Date: Fri 22-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

school-projects-DEP

Full Text:

DEP Ruling Will Allow School Projects To Proceed Together

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has approved procedural

changes that will allow the town to hold a combined referendum on

approximately $32 million in public spending for expanding Newtown High School

and Hawley School.

Although the school board's $3.5 million plans to expand Hawley School have

been coalescing recently, school officials in recent weeks hit a stumbling

block after learning that nitrate contamination of domestic water wells on

Oakview Road near the high school is caused, in part, by the high school's

septic system.

The well water contamination issue threw into doubt whether both school

expansion projects could be submitted for a vote at one referendum -an

approach favored by school officials.

School officials hope to schedule a June referendum on expanding the two

schools.

In a March 18 letter to First Selectman Robert Cascella, Warren Herzig,

supervising sanitary engineer of the DEP's water management bureau, writes, in

part, "It is my understanding that the town will perform an investigation and

submit for the Commissioner of Environmental Protection's review and approval,

an engineering report which will recommend what actions the town will take to

correct the (malfunctioning) on-site subsurface sewage treatment and disposal

system. Your letter of March 8, 1996, commits the town to taking such action

and the (DEP) will be negotiating a 'consent order' to formalize this matter.

As such, I have no objections to the local director of health `signing off' on

the high school renovation and addition project."

A consent order is a binding agreement that would legally require the town to

correct the water contamination problem.

In a preceding March 8 letter to Mr Herzig, Mr Cascella and Board of Education

Chairman Herbert Rosenthal wrote, in part, "The town has drilled monitoring

wells and is moving ahead with a judicious, objective approach to addressing

this (water contamination) matter... The town of Newtown and the Board of

Education request the (DEP) to `sign off' on the high school renovation

project with the understanding that Newtown is committed to and affirms that

we will reduce nitrate concentrations in the water to the recommended federal

and state drinking water standards."

Now that the town has committed itself to reducing the high nitrate

concentrations in domestic well water supplies along Oakview Road, town

officials must determine the most effective steps to eliminate the

contamination problem. Oakview Road is on the western edge of the high school

property.

Possible Solutions

Dom Posca, the school system's buildings and grounds supervisor, told Water

Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) members March 14 the schools have installed

four water quality monitoring wells near the high school to gauge water

quality in the area. Two of these wells have been drilled near Oakview Road,

he said.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said water quality testing will be done

for several weeks to measure the nature and extent of the nitrate

contamination in the area.

In drawing specifications for the high school expansion project, the

architects will create bid contingencies to provide for the possible

connection of a sewer line to the high school, said Architect Rusty Malik of

Kaestle Boos Associates, the architectural firm that is designing the

expansion project.

The town is installing a $30.4-million sanitary sewer system to rectify

groundwater pollution problems caused by failing septic systems in the

Borough, Taunton Pond North, and Sandy Hook Center. The system is scheduled

for completion by late 1997.

Peter Grose, sewering project manager for Fuss and O'Neill, Inc, the town's

consulting civil engineers, said there are two approaches the town could use

to resolve the nitrate contamination problem - connect a sewer line to the

high school or install nitrate elimination equipment on the premises.

The town plans to build a sewer line southward from Sandy Hook Center to the

intersection of Route 34 and Crestwood Drive this calendar year, Mr Grose

said. Extending a sewer line to the northern end of the high school property

would mean laying pipe along 2,600 feet of Washington Avenue, he said.

Connecting a sewer line to the high school probably would require building a

sewage pumping station, he said, noting that extending a sewer line and

building a pumping station would conservatively cost $550,000 to $600,000.

The town would have sufficient sewage treatment capacity to handle sewage

generated by the high school, he said.

Mr Malik said if a sewer line is connected to the high school, the existing

septic system there would be left undisturbed during high school expansion

work so the septic system could be used until a sewer line is available.

Mr Grose observed that if the town runs a sewer line out to the high school

from Sandy Hook Center, it raises the potential for additional sewering in the

vicinity of the Curtis Packaging Corporation and undeveloped land in the area.

Mr Grose said Fuss and O'Neill hasn't prepared detailed costs estimates on the

price of on-site nitrate elimination equipment for the high school septic

system, saying such calculations would be complex.

If research shows that the costs for extending a sewer line to the high school

are comparable to installing nitrate elimination equipment, installing a sewer

line would make for a more stable solution to the contamination problem, said

John Torok, the school system's business director. Mr Torok suggested that

students' failure to flush toilets after each use appears to be a cause of the

nitrate contamination problems.

WPCA member Alan Shepard said that the price for on-site nitrate elimination

equipment could be relatively low, possibly $100,000.

Kaestle Boos' engineers are researching the price for such equipment, Mr Malik

said.

Town Health Director Mark Cooper said there may be a range of options which

could solve the nitrate contamination problem.

"The town is committed to finding a solution and doing the right thing," he

said.