Where does the water go after a Saturday shift at the North Windham Hannaford? Since August 19, the answer has been a membrane treatment plant on the grounds of Manchester School. From there it moves through a drip system about two feet below four youth-sports fields.
Windham debated a sewer for decades, and voters turned it down at the ballot box more than once. When it finally arrived, you could barely see it. You won't find a big plant on Route 302 or a new outfall pipe into a pond. What you can see is a few ballfields behind a school and the same plazas you've been driving into for years.
The plant was designed to disappear
U.S. Senator Susan Collins cut the ribbon on October 8. That made official what the town engineer had already told the council: the North Windham Wastewater Treatment Plant was up and running. The Portland Water District runs it, and the technology is the reason it stays out of sight.
The plant uses a Membrane Bio-Reactor, a system that filters wastewater down to water very low in nitrogen and phosphorus. That water doesn't go into a river or a lake. It feeds a drip dispersal network buried two feet under the new athletic fields at Manchester School. Portland Water District officials told The Windham Eagle that the area's native sandy soils are ideal for it. They also said it's the first drip dispersal system this large in Maine.
The problem it replaces was invisible too. The town says about 100 septic systems had been discharging into the North Windham aquifer. For two decades, nitrate levels in that groundwater kept climbing until they passed drinking water standards, a trend that threatened nearby water as far as Sebago Lake. The plant is expected to remove 25,000 pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants a year.
Collins put the town's situation more bluntly than any council report did. She told The Windham Eagle:
"I was shocked that an area this populated did not have a wastewater treatment facility. It was essential that we help."
The fields were the price of the location
Putting the plant at Manchester School took a deal with RSU 14. The town got the site, and in exchange it built four new youth-sports fields at the school. The district also gets to move wastewater treatment for Windham High School over to the new facility.
The 2022 agreement, as The Windham Eagle reported at the time, set out what those fields would be and who gets to use them:
- One existing ballfield reconfigured, plus two more baseball and softball fields
- A cleared multipurpose field sized for soccer, field hockey, lacrosse or other sports
- Town use limited to non-school hours, from the last bus departure until the first bus arrives the next morning
- A road from Tandberg Trail to the school parking lots
The original proposal didn't include lights. The Windham Softball Association and Windham Little League both said they'd be interested in raising money for them. So a plan sold to voters as a groundwater fix also brought ball diamonds to the school. Every evening game on those fields is played on top of the plant's output.
Your errand route was the first thing connected
The plant's biggest neighborhood effect sits in the commercial strip, not at the school. As of the Windham Eagle's September 4 report, these properties were sending wastewater to the new system:
| Connected as of September 2026 | Who's there |
|---|---|
| Shaw's Plaza | Shaw's, Staples, CVS, Town Fair Tire, Pet Warehouse |
| Standalone stores | Reny's, Hannaford |
| Restaurant | Portland Pie |
| Shopping center | Windham Mall |
| School | Manchester School |
The same report said the town planned to add more North Windham businesses over the rest of the fall. It also described connections around Boody's Corner, including some multifamily buildings and a few single-family homes. The new Windham Raymond Middle School is set to connect when it opens.
The connected list follows the service area the town drew years ago. A 2023 town notice described the first collection area as both sides of Route 302 from River Road and Turning Leaf to Amato's Drive. It also ran along Routes 35 and 115 from Manchester Drive through Boody's Corner to Badger Run. If you shop in North Windham, you're inside that boundary for most of your errands.
There's a reason the commercial strip came first. The 2022 referendum mailer described an ordinance requiring commercial businesses in the treatment area to connect within 120 days. Homes wouldn't have to connect unless their septic system failed or needed to expand. Those were the rules as described before the 2022 vote, and the Town of Windham can confirm how they apply today. In December 2025 the Town Council set the sewer rate at $16 per 100 cubic feet, billed monthly and effective April 1, 2026, with a TIF subsidy intended to keep early bills affordable.
The money behind it came almost entirely from outside the property tax bill. The Windham Eagle reported that the $48 million project was finished at no cost to taxpayers. The funding stack:
- A $38.9 million Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund award
- A $3.25 million SRF debt forgiveness grant
- $1.7 million of the town's American Rescue Plan funds
- $2 million in Congressional Direct Spending sponsored by Senators Collins and King
- $1.5 million from Cumberland County government
North Windham TIF funding supported by local businesses covered the remaining costs.
The opening date kept slipping
Each published opening date landed later than the one before it.
| What was expected | When it was said | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Customers hooking up in fall 2025 | Press Herald, November 2024 | Plant began operating August 19, 2026 |
| Plant opening by late April 2026 | Windham Eagle, January 2026 | Plant began operating August 19, 2026 |
| Ribbon cutting | — | October 8, 2026, with Sen. Collins |
It took four years and two months to get from the special referendum in June 2022 to a working plant. The Portland Water District held the groundbreaking at Manchester School on June 27, 2023. When the Portland Press Herald checked in that November, the plan was to lay collection lines through winter, spring and fall 2025 and stay out of summer traffic. It projected the first phase would serve about 70 of North Windham's 101 businesses.
Most of the work happened indoors. The Eagle's account lists influent screens and bubble diffusers in the treatment tanks, blowers finished in December, membranes installed in February, and a new control shed and wet well for the Manchester Drive pump station. None of that shows from Roosevelt Trail.
The project you'll actually see on Route 302 hasn't started
Since the sewer stayed hidden, the visible change people link to it is a different project. At the dedication, Collins told The Windham Eagle the plant "fits with" MaineDOT's upcoming Route 302 redevelopment and that "the two projects complement each other." They complement each other, but they're two projects with two timelines.
That road project, North Windham Moves, will reconstruct about 1.6 miles of Route 302 from River Road to Whites Bridge Road and add walkable back streets and a new multi-use pathway. MaineDOT's current schedule shows plans and specifications finishing in June or July 2027. The project goes out to bid in August 2027, construction starts in January 2028, and the work is scheduled to finish in July 2031.
So any traffic cones you see on the strip this winter aren't the start of the big rebuild. Construction on that project is scheduled to begin in January 2028.
The connection rules and rates above are general information, not legal or financial advice. If you own property in the service area, check your situation with the town and the right professional. A Team Realty is based in Windham, and we follow what the new sewer and the coming Route 302 work mean for North Windham properties. If you own a home or commercial property in the service area and want to know how either one might affect a sale, Ashley Fearon can walk you through it. Book your free seller strategy consultation.
