Date: Fri 23-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-aquifer-protection

Full Text:

Ed Ink: Don't Wait On Aquifer Protection

The state Department of Environmental Protection is currently working with

state business and utility interests to come up with a set of

aquifer-protection regulations designed to safeguard Connecticut's drinking

water supplies from contamination associated with development. The

regulations, now in their third draft, are not likely to be enacted for

another year. The effort comes none too soon for Newtown.

Last October in this space, we urged the Conservation Commission, which has

been designated by the Legislative Council as the town's aquifer protection

agency, to begin work on a set of aquifer protection regulations for Newtown.

Nothing has been done to date, and we fear that state efforts on this front

may be used as a pretext for further delay. The temptation to wait for model

regulations that will come out of the state's review of the issue may be too

hard to resist and too easy to justify. What it means, however, is that

another year will go by before Newtown even begins work on regulations to

protect its drinking water supply. The threats to that water supply, in the

meantime, will continue unabated.

Large portions of the Pootatuck aquifer underlie land that is zoned for

commercial and industrial use. In addition, the controversial

affordable-housing project known as Newtown Village, the subject of a pending

court battle, is planned for part of the aquifer's sensitive recharge area.

Local aquifer protection regulations would have lent additional weight to

Newtown's legal arguments in this case.

The aquifer also provides water for two major public drinking water supplies:

the United Water Company's system, which serves about 1,000 customers in the

center of town, and the water wells, which serve Fairfield Hills, Garner

Correctional Institute, and the Nunnawauk Meadows elderly housing complex. Too

much is at stake to delay the start of work on local aquifer regulations.

Certainly the work the state is doing on this issue will be helpful once it is

completed. Newtown will have every opportunity to incorporate the best ideas

from the state regulations into Newtown's own aquifer-protection rules when

the time comes. But when Newtown's best interests are at stake, we would

prefer that local agencies take the lead and not wait around for the state to

tell them what to do.