Date: Fri 12-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewer-WPCA-connections

Full Text:

Local Sewer Connections Continue

(with cut)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

About 70 percent of the approximately 820 properties to be served by the

municipal sanitary sewer system have connected to it, according to John

Whitten, senior field representative for Fuss and O'Neill, Inc, the town's

consulting engineer.

Mr Whitten watched Wednesday as workmen from Pembroke Pumping Services of

Danbury installed a "grease trap" behind the Mona Lisa Restaurant at 43 South

Main Street. Mr Whitten serves as chief inspector for sewer system connection

work.

A grease trap is a large reinforced-concrete box similar to a septic tank. It

is used to trap cooking grease from eateries before the grease can enter the

sewer system. If enough grease were to enter the system and reach the sewage

treatment plant on Commerce Road, it could neutralize the bacteriological

process which is used to cleanse wastewater, possibly resulting in the

treatment plant going "septic."

Mr Whitten said all properties to be sewered are scheduled to be connected to

the sewer system by August 31.

However, some properties likely will remain unconnected by then due to their

owners challenging the town's orders for them to connect.

Whether that handful of properties will be connected is a policy question for

the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) to decide.

The sewer system, which was installed in the borough, Taunton Pond North, and

Sandy Hook Center, was designed to rectify multiple groundwater pollution

problems posed by failing septic systems.

The sewer system planned for Hawleyville primarily is intended to foster local

economic development.

People who want to get their properties connected to the sewer system may

obtain the paperwork for the job, called an "application to connect," from the

town's public works department on Turkey Hill Road. The department maintains a

list of qualified drain layers who are licensed to connect sewer lines.

Property owners may then contact the drain layers for multiple cost estimates.

If a property owner must have repiping work done within a building to connect

to the sewers, then a building permit also is needed for the work.

Depending on the complexity of a given sewer hookup, the work may cost between

$1,000 and $3,000. Each sewer connection is unique.

To facilitate sewer connections, sewer connection stubs were extended onto

individual properties. Sewer hook-up contractors dig down to those stubs,

uncap them, and extend sewer lines to buildings.

Extensive ledge may require blasting, boosting the price of a sewer

connection.

Sometimes sewer connections may be made at the front of a building. Other

times, it is necessary to connect sewer lines to the rear of a building.

Sewer trenching may extend from seven to 14 feet below ground level, depending

on the particular hook-up.

Town regulations require that existing septic systems be emptied of their

contents, crushed, and then filled in with soil or stone, depending upon

ground conditions.

A sewer hook-up charge is an "out-of-pocket" cost which is separate from sewer

assessment charges and sewer usage charges.

The town is under a longstanding state order to resolve groundwater pollution

problems caused by failing septic systems. The $32.5 million sewer project has

been built as a permanent solution to the groundwater pollution problems.

Construction began in November 1994 and was completed last summer.