Mansfield Foxborough Norton (MFN) Wastewater District

The communities of Mansfield, Foxborough, and Norton approved an agreement establishing the MFN Regional Wastewater District. The agreement establishing the District was approved by the Mansfield Board of Selectmen and the 2014 Annual Town Meeting and took effect July 1, 2014.

The MFN Commission consists of a seven-member board. The Mansfield DPW Director will serve as the Commission Executive Director.
Located in Norton, adjacent to the Myles Standish Industrial Park, the MFN Regional Wastewater Facility is a 3.14 million-gallon-per-day (MGD) advanced wastewater treatment plant that uses nature’s own biological means of purification, but in a faster, more concentrated way. The facility treats wastewater and septage from Mansfield, Foxboro, and Norton. The plant discharges treated effluent to the Three Mile River, which flows to Narragansett Bay via the Taunton River.

The MFN facility protects community health and the environment by treating sanitary waste and septage to strict discharge standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. In 2014 the facility treated 811,484,000 gallons of wastewater.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a new NPDES Permit in 2014 that tightened allowable limits on the discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus. In order to comply with the new limits, a preliminary design of plant improvements is being undertaken. Incorporated into the design will be expanding the capacity of the facility by an additional one million gallons per day as well as replacing outdated equipment.  Much of the original equipment from the original August 1985 construction is still being used, but has exceeded its designed lifespan and is subject to frequent breakdowns, resulting in costly repairs.

A major construction project is scheduled to begin in July 2016 that includes improvements to the existing plant, process upgrades to meet the new NPDES permit and expansion increasing plant capacity by one million gallons per day.