Date: Fri 29-May-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

WPCA-Hawleyville-sewers

Full Text:

WPCA Turns Its Attention To Sewers In Hawleyville

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) has told the town's consulting

engineers to begin basic planning on the Hawleyville Area Wastewater Facility

Plan.

Besides the $32.5-million sewer system which serves the Borough, Sandy Hook

Center, and Taunton Pond North, the town has long-range plans for extending

sanitary sewers from the Bethel-Newtown town line to Barnabas Road, off

Hawleyville Road.

The town already has purchased 150,000 gallons of daily sewage treatment

capacity from Danbury at the Danbury sewage treatment plant. Sewage from

Hawleyville would be pumped via Bethel sewer mains to the Danbury plant for

cleansing.

Fuss and O'Neill, Inc, of Manchester, the town's consulting engineer, has

agreed to perform the Hawleyville Area Wastewater Facility Plan for $35,000.

The Homesteads at Newtown, a proposed 300-unit age-restricted housing complex

envisioned for land off Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville, would be the first

user of sanitary sewers extended into Hawleyville.

The developers have gained Conservation Commission approval for a wetlands

construction permit. The developers also have obtained a zone change for the

project from the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z). The developers still

require a special exception to the zoning regulations for a site development

plan for the 60-acre property which lies generally north of Grace Christian

Fellowship and the Newtown Professional Building.

Fred Hurley, the town's public works director, said May 22 Fuss and O'Neill's

basic sewer facilities planning for Hawleyville will involve cataloging the

potential need for sanitary sewer service in that area.

Such planning will involve delineating land-use zone boundaries and the

specific purposes for which land within those zones is designated.

"It's a [land use] records analysis of the area," Mr Hurley said.

Also, the review will involve delineating "sewersheds," or the areas from

which sanitary sewers potentially would drain into the Hawleyville sewage

collector system.

Developmental Review

The Hawleyville facilities planning amounts to a review of existing and

potential land uses in the area that may be sewered. The planning may involve

some mapping. Such mapping would be generalized, and thus not detailed enough

for construction planning, according to Mr Hurley.

A rough sketch of the potential Hawleyville sewer service area has been

prepared, Mr Hurley said.

The basic difference between the new sanitary sewer system which serves the

town center and the sewer system envisioned for Hawleyville is that the system

in the town center was built from scratch and intended to resolve groundwater

pollution problems caused by failing septic systems, while the Hawleyville

system would be an extension of Danbury's sewer system and intended to foster

economic development in Hawleyville.

Like the sewer system in the town center, a Hawleyville system would contain

gravity-powered sewers and would require the installation of sewage pumping

stations to force sewage uphill via force mains for eventual wastewater

treatment. Two sewage pumping stations would be needed to serve the Barnabas

Road area, Mr Hurley said.

Mr Hurley said it is yet unclear whether the town would require residential

property owners who have holdings along Hawleyville sewer mains to connect to

that proposed sewer system.

Mr Hurley said he expects it will take a few months for Fuss and O'Neill to

prepare its initial report, and five or six months before it is complete.