MARION — A new pump station is coming to Creek Road.

Kent Nichols of Wesson and Sampson, an engineering firm, updated the Marion Water and Sewer Commissioners on plans to replace the existing Creek Road Pump Station at a March 25 meeting.

In a presentation to the commissioners, Nichols explained that the pump station is at “high risk for failure,” and that the station is located in a Federal Emergency Management Agency 100-year flood zone — meaning that the site is at risk of flooding once every 100 years.

The pump station is less than 50 feet from the shoreline, and serves around 50% of Marion.

The new station will be built on the same site as the old pump station, which will be either demolished or abandoned.

The new station will also be raised on stilts and be surrounded by a stone wall to prevent flooding at the station, which will house electrical and control equipment.

“The hard one here is minimal aesthetic impacts,” Nichols said.

While the pump station will be raised above ground, Nichols said Wesson and Sampson will “seek to give it an architectural look.”

He added that he wouldn’t call the planned aesthetic of the building “residential,” but it would have residential features.

After seeing the plans, Commissioner and Selectman John Waterman said he’d have “a lot of curiosity” in trespassing at the building if he were a teenager in town.

But the new building will include security cameras, which Nichols said have recently become fairly common among pump stations.

The finalized design for the project, which should be complete by June, is funded by a Coastal Zone Management Grant.

For construction, Wesson and Sampson is seeking grants from FEMA, Coastal Zone Management, the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness program and the State Revolving Fund program.

The firm is looking to have funding for construction by January 2022, and have the the project completed by December 2023.