Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) members have discussed with their consulting engineer how the Sandy Hook Center sewage pump station’s capacity should be increased to handle rising sewage pumping demands at the 5-A Glen Road site.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said February 19 he expects that the improvements to be made to the pump station would cost between $400,000 and $500,000. Such funding would come from municipal bonding, he added.

Mr Hurley said he hopes that the pump station improvements will be completed by the end of this year.

Besides installing two new higher capacity pumps to replace two existing pumps, the project would include installing a new electrical generator outdoors at the pump station to replace the existing indoor generator. Also, some plumbing and electrical improvements would be made.

The three WSA members in attendance at a February 7 session discussed the specifics of pump station improvements with engineer Kurt Mailman of Fuss & O’Neill, the town’s consulting engineering firm. Because only three WSA members attended, the agency did not reach a quorum, which is four members.

Previously, Fuss & O’Neill submitted a 67-page report on the need to expand sewage pumping capacity. The pump station is one of four such stations that power the central sanitary sewer system, which started operation in 1997.

A 240-square-foot building that sits on an 0.11-acre lot at 5-A Glen Road has two pumps that are used to pump sewage westward and uphill along Church Hill Road via a pressurized force main to the town’s sewage treatment plant on Commerce Road. Past development in Sandy Hook and anticipated new development have resulted in the pumping station reaching its limits, requiring that its pumping capacity be increased, according to the WSA.

The three other pump stations in the central sewer district are located at 47-A Hanover Road, 33-A Taunton Lake Drive, and 17-A Baldwin Road. The Sandy Hook station is in a commercial area, with the other three stations located in residential settings.

Twice in the past, the Sandy Hook pump station almost overflowed with wastewater. In one case, the Newtown High School swimming pool was drained, and all the pool water rapidly traveled through the sewer system, nearly flooding the pump station. In the other case, a major grease blockage in the sewer system was located at Newtown Shopping Village at 5 Queen Street, and when the blockage was cleared, a great volume of wastewater traveled through the sewer system, again nearly flooding the pumphouse.

The town started operation of the central sewer system in 1997, at the urging of state environmental officials, to resolve longstanding groundwater pollution problems caused by many failing septic systems.