A Better Alternative For Greenridge

Just when it looked like Newtown had run out of options in its bid to block efforts by United Water of Connecticut to tap the water resources of the Pootatuck aquifer to solve a water contamination problem in Brookfield, along comes the Aquarion Water Company with a better solution. Thursday morning, the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA, formerly known as the Department of Public Utilities Control) conducted a public hearing on a proposal by Aquarion to provide water from within Brookfield to the affected Greenridge residential subdivision by the end of the year.

The United Water plan drew the concerns and objections of local officials, who were wary of any water project that would draw water resources from Newtown’s sole source aquifer and deliver it to another watershed in another town. But the critics were backed into a corner by the lack of viable alternatives, and this spring they effectively agreed with United Water to accept the inevitable and to muzzle their criticism of the plan.

In the meantime, Aquarion managed to secure the agreements it needed to acquire three small water companies in Brookfield, suddenly giving it the resources and the proximity to propose the viable alternative plan that had eluded opponents of the proposed United Water project.

State analysts reviewing the Aquarion alternative plan for utility regulators and the state Department of Public Health found that in addition to avoiding the increased draw on the Pootatuck aquifer, it would involve less construction work and less disruption to the community, while delivering the most economical source of clean water to Greenridge residents. The Aquarion plan would also avoid easement encroachment issues and potential legal disputes raised by interveners in the state regulators’ review of the United Water proposal.

All in all, Aquarion is offering a better and more economical plan that respects a long-held environmental principal of preserving local water resources for local use. We trust PURA will take the conclusions of its own analysts to heart and authorize Aquarion’s plan to provide clean water to the Greenridge homes in Brookfield by the end of the year.