Date: Fri 23-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Appleblossom-Lane-water

Full Text:

Clean Water Starts Flowing To Appleblossom Lane Neighborhood

(with photo)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The town has started connecting about 85 houses in the Appleblossom Lane

neighborhood to a public water supply system intended to provide safe drinking

water in an area where groundwater is contaminated by industrial solvents.

Workmen Tuesday began connecting residences to the $1.5-million extension of

the United Water supply system, the cost of which was largely covered by a

state grant.

Residents in about 25 homes have been using carbon filters to purify their

well water before using it. Many residents have been drinking bottled water.

Well water has been used for showering, washing dishes and laundry.

Donald Ferris, an Appleblossom Lane resident for 40 years, has monitored the

water supply situation for the past several years. Workmen connected his home

to the water supply Tuesday.

"They hooked me up yesterday and they did a very nice job," he said.

Mr Ferris added, though, that the road has been damaged by water system

installation and will need to be repaired. Road repairs are scheduled for

later this year.

"Thank goodness," he said of the long-awaited water connection. Mr Ferris had

been using a carbon filter to purify water from his well for domestic use. He

drank bottled water.

"We're anxious to get it all done," he said.

Not having had a reliable safe drinking water supply in the neighborhood has

made it difficult for residents to sell their houses, he said.

Mr Ferris urged that either the town or state regularly monitor industrial

properties along the Pootatuck Aquifer to ensure that they don't contaminate

the aquifer.

Roberta Jones, an Appleblossom Lane resident, said she was very pleased with

the water system installation. "I'm glad that I can take water from my tap and

not worry about the potability...That's a relief, a big relief. I think

everyone's just very happy and relieved to have it almost completed."

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said plumbing to connect houses to the

water system will be done in the coming weeks. Connection work should be

completed by the end of May.

After each house is disconnected from its well, the well will be abandoned and

rendered inoperable. After all wells are abandoned, roads which had been torn

up to install water lines will be reconstructed and repaved. Road rebuilding

is scheduled for completion by July. Landscaping on residential properties

will be restored by late summer and early fall.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal urged neighborhood residents to keep the

appointments they make with the water project contractor to have their houses

connected to water system.

United Water's water service will be connected to homes on Appleblossom Lane,

Dogwood Terrace, and a section of Cedar Hill Road. Water from existing water

mains will be extended via new individual service lines to properties on South

Main Street, Prospect Drive, and Pecks Lane.

Pollution Problem

Homes that will receive a public water supply either have polluted wells or

have wells that are threatened with pollution with tetrachloroethylene (PCE)

at concentrations exceeding acceptable levels.

PCE also is known as perc, perclene, and perchlor. The chemical is used as an

industrial degreasing compound and as a solvent in the dry cleaning of

fabrics.

Results of animal studies conducted with high amounts of PCE show the chemical

can cause liver and kidney damage and cause liver and kidney cancers. PCE may

reasonably be anticipated to be a carcinogen or cancer-causing agent,

according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

It is thought that the solvents found their way into the groundwater after

they were used to degrease machinery somewhere in the neighborhood. The

pollution problem's point of origin has not been found.

Rather than spend large sums on trying to locate the source of the pollution,

the state Department of Environmental Protection opted to provide a safe

drinking water supply to residents of the neighborhood.