One Disagreeable Agreement

In the past week, the Board of Selectmen and the Legislative Council have approved a stipulated agreement with United Water of Connecticut that would impose conditions and restrictions on the use of a 12-inch water line connecting a water distribution system originating from two wells in the Pootatuck aquifer in Newtown to the Greenridge residential subdivision in Brookfield. Newtown’s strong objections to the water line were raised after construction of the extension was started in the spring of 2010, with the quick and quiet sanction of the state Department of Public Health (DPH). Local officials convinced state regulators in the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) to halt the project pending a review of Newtown’s concerns about the project’s impact on the capacity and quality of the town’s sole source aquifer.

That review process culminated in the agreement endorsed this week, which was characterized by one Borough of Newtown official as “a reasonable compromise,” “a hard compromise,” “as good a deal as we’re going to get.” In truth, the stipulated agreement was essentially a fig leaf conferred upon the town to cover its humiliating failure to win any serious consideration of its legitimate concerns.

The agreement limits United Water’s ability to use water from the Pootatuck aquifer in Newtown for other Brookfield customers outside the specified Greenridge service area until it completes a water planning study, assessing the Newtown aquifer “or other sources of supply (if any).” The study will be shared with Newtown and the DPH. United will also be required, under the agreement, to participate in “an informal regional water committee” to discuss water issues with Newtown, the Borough, and the Town of Brookfield.

Before we all stand to applaud the triumph of reason in this “reasonable compromise,” consider these caveats in the agreement: the implementation of the required study “will be determined by United, in its sole and exclusive discretion with appropriate input” from state agencies and the town; and that the informal regional water committee will operate “with all Parties acknowledging and confirming that United shall be making all decisions in its sole, exclusive, and absolute discretion.” [Emphasis added in both instances.] And now that we know who is the lion and who is the lamb in this relationship between the utility and the town, here’s the coup de grace: the stipulated agreement is itself “interim, temporary, and of a limited nature,” meaning it expires in three and a half years, after which time United Water can use the water line extension without restriction.

In exchange for acquiescing to United Water’s preeminent control over the sale and distribution of the water from Newtown’s sole source aquifer, Newtown and the Borough of Newtown “agree to withdraw any and all objections regardless of venue or forum” of the water extension line to the Greenridge development in Brookfield.

For those who are concerned about the practice of diverting water from one natural watershed to another, about committing limited local resources to the development needs of other towns, and about ceding control of those resources to the private utilities that distribute them, it is fair to ask: What just happened? Why endorse an agreement that says, in essence, “We lose, you win,” and then promise never to object? If agreement is to be our only objective, then let us respectfully disagree.