GLOCESTER — The town is hosting a community workshop next week to discuss options for upgrading wastewater management systems and finding ways to mitigate storm-water runoff pollution in Chepachet Village.

The April 30 workshop runs from 7 to 9 p.m. in Town Hall and will include presentations by the Horsley Witten Group, an environmental consultant that the town hired. The firm will discuss potential alternatives for wastewater management, as well as the various benefits and drawbacks of the proposals, according to a statement from the town.

Town Wastewater Management Board Chairman Louis Cadwell said yesterday that he is uncertain what proposals the firm will present to residents, but added that the firm will design and build “prototype” wastewater systems in certain parts of the village based on the input of residents and business owners.

Town Planning Director Raymond Goff and George Kain, chairman of the volunteer board overseeing the initiative, were not available for comment yesterday.

Financing for the initiative comes from a $621,513 grant administered by the state Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the town received last April to repair failed septic systems and clean polluted storm-water runoff.

The workshop is the latest effort by the town to address a decades old problem.

Chepachet village, the former commercial center of a vibrant mill town, has struggled with waste contamination, due in large part to antiquated septic systems, many of which are illegal under today’s regulations. Those old systems allowed elevated levels of nitrogen to enter the groundwater, which can be harmful to humans, said Cadwell.

The problem has been further complicated by the high water table and rocky soil found along Main Street in Chepachet, which makes it financially infeasible to repair and replace the systems the conventional way.

The issue came to a head in 1999 when the DEM cited an apartment building in Chepachet for discharging untreated sewage into the Chepachet River, a tributary of the Blackstone River.

The department later found that many of the buildings and residences along the historic Main Street had septic systems that were in violation of state law. In response, the town passed a zoning ordinance that required new constructions built within 150 feet of a body of water to include more advanced, and costlier, septic systems.Meanwhile, the town enlisted University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension to help develop a plan to upgrade the failing systems without resorting to public sewers.

Using a $319,000 grant administrated by the DEM in 2005, the town connected a number of businesses along Main Street to clustered septic systems, which share sewage treatment units and drain fields.

The systems were put in place in about eight to nine buildings in the village center, including the former Purple Cat restaurant, the Glocester Heritage Society, Christy’s Liquors, and some surrounding office, apartment and residential buildings, and have contributed to a decrease in ground water and river pollution.

pmarcelo@projo.com