rails for raising and lowering submersible pumps and install safety netting over hatch openings.”

Phase II, she said, will upgrade seven neighborhood pump stations, outlet piping to the leach fields, pump control panels and other electrical and mechanical work.

“We are in the process of applying for another Community Development Block Grant in the next month to hopefully fund this second phase,” Targett said. “We need to address the Maine DEP’s urgent requirements for safety, aging, flooding, backup power and pumper truck, infrastructure and new equipment priorities.”

The current wastewater treatment system serves 239 individuals and 24 businesses in the downtown and villages using 18 residential and neighborhood pump stations. Sewage collects in a 6-inch pipeline and flows to a gravity-fed 12-inch interceptor between Main Street and the Carrabassett River.

The sewage travels into 16,000- and 8,000-gallon septic tanks on the 24-acre field between Route 27 and the river. The sewage is routed to three pumping stations, and the treated effluent is pumped into large leach field beds next to the river.

Kingfield was the first town in Maine to use this type of hybrid treatment system, so the construction project will address worsening problems of the three-decades-old network of pumps, valves, controls and pipes.