Date: Fri 10-Nov-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewers-Alagna-treatment

Full Text:

Sewer Completion Date Slips Back Again

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Like many public works projects, the completion date for the town's sewer

system has receded into the future as unanticipated construction delays have

cropped up.

The projected completion date for the sewer system is now October 1997,

according to Peter Alagna, chairman of the town's Water Pollution Control

Authority (WPCA), the muncipal agency charged with overseeing the construction

and eventual opperation of the $30.4 million sanitary sewer system.

Earlier on in the project, WPCA members had projected a July 1997 completion

date. Earlier yet, they had hoped the work would be done by early 1997. Even

earlier in the project, WPCA members projected that the work would be

completed by the end of 1996.

But various factors, chief among them delays caused by archaeological research

at the sewage treatment plant site, have pushed back the completion date,

according to Mr Alagna.

"The archaeological work has been the main source of the delay... The layout

of the treatment plant had to be rearranged... Some areas simply can't be

touched," Mr Alagna said of areas at the plant site which have been designated

as "off limits" for construction by archaeologists because those areas hold

artifacts of potential archaeological significance.

Earlier this year, archaeologists affiliated with the University of

Connecticut at Storrs determined which areas shouldn't be disturbed.

Approximately $500,000 worth of state-funded archaeological research has been

done in connection with the sewer system.

The archaeologists' findings resulted in a redesign of the treatment plant

which pushed up sewer project costs. The treatment plant's $8.5 million cost

represents about 28 percent of the sewering project's construction costs.

Another factor which has contributed to delays in sewer system completion was

the protracted negotiations between the town and state over treatment plant

construction, Mr Alagna said.

The plant will have a sewage treatment capacity of almost 1 million gallons

per day. The town will have about one-third of that amount reserved for its

use, with the state having the remaining capacity.

"We're fairly confident of this new date," Mr Alagna said of the projected

October 1997 completion date for the sewer system. Construction on the system

began in November 1994.

After the system is complete, the town will then issue an order to property

owners with access to sewers to connect to the sewer system, according to

Peter Grose, the sewering project director for the town's consulting

engineers, Fuss and O'Neill, Inc.

Mr Alagna said he expects the town will give property owners several months

after construction is complete to connect their houses and businesses to the

sewer system. Because there will be only a limited number of contractors able

to work on connecting buildings to the sewer system, Mr Alagna said he doesn't

expect all sections of town served by the sewer system to connect to it

simultaneously.

The town doesn't yet have a target date for all buildings in the sewer

district being connected to the sewer system, Mr Alagna said.

Property owners will be acting independentlty of the town when they make plans

to connect to the system, he said. The out-of-pocket costs for sewer hookups

will be borne solely by property owners.

Unlike public sewer lines which are publicly owned whether they are on public

property or on private property which has a town sewer easement, the sewer

hookup lines which connect buildings to the sewer system are privately owned.

The town plans to prepare a list of state-licensed contractors who are

qaulified to connect buildings to the sewer system. Such contractors are known

as drainlayers.

After the sewage treatment plant is complete, the town will be able to treat

wastewater that is discharged by the state's facilities at Fairfield Hills,

thus helping the town to correct any technical problems with the sewage plant

before town sewage is discharged into it, Mr Alagna said.

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

groundwater pollution problems posed by failing septic systems at Taunton Pond

North, The Borough, and Sandy Hook Center. A sewer system is considered a

permanent solution to the pollution problems in those areas.