By Theresa Knapp

One of the items on Hopedale’s Special Town Meeting in November will be a request to borrow approximately $170,000 for engineering design and bidding services related to sewage sludge thickening. 

At its meeting on Sept. 23, Town Administrator Mitch Ruscitti told the Select Board, “There’s not really a lot of detail right now other than we know that this is an issue that we have to eventually address because our sludge is no longer being accepted where we’re currently shipping it.” 

Hopedale currently ships its sludge to Woonsocket, R.I., which will no longer accept out-of-town sludge starting in 2026. 

Selectman Scott Savage asked if the town could ship it somewhere else. 

Ruscitti said, “In order to ship it somewhere different, we would need to thicken the sludge. The viscosity right now is not at a level where it can be shipped to different facilities.” 

Facilities want sludge to be over 5% solids but Hopedale’s is at 2%. 

The Environmental Protecting Agency says the thickening of sewage sludge - technically called “centrifuge thickening and dewatering” - “is a high speed process that uses the force from rapid rotation of a cylindrical bowl to separate wastewater solids from liquid to produce a non-liquid referred to as ‘cake.’ Dewatering wastewater solids reduces the volume of residuals, improves operation, and reduces costs for subsequent storage, processing, transfer, end use, or disposal.” 

Ruscitti said town’s only other alternative, which he called a “nonstarter,” would be to pay a company to transport it out of Hopedale which, in this case, would be the Grafton and Upton Railroad with whom the town has been in contentious litigation for several years. 

Savage said, “I think we owe it to the residents to explore all possible options that might be financially beneficial to the town.” 

Tim Watson, manager of Hopedale’s Water & Sewer Department, said “Our choices are nil. If we do not thicken our sludge, and nobody takes it, we’re in violation – it’s that simple. Nobody wants to take it. We’ve already gone out to bid for this and nobody will take it with it being that wet.”

It was noted the towns of Milford, Upton, and Uxbridge are facing a similar issue related to the Woonsocket facility. Hopedale town officials say there could be an opportunity to combine hauling services in the future with those towns. 

“Regardless of what we do, we need to get our solids higher,” said Watson, after which Hopedale can approach other towns. “We’ve even discussed hiring a truck driver and buying an 18-wheeler to dispose of it and take it somewhere…but nobody wants to speak to us at this time where our solids are so low. We need to get our solids up before phase two of this.” 

Watson said phase two will involve an estimated $1.3 million request which he anticipates presenting to spring town meeting