Fish Kill Results In Order For Better Sedimentation Control At 5/6 School Site

By Andrew Gorosko

Following a fish kill that occurred in a natural trout hatchery in a tributary along Deep Brook, the town’s conservation official has ordered the company building the new Grade 5/6 school at Fairfield Hills to comply with the wetlands permit, which the town received to construct the school.

Conservation Official C. Stephen Driver said this week that steps have been taken to ensure that a sediment release from the school construction site, such as the one that occurred after heavy rains in late September and killed the trout, does not occur again.

That released sediment killed an unspecified number of trout that hatched last spring in a natural hatchery in a stream leading to Deep Brook, which is a tributary of the Pootatuck River.

That sediment release occurred after the heavy rains because storm water detention basins on the construction site were not stabilized before they were connected to the drainage ways leading to Deep Brook, Mr Driver said.

In approving a wetlands permit for the school construction project last January, Conservation Commission members took pains to ensure that an elaborate and sufficiently protective storm water control system be built at the construction site to prevent incidents such as the fish kill that occurred. The natural trout hatchery along Deep Brook is considered one of the best such hatcheries in this part of the state.

 Following the sediment release from the construction site, Steve Grover of the area chapter of Trout Unlimited complained to Mr Driver that the sediment release “has resulted in major damage to the trout population in the brook.”

The released sediments enter the breathing organs of young trout, killing them.

Following inspections of the construction site, Conservation Commission members on October 10 ruled that the approved erosion and sedimentation control system for the property must be completed immediately or construction on the site would be halted.

Mr Driver said this week that the construction firm building the school, Haynes Construction of Seymour, has addressed his concerns about sediment discharges into Deep Brook and has taken steps to prevent it from occurring again.

In allowing the sediment release in late September, the contractor had not been sensitive to the requirements of the erosion and sedimentation control system and allowed water to be prematurely discharged from the construction site into Deep Brook, Mr Driver noted.

Based on independent supervision of the construction project now in place at the work site, a damaging sediment release into the brook should not happen again, Mr Driver said. The contractor has agreed to have a qualified person make daily inspections of the site’s erosion and sedimentation control system and take immediate steps to stem any failure of that system.

Any future siltation problem in Deep Brook caused by storm water leaving the construction site would result in an immediate town order to stop all construction work on the site except for work on the erosion and sedimentation control system, according to Mr Driver.  

The control system traps sediments, including sand and gravel, to prevent them from entering streams and creating stream water turbidity which is injurious to wildlife.

The $34 million Grade 5/6 school construction project is underway to alleviate crowding in the public schools.