Date: Fri 18-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewer-treatment-connection

Full Text:

Town Gets Approvals For Treatment Plant Connection

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The town has received preliminary approval from the state Department of

Environmental Protection (DEP) to install a sewer pipe beneath Tom Brook, near

the end of Commerce Road and the planned sewage treatment plant.

The 12-inch-diameter pipe is to be buried there as part of the town's

continuing construction of the $30.4-million municipal sewer system.

The town requires DEP approval to place sewer lines beneath bodies of water

under the provisions of the US Clean Water Act.

In its tentative approval of the sewer line placement, the DEP also endorses:

the town's plans to install a triple box culvert for the extension of Commerce

Road across Tom Brook; build a headwall with a 21-inch-diameter outfall pipe;

and install a 24-inch-diameter drainage pipe to discharge treated wastewater

into the Pootatuck River via a 100-foot-long manmade channel. The channel will

be irregularly shaped to simulate the look of a stream.

After digging a trench across Tom Brook, the town will temporarily stockpile

the excavated materials, install the sewer line, refill the trench and regrade

the disturbed areas to their previous contours. During the work, the town will

temporarily redirect the flow of Tom Brook, install one box culvert, redirect

the brook's flow through that box culvert and then install two more box

culverts across the brook, according to DEP.

The planned installation of the triple box culvert and the wastewater outfall

pipes will affect approximately 0.07 acres of wetlands and watercourses.

The construction will take place south of the turning circle on Commerce Road,

west of the Pootatuck River, and south of Interstate 84.

The municipal sewage treatment plant will be built just to the south of the

turning circle on Commerce Road on a 5-acre parcel of what is now state land.

The state plans to transfer the land to the town. Both the town's sewage and

the state's sewage from Fairfiled Hills will be treated at the

million-gallon-per-day plant.

The DEP reviewed the construction plans under the provisions of the US Clean

Water Act and the Connecticut Water Quality Standards and Criteria.

People interested in more information on the town's application to do the

construction work, may contact Sally Snyder at the Bureau of Water Management

at DEP in Hartford. Written comments on the application will be accepted by

DEP until September 5, after which the DEP will make a final decision on the

matter.

The town is under a DEP pollution abatement order to rectify longstanding

groundwater pollution problems posed by numerous failing septic systems in the

Borough, Taunton Pond North, and Sandy Hook Center. Sewer system construction

began in November 1995. The system is scheduled to be in operation by the

spring of 1997.