Town Seeks Help For

Trailer Park Septic Problems

By Andrew Gorosko

The town again plans to pursue a federal grant to extend sanitary sewers to a local trailer park with serious chronic septic system problems.

Elizabeth Stocker, the town’s community development director, said Wednesday the town will again poll residents at Meadowbrook Terrace Mobile Home Park at 55 Sugar Street for information on annual household incomes and the number of people who live in individual units.

Such income and residency information is needed to determine whether the residents meet federal requirements for a US Department of Housing and Urban Development Small Cities Community Development Block Grant, Ms Stocker said.

Last spring, the town had applied to the state Department of Economic and Community Development for a $317,020 federal grant to cover costs to extend and connect public sanitary sewers to the trailer park. But the state refused to accept the grant application due to a low response rate to an initial poll on household income and residency.

The trailer park has 60 trailer sites. Only 33 households of the 56 households which were polled in the initial survey responded to a questionnaire, Ms Stocker said, representing a response rate of less than 60 percent.

The state requires that at least 70 percent of the households which are polled respond. More than half of the households which do respond to a poll must meet low- and moderate-income eligibility requirements to be considered for grant funding.

In a letter to be mailed to Meadowbrook residents, Ms Stocker states, “If the town is successful and receives the grant money, the cost to hook up your home would be minimal and the problems with your septic [system] in your neighborhood would be solved… We hope you will participate in this most important [poll] to qualify the [sewering] proposal for [grant] funds.”

“It’s a basic [sewering] project and it preserves affordable housing. It’s a good project and it’s very fundable,” Ms Stocker said, pointing out the public health aspects of the septic system failure at the trailer park. Ms Stocker noted, however, that there are other projects across the state competing for the same grant funding.

The poll asks Meadowbrook residents how many people live in their mobile home, including family members and unrelated individuals. Also, it asks for general information concerning annual household income. In Newtown, the low- and moderate-annual income threshold for a “family of one” is $35,150, ranging in increments up to $66,250 for a “family of eight.”

In early December, attorney Robert Hall, representing the owners of the trailer park, approached the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) seeking town financial help to have sanitary sewers extended to the trailer park. Mr Hall asked the WPCA to cover the costs for extending a sewer line to the facility and installing sewage pumping equipment for it. The trailer park’s owners are Penelope Barrett and William Henckel.

Mr Hall explained that he had asked local banks to finance the project, but they are unwilling to do so because the trailer park owners do not qualify to borrow the amount of money needed for the construction work. Also, efforts to sell the trailer park had been unsuccessful.

Mr Hall suggested that the town construct a sewer line extending to the trailer park and then place a lien on the trailer park for the full cost of the construction work.

“If the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection [DEP] takes the position that the existing permit to discharge [septic waste] should not be renewed, 60 moderate-to low-income homes sites would be wiped out,” according to Mr Hall.

The malfunctioning septic system for the trailer park must be pumped several times weekly to handle overflow conditions. Such sewage pumping is done to avoid public health hazards posed by the presence of exposed sewage.

Ms Stocker said that if the second town poll of trailer park occupants produces a sufficient response, the town would pursue a larger federal grant than the $317,020 grant initially sought, due to rising costs for sewer construction. The grant sought would be somewhat less than $350,000, she said.

“We’re trying to get funding wherever we can at this point,” Ms Stocker said.

 In 1999, the trailer park’s owners hired Fuss and O’Neill, Inc., the town’s consulting engineer, to design a sewer line to connect the trailer park to the sewer system. The trailer park is more than 2,000 feet west of the sewer system. A low-pressure sewer would be extended from the sewer system at the intersection of Sugar Street and West Street to the trailer park. Grinder pumps would power the sewer line. Properties lying alongside that sewer line between the trailer park and the existing sewer system would not be allowed to connect to the sewer system.

The DEP has been working with the town in seeking to solve the trailer park’s sewage disposal problems. The DEP has maintained that the long-term solution for Meadowbrook’s septic system woes is connecting its trailers to the municipal sewer system.

According to DEP documents, the septic failure problems at Meadowbrook date back to 1984. DEP issued orders to Meadowbrook in 1984 and in 1990 to correct pollution problems. But, despite steps taken to solve the problems, more septic failures occurred in 1996, 1997, and 1998.