Pootatuck Watershed Association Plans Incorporation, Membership Drive

By Andrew Gorosko

A new environmental organization, which aims to protect the Pootatuck River Watershed, is preparing to register itself with the state as a private, nonprofit corporation, according to the group’s chairman.

James Belden, who heads the steering committee of Pootatuck Watershed Association (PWA), said this week that attorney Dick Bell is preparing the paperwork required for the association to incorporate under state law.

The PWA plans to conduct an event at which group members will explain the organization’s purposes to the general public, Mr Belden said. That event is scheduled for May 2. The time and location will be announced.

PWA will be a membership organization in which members pay dues to cover operational costs, Mr Belden said.

The group is formulating a brochure that will explain the association’s purposes to the general public, he said.

PWA will cooperating with Housatonic Valley Association (HVA), a private nonprofit group that works to protect the environmental quality of the Housatonic River Watershed.

PWA has liaisons with four organizations: The Potatuck Club, Candlewood Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, the Town of Newtown, and Newtown Forest Association.

In December, the PWA stated its goals in the area of watershed management. Those goals include:

ÕProtecting and preserving the Pootatuck River, its drainage basin, and its underlying aquifer, collectively known as the “watershed,” as a recreational resource and as a source of safe, clean drinking water for the benefit of the people of Newtown now and for generations to come;

ÕPromoting the reasonable and prudent use and consumption of water from the watershed to assure its availability for future generations;

ÕProtecting, preserving, and enhancing the environmental health of land in the watershed to safeguard the water supply and provide suitable habitat for wild flora, fauna, and aquatic life;

ÕEncouraging and promoting land use and development plans and practices in the watershed and in adjacent areas which will further the above goals;

ÕConducting research and collecting information regarding the watershed and its components; and

ÕEducating the public, especially students, regarding the watershed, its importance and value, its status, capacity and condition, and relevant threats, risks, and opportunities.

Almost all of the 26-square mile Pootatuck River Watershed is in Newtown, with a small section lying in Monroe. The Pootatuck River Watershed covers about 40 percent of Newtown’s land area.