NORWICH – Pending approval from state and federal agencies, a Binghamton-area company will begin replacing 18 outdated filters at the city’s wastewater treatment plant in December, officials announced earlier this month.

Jett Industries, a Colesville company that touts itself as a “leading general contractor in construction and rehabilitation of water and wastewater treatment facilities,” was awarded the contract, tentatively, as the lowest qualified bidder for $2.589 million at a Common Council meeting Sept. 1.

Additional expenses, totaling $1.9 million, will push the project’s price tag to an estimated $4.5 million, city Finance Director Williams J. Roberts said.

“There are a number of costs associated with the project apart from the construction,” Roberts explained, “including engineering, contingency, design, legal, miscellanious components and financial services.”

The project’s contigency budget, engineering and design costs total just over $652,000, according to city documents.

Rotating Biological Contactors, the technical name for the filters, have a normal life span of 15 years, said Public Works Superintendent Carl Ivarson. The water treatment plant’s are over twenty.

City officials recently secured a $4.015 million zero percent interest loan from the state’s Environmental Facilities Corporation to fund the bulk of the upgrade. That’s a substantial difference compared to the project’s earlier interest quote of 2.75 percent, Roberts and Ivarson said.

“That saves us millions,” said the Public Works Director.