The Town of Newtown has reached an important milestone in the long-awaited Pootatuck River restoration effort. The Housatonic Railroad Company has an understanding in principle and that the understanding is subject to design and engineering. This allows the parties to move forward with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) restoration plan.

“To a large extent due to the persistent hard work of the first selectman and other town officials, Housatonic Railroad believes that agreement in principle was reached on a plan for the first phase of reconstruction work which will restore the river bed and water flow in the near term without jeopardizing or increasing the cost of full restoration of the washout and resuming freight rail service, which will take more time,” said Ed Rodriguez, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Housatonic Railroad Company.

Under the agreement:

*The width of the stream channel will be increased from 25 feet to 30 feet;

*Material removed from the embankment will be stored locally and made available for future railroad reconstruction work, eliminating the need for expensive trucking. This approach not only facilitates future improvements to the rail embankment and bridge but also helps reduce the overall cost of this phase of the remediation; and

*The proposed access road outlined in the plan will be constructed and rail removed as indicated in the project budget.

First Selectman Jeff Capeci siad the requests “are reasonable, and this is a big win for the Town of Newtown because it gets the Town on track to get the Pootatuck River flowing again and dramatically reduces the risk of flooding. Our residents and businesses alike can live without the fear of losing their most valuable possessions or their ability to operate. While this is still an early stage and work remains to be done, all parties now have a framework to finally solve this problem and get the Aquarion water wells pumping again.”

Currently, Aquarion Water Company relies on the Town-owned Fairfield Hills Water System to provide supplemental water in the event of an extreme drought or large fire. Moving forward with the NRCS plan will improve both flood resilience and local water security for the Newtown community. Work is expected to begin in the spring and be completed by the end of June.