Searchmont Ski Resort is…

Searchmont Ski Resort is known for high staff turn over, limited staffing and difficulty maintaining their equipment and facilities.

The ultimate performance of the plant will depend heavily on the accuracy of the design flow and influent quality assumptions. Several influent parameters—particularly BOD, TSS, and TKN—appear to be underestimated given the significant contribution of wastewater from restaurants and commercial kitchens. If the plant receives higher or different influent strength than what the design is based on, the system may experience difficulty meeting its effluent limits, especially for ammonia.

In addition, plant operations will play a major role in performance. The way the facility is operated and maintained by the owner and their contracted wastewater operator will directly influence effluent quality. Even proven technologies can underperform if influent assumptions are incorrect or if operational oversight is insufficient.

Given these factors, I request that MECP require the proponent to:

1. Reassess influent flow and loading assumptions to ensure the design basis reflects realistic conditions for a resort with substantial commercial wastewater contributions.

2. Demonstrate that the treatment system is adequately sized to handle higher strength influent if actual conditions exceed the assumed values.

3. Provide an operations and monitoring plan that ensures the system will be properly managed to achieve consistent performance.

These steps are necessary to ensure that the plant’s proven technologies can reliably meet effluent targets under real world operating conditions.