Valentine’s Day tours at Bath Water Pollution Control Facility draw packed crowds

Bath drew packed crowds to its municipal wastewater facility on Valentine’s Day, selling out three special tours at the Bath Water Pollution Control Facility on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. The plant, variously referred to in media as the Bath Water Pollution Treatment Plant or Bath's Water Pollution Plant, hosted the tours after a documentary featuring local plants and staff spurred public interest.

Plant staff advertised the tours beginning the Monday before Valentine’s Day. By Tuesday afternoon the two originally scheduled tours were at capacity, and a third tour was added on Wednesday; that third tour also reached capacity by the end of Wednesday. One scheduled slot was explicitly the 10:30 a.m. tour, which Press Herald reporting identified as including a Bath couple and "the 18 other people on the 10:30 a.m. tour," implying about 20 people on that walk-through.

Bryan Levitt, Bath Wastewater Superintendent, conducted the tours and led visitors "from the beginning to the end of the treatment process," stopping at operational equipment including an industrial solid-liquid separation gyrator. Press Herald described the air at the plant as "metallic with a sulfur-like smell," and Levitt used the tour to give practical household guidance: "Number 1, number 2, and toilet paper. Those should be the only things going down your pipes, folks." Levitt said the event "was a big hit" and that the audience reaction at a documentary screening - where a filmmaker suggested a Valentine's Day tour - helped convince him to offer the event: "The crowd just lit up and thought it was a great idea."

Several couples framed the outing as an intentionally offbeat date. Chris Holloway told the group, "This is such a cool opportunity" while linking arms with partner Corinne Harvey, who said it was "the most unique Valentine’s Day they’d had in their decade-long relationship … but also one of the best." Aberg and partner David Nichols, together 35 years, laughed through the route; Nichols joked about his partner's sensitivity to smells and later concluded, "I think everyone should come to a treatment plant on Valentine’s Day."

The tours traced directly back to the growing visibility of a Maine-focused documentary, "Unless Something Really Terrible Happens," which features Bath chief operator Zac Perkins and prompted interest at a screening that Levitt attended. Levitt acknowledged he initially thought the idea "was crazy to be honest with you" before seeing the strong community response that pushed the plant to add a third sold-out slot.

Media coverage included a Press Herald photo by Sydney Richelieu captioned "Bryan Levitt conducts a Valentine's Day tour of the Bath wastewater treatment plant," and a WMTW video upload that noted the sold-out status and recorded roughly 88 views in its YouTube metadata in the days after the event. After the tour, at least one Bath couple planned a more traditional follow-up by going to lunch in downtown Bath, underscoring the event's mix of novelty and neighborhood routine.