Date: Fri 04-Oct-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Nunnawauk-water-Pootatuck

Full Text:

Impasse Over Water Rights Stalls Additional Housing For The Elderly

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

Nunnawauk Meadows continues to await word from the Pootatuck Fish & Game Club

regarding water rights for an expansion, but it may be the state that is

holding everything up.

Officials from the apartment complex for the elderly plan to add 24 units to

the Nunnawauk Road site but can't even begin the application process until

they figure out where their water supply will come from. Pootatuck Fish &

Game, which currently supplies water to Fairfield Hills and Garner

Correctional Institute as well as the existing units at Nunnawauk Meadows, has

yet to agree to the increase in service.

As Pootatuck president Mike Osborne explained, the club membership is

concerned about the future of the vacant Fairfield Hills Hospital and remains

hesitant about releasing water rights until the state decides what it plans to

do with the site.

"We're trying to preserve the aquifer, and we're not receiving any response

from the state," he said. "There will be a tremendous demand on the water no

matter what lies ahead at Fairfield Hills. It comes down to preserving the

environment down in the valley."

Pootatuck Fish & Game, which owns rights to the large aquifer that lies on its

property off Mile Hill Road near the Pootatuck River, has made it clear that

it would no longer freely hand out water rights.

A year ago, Nunnawauk Meadows officials and attorney Bill Denlinger met with

First Selectman Bob Cascella and Mr Osborne to discuss the water issue. At

that time, Mr Osborne said he would consult with his membership and get back

to Nunnawauk Meadows with an answer.

Bob Shaw, president of the building commission for Newtown Housing for the

Elderly, Inc, expected an answer in a couple of months at the most, but the

wait continues.

"They don't have the courtesy to even answer our request," he said.

"They just don't want to commit themselves to anything, and with water use

down to nothing at Fairfield Hills, except for the jail, we can't understand

why they are being so uncooperative," said Nunnawauk Meadows executive

director Frank DeLucia. "The elderly don't use a lot of water," he said.

In response, Mr Osborne said Pootatuck Fish & Game sent a list of their

questions and concerns to the state's Office of Policy and Management (OPM)

about a month after the meeting and still has heard nothing.

"We're willing to work with people but we need to know their plans," Mr

Osborne said.

Nunnawauk Meadows must settle the water issue before receiving a loan from

Farmers Home Mortgage. Mr Shaw believes his housing group has gotten stuck in

the middle of a dispute between the fish & game club and Hartford, which began

after the state apparently did not seek permission to use Pootatuck water at

the prison.

"We're just a non-profit organization trying to provide housing," Mr Shaw

explained.

Mr DeLucia said he is sympathetic to Pootatuck's environmental concerns, but

added, "we're caught in the middle here with their concerns with the state of

Connecticut."

Pootatuck's reluctance to grant additional water rights comes as no surprise

to Nunnawauk Meadows officials. Following a recent expansion, Pootatuck said

it objected to water going anywhere else besides Fairfield Hills.

According to Mr DeLucia, the only other choice for Nunnawauk Meadows would be

to dig its own well, but he said that would be too costly and very involved.

The elderly housing complex lies outside the water distribution system of the

Newtown Water Company.

We really don't have many choices," said Mr DeLucia.

Nunnawauk Meadows currently has a waiting list of 170 people.