Date: Fri 27-Jun-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Apple-Blossom-Lane-DEP

Full Text:

DEP Plan For Apple Blossom Lane Pollution Clean-Up Due For Funding

BY KAAREN VALENTA

The State Bond Commission is expected to act this week on a request for

$1,254,856 to correct the well water contamination problem in the Apple

Blossom Lane area.

The proposal from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) was

submitted to the bond commission for action at its meeting scheduled for

Friday, June 27, according to Jim Smith, chairman of the Newtown Health

District board.

Michael J. Harder, director of the DEP's Bureau of Water Management

Permitting, Enforcement and Remediation Division, wrote to First Selectman Bob

Cascella last week outlining the DEP's planned action on the report prepared

by SEA Consultants, Inc, on behalf of the town.

The DEP plans to extend the United Water Company water main from its terminus

at 14 Apple Blossom Lane to the intersection of Apple Blossom Lane and South

Main Street; along the entire length of Dogwood Terrace; on Cedar Hill Road

from the intersection of Apple Blossom Lane to 40 Cedar Hill Road; and on

South Main Street from the intersection of Prospect Lane and Pecks Lane to 136

South Main Street.

Although the water main will pass all those properties, not all will be hooked

up at the state's expense. Water main service connections and well

abandonments will be provided for the following 44 properties:

Apple Blossom Lane: 21, 23, 25, 29, 33, 35, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47,

48, 49, 50, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 54, 66, 68 (27 total).

Dogwood Terrace: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 (9 total).

Cedar Hill Road: 30, 32, 32A, 40 (4 total).

Pecks Lane: 5 (1 total).

Prospect Lane: 5, 8, 10 (3 total).

The wells of 33 other properties will be monitored, probably quarterly, for

two years for traces of volatile organic compounds such as tetrachloroethene

(PCE). These properties are:

Apple Blossom Lane: 3, 9, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32/34 (12

total).

Cedar Hill Road: 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23,

24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 41, 42 (17 total).

South Main Street: 138, 150 (2 total).

Semi-annual monitoring will be done at 10 and 11 Megans Circle.

Mr Harder said the town may apply the funds that would otherwise be utilized

for the quarterly monitoring toward the cost of connection to the water main

and abandonment of the existing water well for any of these properties.

Donna McCarthy, the health district's director of environmental health, said

the cost of connecting these 33 additional homes to the water main, using

SEA's estimated unit costs, is $66,000 ($2,000 per house), since the United

Water Company has agreed not to charge for the meters, which normally are $300

each.

The cost to monitor and test these 33 wells quarterly would be $19,800, she

estimated. The cost of monitoring the wells for two years, $39,600, could be

deducted from the $66,000, leaving a $26,400 balance, which the property

owners or the town would have to pay to hook them up instead - provided the

Bond Commission approves the DEP proposal. If semi-annual rather than

quarterly monitoring is approved, the balance would be $52,800.

Mark A.R. Cooper, director of the health district, said the health district

would look for grants and other sources of funding to cover the balance of the

cost.

Previously Mr Cascella said he and state Rep Julia Wasserman would ask DEP

Commissioner Sidney J. Holbrook to include the cost of the additional hookups

in the bonding request but since it now appears to be as little as $26,400,

the meeting may not take place.

"There's a big difference between $26,000 and $52,000," Mr Cascella explained.

"If it's $26,000 we aren't likely to go up there kicking and screaming.

Remember, the state is giving us a gift - it is a gift - of $1.5 million for

this project."

Last month Mr Cascella, Mr Smith and Ms McCarthy met with DEP staff to discuss

the SEA report and learned that the DEP planned to revise the remediation plan

again, this time to hook up fewer residential properties. The DEP said that if

contaminants are found later in testing of the wells of those homes not hooked

up, the DEP would pay for the hookup. The water main also will not be extended

in a full loop as had been proposed by the SEA to provide a more efficient

system.

"We got the DEP to agree that the funds to monitor could be applied toward

hookups, so it isn't that the state isn't being cooperative," Mr Cascella

said. "But the DEP has limited funds to take care of water contamination

problems all across the state, and it doesn't want to pay for hookups at homes

where no pollution exists."

A dozen property owners on Apple Blossom Lane sent a joint letter to

Commissioner Holbrook last month expressing their concern about the limited

amount of hookups the DEP is planning and about the "very limited testing" the

DEP intends to do in the area after the water main is completed.

"We feel strongly that this plan is short-sighted because the DEP cannot

possibly predict the future spread or direction of flow of the contamination

in our area," the homeowners said.

The letter pointed out that the trench digging and blasting necessary to

install a water main in the neighborhood could create fissures in the bedrock

and allow underground water and contaminants to flow in "new, unpredictable

and unexpected directions." Once the main is installed and the contaminated

wells are capped, the water table in the area may rise, also affecting the

flow of underground water and contaminants, they said.