Making The Best

Of Bad Circumstances

To the Editor:

The Ink Drops of April 29 regarding stipulations on United Water’s extension of the Newtown water line to the Greenridge section of Brookfield paint a bleak picture. I do not agree with your assessment. United Water, though a private company, is controlled as a public utility. The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) regulates public water utilities; municipalities have no such power. UW was ordered by DPH to extend the Newtown water line to the Greenridge community and DEP excused them from having to do an impact study. Further, Newtown does not “own” the water in the aquifer. Water is a state resource and the state alone has jurisdiction. So Newtown entered the fray with no standing and no power. Our success even being granted status as a “party” to the case came about only through significant effort, repeated calls to DEP, DPH, and DPUC commissioners, strong legislator support, threats of litigation, and FOI and court filings.

We suspected that permanently undoing the DPH order was not likely. That dye was cast by our state agencies long before we had a “voice.” Unless a timely and cost-effective, alternate solution could be found the line was going to be extended. So we set our sights on getting other benefits, 1) completion of a study of the Pootatuck, aquifer, and wells to determine whether water is sufficient for Newtown’s future, 2) limiting and controlling the use of the extended water line; and 3) planning with UW for future regional water sourcing and transmission.

What did we accomplish? The study, fully funded by UW, has a clearly defined scope that aligns with our research goal and is endorsed by our land use staff. And, we have controls and limits on the use of the water line within Greenridge, at least for the short-term. And, finally, United will participate in regional water planning.

These are not small gains given no requirement, expectation, or history obligating a public water utility to “negotiate” with a municipality or to act as a partner in planning. We had to make that happen, and we did.

Two other considerations, 1) Newtown and/or the borough (or other interested party) will litigate if UW violates the spirit or the intent of the stipulation; and 2) the cost in tax dollars for negotiations and litigation should always be balanced against possible benefits to the public good. We had reached a point in this process where further discussion, costing hundreds of dollars per session, was very unlikely to produce any change. In fact, we were risking that DPUC would run out of patience and proceed without any stipulations.

In our perfect world, we would have exclusive access to and control over the use of the water resources in the aquifer and the river. That is not the case, however, and our job is to get the best results we can from bad circumstances. I think that Newtown and the borough did exactly that.

E. Patricia Llodra

First Selectman

3 Primrose Street, Newtown                                              May 4, 2011