Date: Fri 10-Nov-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewers-Church-Hill-Rd

Full Text:

Officials Answer Questions About Church Hill Rd Sewers

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Church Hill Road area property owners are seeking answers to their questions

about how the continuing town sewering project will affect them.

Approximately 35 residents attended a November 2 public hearing in the

Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall to quiz members of the Water Pollution

Control Authority (WPCA) and their engineers about the $30.4-million sewering

project now under construction to resolve groundwater pollution problems

caused by failing septic systems.

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

consulting engineers, said construction work on the planned sewage treatment

plant at the end of Commerce Road is slated to start this winter. The sewage

discharged into the sewer system from homes and businesses will follow

circuitous gravity-based routes to reach the plant for treatment and eventual

discharge into the Pootatuck River, he added.

Mr Grose stressed that the engineers want to design a sewer layout that keeps

the sewer mains away from Church Hill Road's pavement as much as possible.

Thick concrete paving slabs and a network of public utility lines lie below

the street's asphalt surface, posing conditions which make for difficult

sub-street sewer installation.

Along most of the street, which also is known as Route 6, sewers will be

installed parallel to the road within the state's right-of-way area, he said.

But in some cases, the town will require sewer easements from residents for

sections of their front yards, he said. Such easements give the town temporary

use of the eased property for sewer installation and permanent use of the

property for public sewer line maintenance.

In some cases, sewer construction will have to "zig-zag" along Church Hill

Road in order to protect the roots of specimen maple and ash trees there, Mr

Grose said.

Most maintenance work on public sewers will be done via manholes which are

placed approximately every 300 feet along the sewer mains, he said. But, in

some cases, the town may need to gain direct access to a sewer main by

excavating a resident's property, so the sewer maintenance easements are

required, he added.

Town Attorney David Grogins said the town has had appraisals done on private

properties where easements are needed in order to learn how much money the

town should pay individual property owners for such easements. He suggested

that the affected property owners review those appraisals and, if necessary,

consult with their lawyer before signing an easement agreement.

"We want this to be as painless a process as possible for all involved," the

town attorney said.

Mr Grogins said the amount of money that the town is willing to pay individual

property owners will be made available soon.

Properties to be excavated for sewer line installation will be photgraphed by

sewer project inspectors so the properties can be restored to their former

condition by the town when construction is finished, Mr Grose said.

Sewer intstallers expect to find subsurface rock when they excavate in the

area of the Pootatuck River in Sandy Hook Center, he said. Sewer inspectors

will check the condition of building foundations in the area before the

blasting, he said. If property owners file complaints about physical damage

caused to their buildings by blasting work, the inspectors will then have a

basis of comparison by which to judge whether the blasting caused the damage,

he said.

Blasting intensity is monitored with sesimic instruments in order to prevent

damage from unnecessarily strong underground explosions, he said.

Mr Grose suggested that Church Hill Road area residents visit the Taunton Lake

Drive neighborhood and Diamond Drive neighborhood to see places where property

restoration has been completed after sewers were installed.

Questions

Kris Nanavaty, a property owner at 25 Church Hill Road, asked when the

sewering project will start in that area.

A sewer force main soon will be installed across Interstate 84 by suspending

the main below the Church Hill Road bridge which crosses over the interstate,

Mr Grose said. The bridge work is expected to take about one month.

Work along Church Hill Road is planned to start next spring, he said. Sewer

Inspectors will work with property owners to minimize disruptions to private

property, he said.

Douglas Nelson of #14 The Boulevard asked whether gravity-powered sewers will

be installed for Boulevard residents. Michael Anderson of Fuss and O'Neill

responded the sewers system has been designed so that gravity sewers will

function on that residential street.

Mr Grose pointed out that the nearby Budd Drive will be served by low-pressure

sewer lines which will be powered by individual sewage grinder pumps on

residents' properties. The sewer system has been designed to use grinder pumps

there to avoid the need for a sewage pumping station on Budd Drive, he said.

Eliminating a pumping station there will hold down sewering project costs, he

said.

During earlier sewer system planning, the engineers had been considering

installing seven or eight pumping stations in the sewer system. The number of

pumping stations later was reduced to four by using long runs of cross-country

sewers in the system.

Grinder Pumps

Robert Klein of 3 Budd Drive asked the engineers to describe how grinder pumps

work.

The pumps grind sewage and then push it into the sewer system under low

pressure. The pumps serve homes where gravity sewers are impractical due to

topographic conditions and in neighborhoods where sewage pumping stations

aren't desired.

Mr Grose said the town will own, install and maintain the grinder pumps at the

Budd Drive residences. The pumps are considered a part of the municipal sewer

system and aren't owned by property owners. Residents will pay approximately

$15 to $20 annually for electricity to power the pumps. The pumps are

installed in an eight-foot-deep hole on a property. They are covered by a

two-foot-wide access lid at the ground's surface. Control panels mounted on

houses are used to regulate the pumps. The pumps only run occasionally.

Completion

Mr Grose said that all construction work on the sewer system should be

completed by October 1997.

At some point after that, the town will issue an order for people with access

to sewers to connect their homes and businesses to the sewer system, he said.

WPCA Chairman Peter Alagna said the town health department will assemble a

list of contractors who are qualified to make sewer hookups between the public

sewer mains and the homes and businesses which will be served by the sewer

system.

It's been estimated that sewer hookups typically will cost property owners

roughly to $2,000 to $3,000, depending upon the complexity of the hookup.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said that more than 20 residents of the

Taunton Lake Drive neighborhood have approached to town about organizing a

"group bid" for a construction company to connect all their homes to the sewer

system to hold down hookup costs.

Also, certain formulas specifying per-foot costs for hookup work might be

established, Mr Hurley said.

The town probably will promulgate a variety of strategies to simplify sewer

hookup work, depending upon the neighborhood in question, he said. "We are

looking at different strategies," he said.

The one-time sewer hookup charge represents the biggest, single "out-of-pocket

cost" that sewer users will pay for using the sewer system, he said.

In response to a property owner's query about sewer user fees, Mr Alagna said

that after WPCA members learn how much money it costs to operate the sewage

treatment plant, they will be developing sewer user fees. Mr Alagna said it

will be "at least a year" before such a fee schedule is developed.

The WPCA has recommended a $9,600 sewer assessment for sewer users with

residences which have up to four bedrooms. Members of the Legislative

Council's finance committee, however, have said that that assesment is too low

and should be set at some higher figure, such as $11,200 or $11,500.

The assements will be paid back to the town by property owners over a 20-year

period at a subsidized two percent interest rate.