OXFORD – An out of service piece of equipment at Oxford’s wastewater treatment plant won’t have an immediate impact on residents, but it may force the village’s hand in overhauling the South Canal Street facility which has been processing the municipality’s sewage for the last two decades.

“They were on borrowed time,” reported Village of Oxford Mayor Terry Stark, explaining that the useful life for much of the equipment in use at the facility, which was constructed between 1988 and 1989, is 20 years.

On Sept. 18, that time ran out for one of the plant’s two Rotating Biological Contactors (RBCs), when the shaft broke on the piece of equipment. Since that time, the facility has been operating using the one remaining unit.

According to Stark, the RBCs play a crucial role in removing pollutants from the waste water processed by the plant. After passing through the facility’s primary clarifier, the effluent treated at the plant passes through at least one of the RBCs, where closely spaced pie-shaped media disks, laden with microorganisms, are affixed to a long shaft. As the shaft rotates and the media passes through the waste water, the “bugs” help break down the sewage by absorbing organic material. The waste water is then passed through a second clarifier and a chlorine contact tank before being expelled into the Chenango River.

While village residents will not see any interruption in service due to the issue, it brings the need for a long-term plan for continued use of the wastewater treatment plant to the forefront.

“We think it makes more sense to look at the whole picture,” said Stark, who reported that he and the members of the waste water commission had already been working for the better part of the last year on developing a plan for the aging facility prior to the latest problem with the RBC. For the broken shaft is not the first of the issues the village has had with the equipment as it nears the end of its useful life. The mayor estimated that over the last 2 to 3 years Oxford has invested roughly $12,000 in each of the two units in order to replace media and make repairs to the shafts and gear reducers.

“The hope was that by repairing those items, we’d get a lot more time,” he said.