WPCA Opens Two New Pump Stations
The city's Water Pollution Control Authority has opened two new pump stations that are the first major components funded by voters in a 2014 referendum for a $31.2 million sewer repair plan. Referendum language for the pump stations:
There is still landscaping work to be completed at both sites, but the plants are now fully operational allowing the city to meet deadlines for completion of the work stemming from a consent order between the city and the Environmental Protection Agency dating back to July, 2016. The WPCA has also met the deadlines for other items in the compliance order including submitting an Emergency Response Plan that includes a 24 hour hotline, an Inflow and Infiltration Control Plan, a Fats, Oils and Grease Program Manual and a CMOM Program Self Assessment. The city has over 40 miles of sewer piping throughout the city and some dates back more than a century. Sewage flows through the pipes with the assistance of several pumping stations to the sewage treatment plant at 1 Caroline Street. The sewage is then treated before being safely discharged into the river.
The WPCA is currently in the design phase for the replacement of the larger and more complex Roosevelt Drive pump station. The committee has completed the site selection and is reviewing the 95% complete design documents which will need to be approved by the state and EPA with construction expected to begin spring 2018. The referendum also provided for major improvements to the Caroline Street plant, but those plans are on hold while the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments completes a regional study to determine the feasibility of interconnecting, merging and/or abandoning wastewater treatment facilities in the Naugatuck Valley region along the Naugatuck River, located in Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck and Seymour. Until that study is complete, the WPCA's planning for Derby's main plant is on hold. The WPCA is jointly working with an Infrastructure Oversight Committee of the Board of Aldermen to keep the projects on schedule and on budget.
Story posted on September 1, 2017 |
