Date: Fri 19-Mar-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

P&Z-aquifer-protection-hearing

Full Text:

Second Hearing On Aquifer Protection Set For March 25

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Residents will have a second opportunity to comment on revised aquifer

protection regulations proposed by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) at

a public hearing scheduled for Thursday, March 25.

The hearing is slated for 7:30 pm at Newtown Middle School auditorium, 11

Queen Street. The session initially had been scheduled for late February but

inclement weather caused a rescheduling.

The P&Z held the first installment of the aquifer hearing in early February at

which the proposed regulations drew both criticism and support from the

public.

Some local businesses affected by the proposed regulations criticized them as

being too restrictive, with complaints focused on a provision prohibiting sand

and gravel mining in the Aquifer Protection District (APD).

Some local residents lauded the P&Z for taking steps to protect groundwater

resources from contamination.

The P&Z is proposing strengthened aquifer protection regulations to better

safeguard the quality of existing and potential underground drinking water

supplies. The proposed regulations would greatly expand and more explicitly

state the rules the P&Z uses to protect groundwater quality in the APD, a zone

which was created by the P&Z in 1981.

The proposal calls for a cooperative relationship between the Conservation

Commission and P&Z under which both agencies would review development proposed

for the aquifer district.

The APD, which varies in width depending upon soil conditions, generally

follows the course of the Pootatuck River from its headwaters in the vicinity

of the Monroe border northward to Sandy Hook center. The APD contains the

Pootatuck Aquifer, the town's designated sole source aquifer.

The proposed regulations would foster a clean water supply by prohibiting land

uses that can contaminate groundwater, and by regulating other land uses that

can potentially contaminate or downgrade existing and potential groundwater

supplies.

The proposed rules apply to "stratified drift" aquifers, or those such as the

Pootatuck Aquifer, in which subterranean water supplies are contained within

layered bands of sand, gravel and boulders.

Permitted Uses

Land uses permitted in an aquifer protection district would include

single-family houses on lots with a minimum two-acre lot size; open space and

passive recreation areas; managed forest land; and land owned and/or managed

by a public water utility company.

Prohibited land uses in the aquifer protection zone would include: landfills;

septage lagoons; wastewater treatment plants; printeries; public garages and

filling stations; car washes; road salt storage facilities; kennels;

facilities which manufacture, use, store, transport, process or dispose of

hazardous materials or hazardous wastes; the excavation, storage and removal

of sand and gravel; the underground storage of hazardous materials; dry

cleaners with on-site cleaning operations; hotels and motels without public

sewer and water supplies; garages for sheltering and maintaining commercial

vehicles and construction equipment; the maintenance and outdoor storage of

public utility service vehicles; the handling and smelting of nonferrous

metals; and medical or dental offices, veterinary hospitals, beauty and nail

salons, funeral parlors and research or medical laboratories, except where

public sewers and water supplies are available for such facilities.

The proposed rules specify minimum standards for aquifer protection concerning

stormwater management, floor drains, pesticide and fertilizer use, and the

storage and handling of hazardous materials.

Beyond the P&Z's proposed aquifer protection regulations, the Conservation

Commission in the future is expected to create wellhead protection regulations

to safeguard areas near the wells of public drinking water supplies.