As another Hooksett election approaches, so does another request for a sewer plant expansion bond.

Since the plant opened in 1970, said Sewer Commissioner Sid Baines, Hooksett taxpayers have only contributed $48,000 for 5 percent of the plant’s original construction costs and about $2 million to clean up the mess left behind by failed septic tanks on Whitehall Terrace in the late 1980s.

“The plant has run itself in all these years,” Baines said.

The commission is looking for $1.5 million from taxpayers at this year’s election on Tuesday, May 13, to help fund the plant’s expansion, which would increase its total capacity from 1.1 million to 2.2 million gallons per day and would cost around $15 million when all is said and done.

The 2006 Cabela’s vote, in which Hooksett voters approved shouldering an $18 million general obligation bond to bring the sporting goods giant to town, included about $4.5 million for sewer upgrades.

Now that the retail corporation is suffering lessened profits and is delaying its arrival at Exit 11 in Hooksett, Baines said the expansion needs to happen regardless so that the state will allow extra capacity that can be sold to potential developers.

Baines added that Cabela’s representatives have assured him that they are still coming to town and will reimburse the $1.5 million for the expansion. “If the town fronts the money so we can finish phase two, all the money (Cabela’s) would give us would retire that debt,” Baines said, and estimated that timeline to be between 2010 and 2012.

Over the years, Hooksett residents have had their scuffles with the Sewer Department. In the mid-1980s, when Baines was on the Hooksett Board of Selectmen, the sewer plant was expanded from 600,000 to a total capacity of 1.1 million gallons per day, with commercial developers contributing to the expansion costs.

Attempts to expand beyond that 1.1 million gallons per day have since been squelched by the state Department of Environmental Services and Hooksett taxpayers on varying levels. In 2003, a proposal to bring composting to Hooksett in an enclosed building was stifled by a lawsuit.

Residents who lived across the river from the plant were against the composting facility being built on a 7-acre parcel of land the Sewer Department planned on buying from the school district, which sat unused near Hooksett Memorial School, and were worried about and annoyed by the smell at the plant.

A land transfer warrant that would allow the Sewer Department to build on the school parcel was on the 2004 ballot, and was shot down with 759 Hooksett residents voting no and 560 voting yes.

The composting was a big part of the $3.5 million in upgrades to the sewer system that Hooksett residents approved a few years prior to that, as it would have handled all the extra solid waste that was produced.

The compost was to be sold to area farmers in neighboring towns for profit to contribute to the expansion, Baines said. That amount of money would only allow some expansion, and would still require $180,000 to come out of the sewer budget to haul the solid waste away.

In January 2005, the state Department of Environmental Services denied the sewer plant’s application to expand and placed a moratorium on hookups to the sewer, citing a 2002 study of the Merrimack River that showed depleted oxygen levels.

Meanwhile, the total cost to expand the plant has gone from $9 million up to $15 million total, a cost that includes a second clarifier that the Department of Environmental Services said in 2006 was required in order for the expansion to take place.

In 2007, there was more conflict with the state over whether a stream running next to the plant would be harmed by adding the second clarifier.

At a Town Council meeting, Sewer Superintendent Bruce Kudrick explained that the stream ran directly in the spot where the second clarifier needed to be installed, and the Department of Environmental Services was requiring the stream be relocated rather than simply installing a culvert to redirect the water.

Baines said that project could cost about $125,000 because the state is making the department dig up all the existing pipe, take down the trees and install retention walls in the area of the stream.

Baines said he hopes this time will be the charm for voters to add $1.5 million to the $5.8 million the sewer commission has saved up for the expansion. “Something’s going to have to happen in order for the plant to grow, and it’s money,” he added.