Date: Fri 20-Nov-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

WPCA-Hawleyville-sewer

Full Text:

WPCA Approves Draft Plan For Hawleyville Sewer

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) has approved a draft report

calling for the installation of a $4.77-million sanitary sewer system in

Hawleyville to foster economic development.

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

O'Neill, Inc, of Manchester recommend 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 sewer system proposed for Hawleyville would discharge wastewater to the

Danbury sewage treatment plant via sewer lines in Bethel.

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 sewer system in the center of town has its own sewage

treatment plant on Commerce Road.

After approving the Hawleyville sewering plan November 12, WPCA members began

advertising a "request for qualifications" from firms interested in designing

and constructing the Hawleyville sewer system. After WPCA members decide which

firms are qualified to do such work, they will seek design and construction

bids.

In approving Fuss and O'Neill's draft report, WPCA members modified the plan

somewhat based on comments made at two past public hearings, said Public Works

Director Fred Hurley.

"It's really a starting point," he said of the status of Hawleyville sewer

design plans, he said.

WPCA members hope to hire an engineering firm by January to design the sewer

system.

Unlike funding for the town's central sewer system, a sizable portion of which

was covered by town property taxpayers at large, all Hawleyville sewer system

costs will be covered by its sewer users, Mr Hurley said.

Town taxpayers contributed about one-quarter of the local share of the cost to

build the central sewer district, Mr Hurley said. The state Department of

Environmental Protection (DEP) had ordered the town to rectify longstanding

groundwater pollution problems caused by failing septic systems in the central

area.

But because the Hawleyville sewer system is intended for economic development,

not rectifying groundwater contamination, that sewer system's users will pick

up all construction costs, according to the public works director.

Besides the projected $4.77 million Hawleyville sewer system construction

costs, the town has spent about $2 million in preparation for the job. 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.

Phase One

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 planned

298-unit housing complex for the elderly which has gained town construction

approvals.

The developer wants to break ground next spring and have sewers available for

the complex by the end of next year.

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

according to Fuss and O'Neill.

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

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 liner 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.

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

large amount of undeveloped land there in close proximity to Exit 9 of

Interstate 84.