Following discussion at a March 19 session, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members unanimously endorsed the town’s plans to expand the municipal sanitary sewer system in Hawleyville, a project which is intended to stimulate economic development, especially in the area near the Exit 9 interchange of Interstate 84.

P&Z members decided that the sewer expansion project is consistent with the purpose and intent of the 2014 Town Plan of Conservation and Development. The town plan is a long-range planning document that lists a broad range of municipal goals and objectives.

Town Director of Public Works Fred Hurley explained to P&Z members that unlike a conventional gravity-powered sewer system, in which sewage flows through large-diameter sewer mains on a downward slope, the Hawleyville sewer system expansion will be based on the use of “low pressure” sewers, in which sewage is forced through narrow-diameter tubes through the use of grinder pumps.

The central sewer system, which is located in the town center and adjacent areas, is a conventional sewer system augmented by the action of four sewage pumping stations. Besides the pumping stations, the central sewer system employs about 125 grinder pumps, Mr Hurley said.

The town built the central sewer system to resolve longstanding groundwater pollution problems caused by failing septic systems. The central sewer system, which discharges wastewater at a Commerce Road sewage treatment plant, started operation in 1997.

Mr Hurley said that a major goal of the Hawleyville sewer system expansion is to provide sanitary sewer access for four large undeveloped land parcels in the vicinity of the Exit 9 interchange of Interstate 84.

So far, the owners of about 24 parcels in Hawleyville have expressed interest in having access to the expanded sewer system, Mr Hurley said. Connecting to the Hawleyville sewer system is voluntary.

The town hopes to put the sewer construction project out to bid by late this spring and then do the sewer construction work this summer, he said. If those phases proceed as planned, the sewer system extension would be in operation in the fall, Mr Hurley said.

The project would generate revenue for the town through payments made by sewer users to cover the capital costs of expanding the sewer system. Users also cover the system’s operating costs.

At a February 2014 town meeting, voters by an 81-to-11 margin approved borrowing $2.8 million to expand the Hawleyville system as a means to spur local economic development.

Mr Hurley explained that constructing a low-pressure sewer system is relatively simple, when compared to building a conventional sewer system.

Trenching for the Hawleyville sewer expansion project only needs to be about four feet deep and those trenches would be dug alongside roadways, he said.

To ensure that that the sewer system has the ability to accept additional users in the future, the town would install more sewer tubes in those trenches than would be used initially, he said.

Each property using the sewer system would have a grinder pump positioned on it to direct that property’s sewage flow into the system, Mr Hurley said. The town would own the grinder pumps. There are various ways to configure such pumps, allowing design flexibility in the system, he said.

Mr Hurley noted that town officials first started considering installing sewers in Hawleyville in 1990. The initial leg of the Hawleyville sewer system went into operation in 2001.

The sewer extension project would install sewer lines from 166 Mt Pleasant Road eastward along Mt Pleasant Road to its intersection with Hawleyville Road. The sewer lines also would extend northward along sections of Hawleyville Road and along Covered Bridge Road.

The Hawleyville sewer system discharges wastewater to a regional sewage treatment plant in Danbury.