More Study Needed

On Water Line

To the Editor:

Newtowners, please take a minute (okay, a couple) in the days prior to Tuesday, August 10, to email, phone or write the DPUC — Department of Public Utility Control for the state of Connecticut — to ask that the proposed water line from Newtown to Brookfield be tabled at this time until all the information is collected. The meeting on August 10 is a continuation of a meeting held in Newtown on July 29. You can and will make a difference, especially if many of us Newtowners contact DPUC or attend the meeting: DPUC, 10 Franklin Square, New Britain, CT 06051; Phone 800-382-4586; Fax 860-827-2885; Email, dpuc.executivesecretary@po.state.ct.us.

The proposal is for United Water to run a water line from the Pootatuck Aquifer and River up Route 25 to Brookfield. Ha, you say, this does not affect me since I’m not a United Water customer. If you have a well near the Pootatuck Aquifer and River, your well will be impacted, according to the town’s biologist who studied the Pootatuck. No town water or nearby well, almost all the businesses in town will be impacted with an assessment to pay for this project.

The local newspapers have good reporting on the issues but I will attempt to sum it up:

United Water is proposing an approximate nine-mile water line from Newtown’s Pootatuck Aquifer up — really up — Route 25 to an area east of Route 25. At the July 29 meeting, the water company enlarged the areas to the east and west of Route 25. This would entail digging up Route 25 in some areas, as well as the installation of some (I heard eight) pumping stations, one of which is going to be at the police station.

The DPUC set up the August 10 meeting because Newtown just completed a water availability survey that was just submitted on July 29. All I heard is that Newtown does not have unlimited water resources.

The actual engineering should be questioned. What sort of pipes and pumping stations need to be installed to run water nine miles uphill all the way? As a water company customer, I wonder how the pressure can be well regulated so as to not blow out the pipes in my old Main Street house — unless of course, that happens on October 31.

Lastly, no one is talking about the cost and more importantly, who is paying. One report says Brookfield will be assessed most, and Newtown less. The assessments will be over a 50-year period. How can you ask someone/someone’s house to take on that burden for 50 years?

Please request a stay so that this proposal can be studied seriously and completely before we give away the water.

Sherry Bermingham

Main Street, Newtown                                                    August 4, 2010