Date: Fri 30-Oct-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Hawleyville-sewer-line

Full Text:

Consultants Recommend $4.8 Million Hawleyville Sewer Line

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

In a draft report, the town's consulting engineers describe a plan to install

a $4.77-million sanitary sewer system in Hawleyville to foster economic

development.

In its "Hawleyville Area Facility Plan," consulting engineers Fuss and

O'Neill, Inc, of Manchester recommend to the town's Water Pollution Control

Authority that a sewer line be extended from the Bethel town line into

Hawleyville in two construction phases, each of which would involve

installation of sewer mains and a sewage pumping station.

The Hawleyville proposal is separate from the recently constructed

$32.5-million sewer system that serves the Borough, Sandy Hook Center, and

Taunton Pond North. The central sewer system has its own sewage treatment

plant on Commerce Road.

The sewer system proposed for Hawleyville would discharge wastewater to the

Danbury sewage treatment plant via sewer lines in Bethel.

The town, so far, has spent about $2 million in preparation for the sewering

of Hawleyville, said Fred Hurley, town director of public works. That $2

million covers costs for sewer lines to convey wastewater to Danbury and costs

for sewage treatment in Danbury. The town committed itself to that spending

earlier this decade in preparation for the eventual sewering of Hawleyville.

Although the Hawleyville sewer project is primarily planned for economic

development, it also would provide sewer service to some properties which have

had septic system failures and groundwater contamination problems, Mr Hurley

said.

"The topography really drives what you can or cannot do," Mr Hurley said of

the lay of the land in Hawleyville dictating what makes for a practical sewer

system.

"We have identified technically what we want to do," he said.

First Phase

The first phase of sewer construction in Hawleyville would involve installing

2,600 linear feet of gravity-powered sewer lines and 5,640 linear feet of

pressurized sewers, plus one sewage pumping station. The sewage pumping

station would be located at the site for The Homesteads at Newtown, a 298-unit

housing complex for the elderly planned for 166 Mt Pleasant Road which has

gained town construction approvals. The developer gained construction approval

from the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) provided that the project is

connected to sanitary sewer lines.

The first phase of Hawleyville sewer construction would cost $1.564 million,

according to Fuss and O'Neill.

"Who pays for what still has to be played out," Mr Hurley said.

When sewer systems are designated primarily for economic development, and not

the correction of groundwater pollution problems, such sewer systems usually

are not eligible to receive federal Clean Water Fund grant funds.

In such economic development projects, sewer construction costs typically are

covered by partnerships of the town and prospective private land developers,

according to Fuss and O'Neill.

Mr Hurley said the first sewer lines in Hawleyville might be installed in as

little as 12 to 18 months from now.

The second sewer construction phase in Hawleyville would involve an estimated

$3.2 million in costs. That phase would include installing 12,110 linear feet

of gravity-powered sewers, 2,350 linear feet of pressurized sewers, and one

new sewage pumping station, plus an upgrading of the initial sewage pumping

station.

The second phase of construction would extend sewer lines the to area where

Hawleyville Road crosses under Interstate-84.

The Hawleyville sewer facilities planning amounts to a review of existing and

potential land uses in the area that may be sewered. The plan includes

generalized mapping that is not detailed enough for construction planning.

Fuss and O'Neill's draft proposal has been the subject of two public hearings.

Hawleyville has been targeted as an area for economic development based on the

large amount of undeveloped land there and its proximity to Exit 9 off

Interstate 84.