Date: Fri 25-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-WPCA-sewers-Main-Street

Full Text:

The WPCA Fails Newtown

Main Street residents sat in the Meeting House Wednesday night and felt their

blood pressure rise as the Water Pollution Control Authority presented them

with a fait accompli. WPCA chairman Peter Alagna announced that his panel had

decided that it was running the town's sewer line down the east side of the

street in what it called a "front-of-the-yard" alignment. Until that moment,

which didn't come until well into the meeting, the residents weren't aware

that they didn't have a choice.

Many residents, who thought they had come to the meeting for some

give-and-take with the WPCA were stunned to learn that they were expected to

sit still and take. What they will have to take is the destruction of many of

the stately trees in front of their homes.

The authority issued a sheet of justifications, which it tried to disguise as

an objective assessment of three alternative routes: backyard, frontyard, and

center of the street. The purpose of this information was fairly transparent,

even from a quick reading. Listing environmental considerations for the

backyard alternative, the sheet noted: "This alternative would significantly

destroy the vegetation, including an inordinate number of trees..." When it

came time to list environmental considerations of their favored frontyard

alternative, this was the assessment: "The protection and preservation of all

trees impacted by sewers will be a primary objective of the construction phase

of this project." This is not "assessment," it is propaganda.

The WPCA has suddenly decided that some of the trees in the path of their

sewer line are "weak and subject to decay" and they probably will die within

five or ten years. This reading of the future is very convenient for them.

This way they can dig up the roots of these trees, and when they do decline

and die, the WPCA can say "I told you so."

Perhaps even more stunning is the WPCA's decision to completely abandon,

without serious examination, the alternative favored by most people both on

Main Street and off: putting the sewer line under the street. The state has

never said it would not consider the possibility, and the town has never

formally asked it to. This failure to listen to the townspeople and to follow

through with their wishes is a gross disservice to Newtown. The WPCA has done

a lot of work on this project over several years, but if they let the town

down on this key stretch of the sewer system, theirs will be a legacy of

failure. In the end they will have built a sewer system, but what people will

remember will be this: They did not listen. They did not act.