WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The U.S. Postal Service is evaluating whether to relocate mail sorting operations for Upper Valley communities from White River Junction to Hartford, Conn., as part of a nationwide restructuring plan aimed at improving cost efficiency.

But mail handlers in White River Junction, as well as state congressional delegates, warn this plan could result in further delays in mail delivery.

USPS is studying facilities across the country to determine the logistics of shifting mail processing operations of smaller regional hubs to larger facilities that would be resourced with additional staff and sorting equipment to handle mail and packages of multiple regions.

Studies began last fall of 58 processing and distribution centers nationwide, including the one in White River Junction. Eight studies have been completed, each recommending a relocation of mail processing operations, with each transfer projected to save at least $1.5 million per year on average.

A review of White River Junction’s operations, launched last month, will decide whether to send “a significant percentage of the mail collected in White River Junction” to Connecticut, according to a notice issued by USPS in January.

The White River Junction post office collects, sorts and dispatches mail — both incoming and outgoing — for 150 post offices in Vermont and New Hampshire, including all the towns in the Upper Valley.

If the plan proceeds, White River Junction would be repurposed as a “local processing center,” a facility that sorts and dispatches incoming mail to the post offices in its service area. However, outgoing mail from those post offices would be rerouted to the regional hub for sorting.

The USPS plan, called Delivery for America, is a 10-year strategy intended to reorganize the postal network by consolidating sorting operations into fewer facilities.

“The plan is intended to reduce handlings, improve efficiencies and optimize (mail) and package processing for predictable, reliable and cost-effective operations,” according to the USPS’s review notice.

Stephen Doherty, a USPS communications specialist, said the current processing system is at least 20 years old and the layouts of most post office processing centers are outdated.

“Letter mail has dropped off, while the packing business has really taken off” in recent decades, in large part due to online retail, Doherty said in a phone interview.

Scott Lasell, a mail handler in White River Junction’s processing center, said the plan feels backward, adding time and unnecessary vehicle mileage to mail delivery.

“Unfortunately, it seems an awkward way to do (mail processing),” Lasell said in a phone interview on Thursday.

Lasell, Vermont’s representative for National Postal Mail Handlers Union of New England, or Local 301, said the delivery of local mail could be impacted because White River Junction would have to send its collections at least two hours away for sorting and wait for the local mail to be returned.

Doherty disagreed about a potential delay, noting that the Connecticut facility has been sorting White River Junction’s Saturday mail collections since October without a problem.

But Lasell noted that weekend mail has less risk of a delay because the sorted mail does not need to be dispatched to local post offices until Monday.

“We’re supposed to have it back by Sunday, so on the weekends they have a whole day to process the mail and return it to us,” Lasell said.

On weekdays there is less than a 12-hour window for White River Junction to sort mail and distribute it to local post offices. Lasell said mail shipments typically arrive on weeknights around 8:45 p.m., and White River Junction staff try to have mail sorted by 2:30 a.m. for distribution to smaller centers.

The post offices need to have their mail from White River Junction before opening, which is usually at 8 a.m. for most branches, Lasell said.

“We are in New England, where a snowstorm could delay us a day,” Lasell said. “On weeknights, just a couple of hours delay could make a big difference to our delivery.”

U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., criticized the plan in a written statement in October.

“If this plan proceeds as reported, it would mark another failure by Postmaster Louis DeJoy and USPS national management to adequately serve rural communities,” Welch said. “The inability of USPS under the Postmaster General’s leadership to meet the most basic needs of people in Vermont — from White River Junction to Montpelier and beyond — is unacceptable. It’s frustrating for postal customers, for postal employees and for small businesses across our state.”

On Wednesday, Welch’s communications director, Aaron White, confirmed that Welch still opposes the plan.

Though the USPS plan will require employees in some mail processing centers to relocate, Lasell said he does not believe White River Junction’s mail handlers will be impacted because of the branch has a relatively small staff, with only about 38 mail handlers, who will still be needed to sort the local mail received from Connecticut.

Doherty confirmed that there would not be layoffs of full-time employees. Some positions would be lost to attrition, while other employees might be switched to different positions that would be created as part of the restructuring.

“Some employees may be working on different types of equipment,” Doherty said.

The eight restructuring plans so far show significant reductions in total staffing, despite USPS saying in each plan that there will be “no career employee layoffs.”

For example, plans to transfer processing operations in Georgia from Macon and Augusta to Atlanta would result in a total net reduction of 45 postal workers, maintenance employees and managers. A plan to move processing operations from Trenton, N.J., to Philadelphia will allow a net reduction of 29 employees.

Doherty also acknowledged that some employees at the downsizing facility may have to transfer to another post office to retain employment.

The approved restructuring plans all show that employee additions at the expanding facility will offset some of the reductions at the downsizing center. For example, a plan to shift processing operations from Minneapolis to St. Paul in Minnesota would reduce Minneapolis’ processing staff by 209 employees and add 181 postal workers to St. Paul’s facility.

Doherty said that the review of White River Junction’s operations is expected to take two months and that a public meeting will be scheduled in March to explain the plan and to hear community feedback.

USPS also is considering moving processing operations in Burlington, the state’s other processing and distribution center, to Connecticut.

A study of that plan also is under way.

USPS also is seeking to shift mail processing operations in Manchester to Boston. An initial finding of that study, published online, states that move would generate projected savings of $1.5 million annually.

Patrick Adrian may be reached at padrian@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.

CORRECTION: The White River Junction Post Office employs 38 mail handlers in its processing department. The employee number reported in a previous version of this story was incorrect.