Dawn Peters laughed when writing a $108 check for the monthly utility bill for the Charlemont (Mass.) Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Granted, Charlemont is a small, rural town of 1,300 people, and the 20,000-gpd plant serves only part of the town, about 190 households. Still, its annual electric bill is about half of what it used to be, thanks to a photovoltaic solar system installed in 2005.
The town’s sewerage district was created in the early 1990s and the plant went online in January 1992 to help protect the Deerfield River, a popular resource for fly fishing, kayaking, canoeing, tubing, swimming, and camping.
