SOUTH DEERFIELD — While the near-completion of the South Deerfield Wastewater Treatment Plant is welcome news for residents, the reveal of a damaged effluent pipe to the Connecticut River is likely less so.

As the yearslong project approaches the finish line with just a few items to wrap up, a recent construction meeting turned up the discovery of the damaged pipe. Deerfield Selectboard member Trevor McDaniel said Wednesday night the last several years of heavy rains have undermined and snapped the plant’s effluent pipe, which directs the treated water into the Connecticut River, and water is now being dumped onto the embankment, rather than straight into the river.

While the operation of the plant is unaffected, the dumping of water onto the embankment threatens to erode it further and Selectboard Chair Tim Hilchey said that means the town is “not in compliance at the moment” with regulations, which could cause further headaches down the road.

“At some point, the Army Corps or some other federal agency might decide they want to fine us,” Hilchey said, emphasizing “we’re putting clean water in [the river], but we’re eroding the bank.”

A stormwater pipe also sits above the effluent pipe and the potential solution is to tie the two pipes together to get water flowing back into the river. The plant is more than capable of handling the combination of the two pipes, as McDaniel noted its pump — nicknamed “Big Bertha” — is able to handle extremely high flows during large storms and push it back into the river.

“It’s a major project; nothing we were expecting to do and it wasn’t part of the project itself,” McDaniel added Thursday. “It’s a lot of work and we really want to try and plan it.”

An early “engineer’s back-of-the-napkin” estimate is about $2 million and there are two potential funding avenues the town can explore.

Those two paths both involve the state’s Revolving Fund Loan Program, which provides low-interest loans for municipal wastewater, stormwater and green infrastructure projects. The state offers both an annual loan program, as well as an emergency program funded by leftover money from the previous year, and applications are due this month. Loans from the Revolving Fund carry a 2% interest rate.

McDaniel said they will apply for both and “see which one pans out” and if the emergency application is approved, then Deerfield can discontinue the application for the annual loan program.

The Selectboard voted to authorize DPC Engineering, which has been constructing the plant, to develop the applications. In doing this, the town has not committed any money for the project, but has opened the door for DPC to put forward applications.

Any sort of funding for the project would likely need to go through a Town Meeting, according to McDaniel.

While the town determines how to move forward with the pipe, the South Deerfield Wastewater Treatment Plant’s multi-year $19 million renovation project is coming to a close. Remaining work includes adjusting the alarm systems and decommissioning some of the old equipment that used chlorine gas in exchange for ultraviolet light, which is safer for the operators.

“We’re really wrapping up,” McDaniel said.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.