To The Editor:

Most residents of Newtown are not aware of the pending shortage of water facing the future of Newtown.

On August 18th Newtown experienced a Thousand Year storm of over 13 inches of rain. Combined to make matters worse the Guskie Pond dam located in Monroe on Huntington Road broke unleashing a Tsunami wall of water that cascaded down to the main pumping station located across the street from Sand Hill Plaza on Route 25/South Main Street.

The dam is maintained by the Town of Monroe. Over the years this dam has failed four times. Currently, the dam is being built back by beavers awaiting another disaster due to the negligence of Monroe not to address the issue. The failure of the dam flooded the Aquarion pumping station and destroyed the Housatonic Rail bridge resulting in a blockage of water that as of today has not been resolved; this in turn flooded Route 25, destroyed the Bill Roy Jr business and home as well as doing the same to the Horvath’s property. Tom Horvath nearly lost his life due to drowning.

Aquarion’s pumping station supplies water to Newtown, Bethel and parts of Brookfield. Currently water is being supplied by a backup system from Easton.

Aquarion has notified Newtown that there will be a shortage of water going into the summer months if the wells in Newtown cannot be brought back online.

On August 19th Senator Blumenthal made a cameo appearance in Newtown claiming that he would do everything in his power to assist Newtown and also met with the Selectman pledging support. We are still waiting for that support.

As this article goes to press Newtown has been on back up water with no clear resolution in sight for 230 days. The Horvaths were without drinkable water for 117 Days. The Roys are still without drinkable water. The main obstacle preventing the Town, Aquarion and the Housatonic Railroad is the failure of the railroad to move forward.

On December 23rd our Land Use Director met with the Western Council of Governments Releasing a report “Safeguarding Public Water Supply Watersheds,” in which the Director of Land Use quoted, “We have regulations that are probably more stringent than some of our neighbors associated with Aquifer protection.”

This a true statement. We have the “Inland Wetlands and Watercourse Regulations” dating to May 22, 1973, and “The Aquifer Protection Area Regulations”. Unfortunately, the unelected Director has chosen to take a back seat in supporting what is on the books. When the Horvaths asked for support his answer was “I suggest you get good flood insurance”. That would be great if their property was in a flood zone, but it isn’t. My suggestion is if we do not solve this issue soon the Director will be issuing a statement, “You better sign up for Polland Spring Delivery for you drinking water”. Luckily Newtown has been blessed by State Representative Mitch Bolinsky.

He is our Representative as well as a concerned resident. Mitch has met many times with Town officials with little results. We have waited much too long for a plan to be put into place safeguarding our critical water supply to Newtown and surrounding areas. Mitch is elevating this issue to the Governor and proposing a plan of action to resolve Newton’s water supply.

Jay Birden

Newtown