Fairfield Hills Deal Comes Down To Water

By Jan Howard

Agreements for water and environmental concerns associated with the purchase of the Fairfield Hills campus should be in place by the time the town’s contract with the state is signed.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said last week that both issues should be finalized when the contract is signed in the next few weeks. If not, he said, the contract could be signed with contingencies that the water issue is resolved and state environmental conditions are met by the time of the closing.

“There is no real stumbling block anymore,” Mr Rosenthal said. Most issues were resolved at recent meetings with the town’s attorneys and representatives of the state and Potatuck Fish and Game Club, which owns the land over the aquifer, he said.

Richard Nuclo of the state Office of Policy and Management agreed. “I think things are going very well,” he said this week. “The environmental issues are behind us. We’re getting very close to signing an agreement. We’re trying to wrap it up.”

While he agreed the contract could be signed with contingencies regarding the water issues, he noted that, while that is always an option, “It sounds like it’s not going to happen. I have a sense that most issues are behind us. We’re just trying to come up with language suitable for both parties.”

Michael Osborne of the Potatuck Club said this week that a fund to protect the watershed and river would be part of the agreement. He termed the outcome of the negotiations would be a “state-of-the-art agreement.”

“Everyone can say in a quiet way that it can be beneficial for all parties,” he said.

“We have to protect the river and the aquifer and provide water,” Mr Osborne said. “There are other issues in the background that were expressed many years ago that are being remedied by the negotiations.”

In 1947 the Potatuck Club agreed to a 99-year agreement with the state to provide water for the state hospital, Mr Rosenthal said. Since the state is selling the Fairfield Hills campus to the town, the Potatuck Club is negotiating an agreement that would provide the town with water rights to its section of the aquifer and protect the aquifer.

While the contract to purchase the property could be signed soon, Mr Nuclo said the closing could be several months away.

“It’s a very large piece of property,” Mr Nuclo said. “There are a lot of issues. It takes time. Government takes time. You have to give everyone a chance to understand and to comment.”

The town would need to have a contract in place with a water company operator by the time of the closing, he noted.

The town is currently seeking a water company operator, Mr Rosenthal said. A request for bids from water companies attracted four responses, he added, from US Filter, Earth Tech, US Water, and Aquarian. The four companies reviewed the system and are to submit a full proposal to the town by September 21.

“We’re looking for a single company to do both water and sewer,” Mr Rosenthal said. “We need to find out the costs for them to take over other systems.”

Mr Rosenthal said that the state reduced the purchase price of Fairfield Hills because the town would have to pay the Potatuck Club a lump sum to preserve the aquifer.

“It will benefit the town, the club, and private wells in the area,” he said. “It’s to everyone’s advantage to protect the aquifer.”

The Potatuck Club, which has about 40 members, was formed in 1888 and in the early years leased the land from local farmers. The club now owns approximately 300 acres in the watershed, from the high school area of Route 34 to Route 25 near Sand Hill Plaza.

He said the club hopes that in the future additional open space could be purchased or easements secured around the watershed to further protect the aquifer.

Mr Rosenthal said that everyone decided that the best way to handle the water issue was for the town to have an agreement with the Potatuck Club. The town would pay the club’s Potatuck Land Company a lump sum, which has not been announced, plus a payment per gallon, which would go into a conservation fund to monitor and maintain the Pootatuck River and aquifer, according to Mr Rosenthal.

The Potatuck Club would most likely create a nonprofit entity that would use money from water sales to protect the aquifer and the river, he said.

The powers of the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) would be expanded to act as a utility company to oversee the water system and sewer for Fairfield Hills, according to Chairman Richard Zang. The Legislative Council would need to change the ordinance for the Water Pollution Control Authority to provide for those powers, Mr Rosenthal said.

The contract with a water company would be signed by Mr Rosenthal and Mr Zang, who has served as chairman of the WPCA for six years.

Mr Zang said he feels the town would be quoted better prices through the current bidding process, and would probably offer a longer contract term than currently exists.

In regard to the water issue, Mr Rosenthal said he has been meeting with representatives of four agencies: the Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Public Health, Department of Public Utility Control, and Housatonic Water Utility Coordination Committee.

 Currently, the aquifer provides water to town government offices at Fairfield Hills, Garner Correctional Institution, Reed Intermediate School, and Nunnawauk Meadows, a senior citizen housing complex.

Once the town has an agreement with the Potatuck Club for the water rights, the state would become the town’s largest and principal customer for the prison and the Governor’s Horse Guard facility, Mr Rosenthal said. The water system would also continue to serve town and school facilities and Nunnawauk Meadows.

The water system would be run like an enterprise fund, with the town, state, and Nunnawauk Meadows paying a water rate, Mr Rosenthal explained. There may be other public or private users in the future on the Fairfield Hills campus, he noted.

Mr Rosenthal said rates, which would be in the mainstream of water rates, would be sufficient to cover infrastructure improvements as well as a per gallon charge to the conservation fund.

The town is also working on a remedial action plan for subsurface issues at Fairfield Hills with the Department of Environmental Protection that is expected to be completed by the time the contract to purchase Fairfield Hills is signed. Once the town submits a plan and it is approved, as long as the town follows the steps in the plan, Mr Rosenthal said, the state would provide a covenant not to sue.

He said the town is also purchasing an environmental insurance plan in case something unforeseen occurs at Fairfield Hills.