The town’s consulting engineer has updated Water & Sewer Authority (WSA) members on the ongoing planning for the Hawleyville sanitary sewer system extension, which is intended to foster economic development in the area near the Exit 9 interchange of Interstate 84.

Engineer Kurt Mailman of Fuss & O’Neill, Inc, on April 9 briefed WSA members on the planning, explaining the status of various aspects of the project.

Mr Mailman said that because the low-pressure sewer system extension involves the use of many individual “grinder pumps” to propel sewage through narrow-diameter lines, the design variables for the sewering project are somewhat more complex than that of a conventional gravity-powered sewer system.

Planning for low-pressure sewer systems is necessarily more specific than for gravity-powered sewers due to the particular equipment used in low-pressure systems, he said.

The engineers have not yet met with the potential 21 users of the sewer system extension, Mr Mailman said, noting that those property owners have not yet signed documents committing them to using the planned sewer system extension.

Mr Mailman said that obtaining detailed information from sewer users before the sewer system extension is constructed would aid engineers in designing a smoothly functioning low-pressure sewer system.

Documents are being formulated that will be submitted to potential sewer system users for their endorsement, he said. Connecting to the expanded sewer system is voluntary.

Mr Mailman said the Hawleyville project has received local approvals from the Inland Wetlands Commission and the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The project still requires the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s approval for a sewer extension, he said. Also, the engineers are coordinating planning with the state Department of Transportation concerning the specific locations where sewer lines will be installed, he said.

Mr Mailman estimated that the design plans for the project are about two-thirds complete.

The town hopes to put the Hawleyville sewer construction project out to bid by late this spring and then do the sewer construction work this summer. If those phases proceed as planned, the sewer system extension would be in operation in the fall

At a February 2014 town meeting, voters by an 81-to-11 margin approved borrowing $2.8 million to expand the Hawleyville system as a means to spur local economic development.

The sewer extension project would install sewer lines from 166 Mt Pleasant Road eastward along Mt Pleasant Road to its intersection with Hawleyville Road.

The sewer lines also would extend northward along sections of Hawleyville Road and along Covered Bridge Road. The Hawleyville sewer system, which started operation in 2001, discharges wastewater to a regional sewage treatment plant in Danbury.

The town built its gravity-powered central sewer system in the borough and adjacent area to resolve longstanding groundwater pollution problems caused by failing septic systems. The central sewer system, which discharges wastewater at a Commerce Road sewage treatment plant, started operation in 1997.