The Town of Newtown has reached an important milestone in the long-awaited Pootatuck River restoration effort. Housatonic Railroad Company has agreed to an understanding in principle on a plan to clean up the Pootatuck River following a culvert collapse that occurred during flooding in August 2024.

The culvert collapse blocked access to a wellfield owned by Aquarion Water Company, which has caused Aquarion to place bans on outdoor water use, even after the town made available additional water from the Fairfield Hills Campus.

The cleanup has been delayed over 15 months while various parties, including The Town of Newtown, Aquarion, Pootatuck Railroad Company, and National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) negotiated an agreement.

While the town had a plan for the cleanup through NRCS, with an associated cost of roughly $450,000, First Selectman Jeff Capeci said the hold up on the agreement was Pootatuck Railroad disagreeing with the part of the plan that would have them truck removed soil from the riverbed out of town, and then truck it back into town later. The agreement came after the town agreed to store the soil locally, at locations such as the Transfer Station, Highway Department headquarters, and Aquarion property in town.

This will save roughly $225,000 in costs, Capeci estimated.

“The soil is easy to excavate, but it’s a very large volume that would need to be moved,” said Capeci, who noted that the agreement being settled was “all good news.”

This allows the parties to move forward with the 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 riverbed 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.

Also under the agreement, the width of the stream channel will be increased from 25 feet to 30 feet; and the proposed access road outlined in the plan will be constructed and rail removed as indicated in the project budget.

“These 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,” said Capeci. “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. The project is expected to go out to bid this fall, with work to begin in the spring and completed by the end of June.

With a plan in place, the town also hopes to be able to work with US Representative Jahana Hayes for federal grants, but with the government shut down that avenue is currently not available.

“Hopefully the shut down will be a matter of weeks and not months,” said Capeci. “Our goal is to apply for a grant as soon as the government opens.”

Capeci said he visited with the Horvath family and Bill Roy Jr, owner of Bill Jr and Son Septic, and told them the news.

“They’re happy,” said Capeci. “Both were significantly impacted by the flooding, and by fixing the culvert the risk of further flooding will go significantly down.”

Once the culvert work is finished, the next priority is to get the Aquarion wellfield active again so that water restrictions can be lifted.

The Board of Selectmen in an October meeting set up an Ad Hoc Committee on Flood Recovery and Water Supply Restoration, but it is unclear if that committee still has a role to play following the agreement. It had also been noted at the same meeting that Capeci had been considering legal action if an agreement had not been reached, but that eventuality has likely been averted.

Roy also spoke at that meeting, expressing frustration over the amount of time that had passed with the culvert still going unrepaired.

Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.