To the Editor:

The original rationale for sewers in Sandy Hook was intended to protect public health and public safety from environmental pollution associated with soil sampling concerns and septic failures that had been studied as far back as 1963. Pollution Abatement Reports (1963-1969) resulted in the CT Water Resource Commission ordering the Town of Newtown “to construct a sewage collection system” in order to protect public health and safety. Field studies conducted in 1976 identified 10 percent of on-site septics as failing within the borough.

In 1990, the CT Department of Environmental Protection asked the CT Attorney General to “take action against Newtown for failing to correct groundwater pollution” which led to a 1991 agreement to establish a timetable that would result in the implementation of a sewer plan “to resolve its identified sewer problems.”

According to the 2004 Newtown Plan of Development, the Water and Sewer Authority (formerly the Water Pollution Control Authority), reports that “the municipal sewer system was designed to address sewage disposal problems and the town's sewer avoidance plan is developed to eliminate the need to extend the municipal sewer to serve additional residential areas in the future. ...The intent of the town's sewer avoidance policies are to foster the maintenance of existing on-site septic systems outside the sewer service areas and avoid the need to extend sewer service beyond the current limits of sewers to serve failed systems.” 

Jack Bestor

24 Walnut Tree Hill Road, Sandy Hook    February 24, 2015