KENT, Conn.—During its Nov. 5 meeting, the Sewer Commission faced questions from Bonnie Bevans about the permit process it is undergoing. Bevans, who has spearheaded opposition to the construction of an 80-unit complex that would include both affordable and market-price housing, has asserted that the sewer plant will not be able to adequately serve the project.
Commission Chairman Elissa Potts said the current permit would have expired but has been extended by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). “Under our permit as it is issued, we are completely allowed to operate as we have been operating,” said Potts.
She added that if the proposed housing project came before them today, the amount of effluent from it and the proposed 15-unit affordable housing project planned nearby, would not be near the amount of sewage that can be processed daily.
DEEP is working on a new permit, a process that could take four to six months.
Bevans inquired whether DEEP had given the commission, which is a quasi-municipal organization that sets its own budget and user rates, instructions on what is needed for a new permit and whether an environmental load study will be done to assure the aged sewer system can handle the additional effluent from the 80-unit housing complex, which is estimated at 26,000 gallons a day.
“It’s not something I need,” Potts replied. “If someone else needs it, it would be their obligation to pay for it.”
Potts has had only one communication from DEEP, an email, asking her to resubmit material it already had, but in an electronic format. She has had no communication with DEEP about the housing complex “because it is not time for that yet.”
Bevans asserted that the “sewer plant can’t work in the condition it’s in because it was built a long time ago,” and that sewer mains running to plant are leaking sewerage into surrounding ground.
Potts countered, “It’s an old system, but it works just fine. DEEP is in the process of changing what they want to do. I know it will change, but we are not now in violation.”
As far as sewer mains are concerned, Potts said she knows of no broken pipes. She suggested that Bevans could hire a company to inspect them if she wished. She further clarified that when the lateral line from the main to the expanded library was inspected, it was suggested that a new lateral be installed so that “down the road they won’t have problems.”
Bevans cited a clause in the commission’s 2009 permit that says that DEEP must be notified if a unit comes on that creates more than 7,500 gallons of effluent per day. It was explained that this is for subsurface systems (septic systems) serving subdivisions, housing projects and the like, and not municipalities.
At present, the municipal sewer system is permitted for 142,000 gallons a day and can accept up to 90 percent of that, 127,000 gallons, each day. According to plant superintendent Lyle Sommers, the plant receives about 61,000 gallons a day when Kent School, its largest user, is in session. Of the 1.9 million gallons processed in October, 785,000 came from the school.
“We are able to take on [the 80-unit project] under our current permit,” Potts said. “If it went on tomorrow, it would be well below what we are allowed by DEEP.”
Potts said she wanted to clarify two things from a previous meeting—at last month’s meeting, she said the existing sewer plant is “toxic” when she meant “caustic.” “It is by no means ‘toxic,’” she said. “It’s caustic because stuff corrodes so quickly down there because of the environment.”
The second clarification was in response to the implication by Connecticut Clean Water Coalition Chairman Joe Quaranta that Potts was not providing the documents requested by Bevans.
“That’s absolutely not true,” Potts said.
