FAIRFAX — Over $420,000 in wastewater funding is set to come to Fairfax’s own Runamok Maple.

$3.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars is to be awarded to municipalities and businesses across the state to improve wastewater quality, Gov. Phil Scott and the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Wastewater Program announced on Oct. 24. 

This second round of funding is to help remove wastewater pollutants early on in the process and ensure municipalities and businesses have capable infrastructure for wastewater treatment. 

“Treating high strength or toxic wastewater poses challenges for our municipal wastewater treatment facilities,” said DEC Commissioner Jason Batchelder in the Oct. 24 release. “Investing in wastewater pretreatment will help us cut pollution and better protect our environment and human health.”

Of the eight potential awardees, Fairfax-based specialty foods and maple syrup company Runamok Maple is the sole Franklin County sub-grantee. Runamok Maple is set to receive $424,600 with the Town of Fairfax as grantee to improve its wastewater processes. 

The upcoming wastewater project has been largely performed through Runamok Maple contractor Champlin Associates, along with work on the grant application by both the Town of Fairfax and Runamok Maple, said Runamok’s co-owner and CEO Eric Sorkin. 

Sorkin said the funding will go toward wastewater renovations of the company’s bottling facility located just outside of Fairfax’s downtown. 

When Runamok Maple moved into the facility about five years ago, the facility only had an on-site wastewater disposal system and was not connected to the town. Through collaboration with the Town of Fairfax and the Franklin County Industrial Development Corporation, Sorkin said the facility was eventually able, through grants, to connect to the town’s wastewater system. 

Now, with high strain on the facility’s wastewater due to high biochemical oxygen demand concentration in maple syrup from its high sugar content, Sorkin said Fairfax’s wastewater system has been unable to take the wastewater, and the bottling facility has been side-streaming it to a nearby dairy farm. 

Sorkin said the paperwork process for receiving the funds has only just begun for the Town of Fairfax. And while the available ARPA funds will be covering about 85% of costs for improving the bottling facility’s wastewater system, he said Runamok will be footing the rest of the bill. 

With no plans for Runamok to slow down processes, Sorkin said the pre-treatment that the wastewater funds will provide to Runamok’s Fairfax bottling facility will prove very important for the company’s future growth. 

“Being constricted by our wastewater just restricts our growth opportunities. Whenever we’re looking at a new product, a new project, there’s this artificial barrier,” Sorkin said. “One of the hurdles is, what’s the wastewater implications? So, being able to put this in place removes one of the constraints for our growth.”