The Wareham Fire District passed all 20 warrant articles with ease at Monday's annual meeting, with the only significant discussion coming from an article that asks to borrow $1.85 million for the construction of the Maple Park/Maple Springs Treatment Plant.

Wareham Fire District Water Superintendent Michael Martin explained that the proposed new water treatment plant will treat water from a new Maple Park Well and four additional wells to remove manganese, iron, bacteria and corrosion.

Resident Ed Pacewicz asked why the treatment plant was necessary, to which Martin replied that manganese, a naturally occurring mineral in water, has caused an increasing number of dirty-water complaints in recent years and could raise health concerns in higher concentrations.

"The manganese level is now approaching the level where we would have to build a treatment plant for it," Martin said.

In 2010 the district appropriated $2.9 million for a 1.13 million gallon-per-day well and manganese removal facility at the Maple Park site. After study and debate, it was decided it would be more beneficial to the district to have one large treatment plant for all five wells in the district as opposed to two separate plants.

The new facility would cost an estimated $2.6 million. With $750,000 of that amount on hand, the district will borrow the remaining $1.85 million.

With this project in mind, the anticipated six-month water bill will range from $98 for users with 1,000 cubic feet per billing to $142 for those with 4,000 cubic feet per billing for next year. 77 percent of customers use less that 4,000 cubic feet.

The project is slated to be finished by 2016.

There was only a single dissenting voice out of the 81 voters who attended the meeting.

Voters unanimously passed an article changing the clerk/treasurer position from elected to appointed and unanimously passed a $5.1 million Fire Department budget, $4.13 million Water Department budget and a $2.1 million Prudential Committee budget.

"We tried to get out the information ahead of time to the voters," said Water Commissioner Ted Hatch on the expedited meeting that took just over a half hour to complete. "I think it's the educated voter that does it."