Greenridge Water Supply Hearing Rescheduled Again

By Andrew Gorosko

State regulators have again rescheduled a planned public hearing on a proposal to provide the Greenridge residential subdivision in Brookfield with a safe drinking water supply originating in Brookfield.

State Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) spokesman Philip Dukes said October 6 that a joint public hearing of the DPUC and the state Department of Public Health (DPH) is scheduled for December 15.

That session is slated for 10:30 am at Brookfield Town Hall, 100 Pocono Road. The hearing would break at about 4 pm, and then reconvene at 6:30 pm for public comment only. If deemed necessary, the hearing may be continued on additional dates.

The December 15 session would be the fourth in a recent series of public hearings held on the Greenridge water supply issue. At an initial July 29 Newtown public hearing, Newtown officials objected to extending Newtown’s water supply to Greenridge in Brookfield as proposed by United Water.

The hearing that is now slated for December 15 in Brookfield had been scheduled to occur on October 6 at DPUC’s New Britain offices, but at the Town of Brookfield’s request, the DPUC agreed to delay the session until December to give Brookfield more time to formulate a Greenridge water supply proposal.

Under that plan, a water supply line would be extended to Greenridge from a water source within Brookfield, rather than having United Water extend its Newtown water supply to Greenridge.

The planned extension of United Water’s Newtown water supply to Greenridge has proven controversial among Town of Newtown and Borough of Newtown officials who question the wisdom of such a project, asking whether extending the Newtown water supply into Brookfield would potentially compromise Newtown’s future water supply needs. The Pootatuck Aquifer is the source of the Newtown water supply.

United Water representatives, however, have stressed that the Newtown water supply holds adequate water for a water system extension to Greenridge, and have urged DPUC and DPH to give the water extension project a final approval.

Rescheduling the public hearing to December was supported by the state Office of Consumer Counsel, the Town of Newtown, and the Borough of Newtown, but not by United Water.

In January 2008, DPUC and DPH had ordered United Water to provide safe drinking water to Greenridge to resolve longstanding problems with tainted water. The water supply system there is fed by wells contaminated with naturally occurring uranium and other radioactive substances. Drinking such tainted water is considered harmful. About 700 people live in Greenridge, a small part of which lies in Newtown.