State Weighs Aquarion Water Supply For Greenridge

By Andrew Gorosko

State regulators have scheduled a public hearing to consider another prospect for supplying the Greenridge residential subdivision in Brookfield with a safe drinking water supply — a proposal from the Aquarion Water Company to provide water from within Brookfield to the subdivision by the end of this year.

The state hearing is scheduled for Thursday, July 14, at 9:30 am, at the offices of the state Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) at 10 Franklin Square in New Britain. The hearing will be a joint session of the DPUC and the state Department of Public Health (DPH).

In a filing with DPUC, Aquarion has explained that its recent agreements to acquire Rural Water Company (RWC), Brookfield Water Company (BWC), and Olmstead Water Company (OWC) put it in a unique and previously unavailable position to offer a comprehensive solution to water supply issues in  Brookfield, including providing water on a wholesale basis to the residents of Greenridge, according to a state analysis of the Aquarion proposal.

Greenridge’s water supply is tainted with naturally occurring radioactive minerals. About 700 people live in Greenridge, a small part of which lies in Newtown.

In 2009, DPUC and DPH ordered United Water to provide safe drinking water to Greenridge to resolve longstanding problems with tainted water there.

The Aquarion proposal would be an alternative to United’s controversial proposal to extend its Newtown-based public water supply system northward on Hawleyville Road to Greenridge, which lies off Whisconier Road in Brookfield. Both Hawleyville Road and Whisconier Road also are known as Route 25.

Newtown officials have raised environmental concerns that sending water from United’s system, which is fed by the Pootatuck Aquifer, would be environmentally unwise because it would amount to transferring water from one watershed into another watershed, potentially depleting the Pootatuck Aquifer and the adjacent Pootatuck River.

In April, Newtown officials endorsed a stipulated agreement with Brookfield and United concerning certain protective conditions that would apply if state regulators decide to have United extend its Newtown-based public water supply system to Greenridge.

In its review of the Aquarion water supply proposal, state analysts found that having Aquarion supply water to Greenridge would not affect water flow in the Pootatuck Aquifer and the Pootatuck River.  Under the Aquarion proposal, water would be supplied to Greenridge from a source in Brookfield.

Also, the state review found that employing Aquarion’s so-called “Brookfield Option” would involve less construction work and less disruption to the community than extending United’s Newtown-based water supply to Brookfield.  The Brookfield Option is estimated to cost about $3.3 million, reportedly the most economical solution for Greenridge residents.

The state review indicates that the Brookfield Option to provide Greenridge with water could be accomplished by the end of this year, a schedule which is reportedly comparable to that for extending United’s water supply to Greenridge.

“Unlike the proposed Newtown interconnection alternative, the Brookfield Option avoids the easement encroachment problems and potential legal disputes discussed in the June 10, 2011, intervention petition of Potatuck Land Company and The Potatuck Club, which could very well make the Brookfield Option the more expeditious, less contentious, solution,” according to the state review.

Phil Dukes, a DPUC spokesman, said June 29 that The Potatuck Club has gained intervenor status in the Greenridge water supply proceeding.

Michael Osborne, president of The Potatuck Club, said June 29 that sending water out from the Pootatuck Aquifer in Newtown to Greenridge would have negative effects on Newtown. The club opposes having United send water from the Pootatuck Aquifer in Newtown to Greenridge, if such an action can be avoided, he said.

The state should seriously consider Aquarion’s water supply proposal as an alternative to United’s water supply proposal for Greenridge, Mr Osborne said.

The Potatuck Club has public water supply wells drilled into the Pootatuck Aquifer on its property off Wasserman Way. United’s wells into the Pootatuck Aquifer are located off South Main Street.

The state review of the Aquarion water supply proposal also found that the Aquarion proposal would make a public water supply available to existing homes, churches, schools, and municipal facilities in Brookfield, some of which reportedly have issues with radioactivity in their water supplies.

In May 2010, United began a $4 million project to extend an underground water pipeline northward along Hawleyville Road from the intersection of Mt Pleasant Road and Hawleyville Road to the Greenridge residential subdivision off Whisconier Road in Brookfield.

Town of Newtown and Borough of Newtown officials, however, objected to that water extension project, resulting in state regulators halting the pipeline work until points of conflict could be resolved. Town and borough officials charged that extending the Newtown-based water supply into Brookfield could potentially compromise Newtown’s water supply needs.

The DPUC-DPH regulators then held a series of public hearings at which Newtown officials raised their objections to the project, and later, Brookfield officials provided various alternate proposals to provide water to Greenridge from sources lying within Brookfield.

United representatives have maintained that the Newtown-based water supply holds adequate water for a water system extension to Greenridge, and have urged DPUC and DPH to give the water extension project a final approval.