Press Releases

The City of Portsmouth Department of Public Works hosted an open house with guided public tours of the Peirce Island Wastewater Facility (WWTF) and Road Resiliency Project on Saturday, May 31, 2025. City staff guided visitors through the facility and answered questions about the City’s wastewater treatment process and the raising of Peirce Island Road.

The City of Portsmouth Department of Public Works will dedicate the new Peirce Island Wastewater Treatment Facility located on Peirce Island in Portsmouth on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 at 5 pm. (Facility tours, in small groups, follow remarks.) NH Department of Environment Services Commissioner Robert Scott will tour the facility with DPW Director Peter Rice.

The City has published a new report on projects 2016-2021. 

Guided public tours of the Peirce Island Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) construction site will be conducted on Thursday, June 13, 2019 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. City staff, along with others involved in the construction of the Peirce Island WWTF upgrade project, will be guiding interested parties through the construction site to provide an opportunity to observe the status of the ongoing construction.

Guided public tours of the Peirce Island Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) construction site will be conducted on Tuesday, July 24, 2018 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. City staff, along with others involved in the construction of the Peirce Island WWTF upgrade project, will be guiding interested parties through the construction site to provide an opportunity to observe the status of the ongoing construction.

The City plans to continue to authorize Saturday and/or Sunday construction work to take place on the Peirce Island Wastewater Treatment Facility Upgrade.  This is a continuation of weekend work that was authorized throughout the winter depending on the weather. The scheduling of weekend construction work will be determined weekly based on work sequencing, the weather and public events.

To better keep residents apprised of occurrences of combined sewer overflows (CSOs), the Portsmouth Sewer Division has introduced a Twitter feed, @PortsmouthCSOs, which will alert the community of overflows in real time.

As anticipated, the City has authorized work on the Peirce Island Wastewater Treatment Facility Upgrade to take place on periodic Saturdays and/or Sundays as weather permits during the winter season. The work will be limited to activities and equipment that do not generate excessive amounts of noise. No large construction vehicle traffic will be generated by this work.

In documents filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday, June 16, 2017, the City of Portsmouth reaffirmed its commitment to achieve further reductions in combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges including those discharges to the South Mill Pond. In April 2017, the EPA commented on the City’s Post-Construction Monitoring Plan/Report (PCMP/R); on Friday, the City responded to those comments and submitted a Supplemental Compliance Plan.

PORTSMOUTH, NH – Guided public tours of the Peirce Island Wastewater Facility (WWTF) construction site will be conducted on Tuesday, June 20th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. City staff, along with others involved in the construction of the Peirce Island WWTF upgrade project, will be guiding interested parties through the construction site to provide an opportunity to observe the status of the ongoing construction.