Council Considering Project to Repair Clean Water Facilities; Adding to City Drinking Water Supply

The New Britain City Council is considering repairs to aging water works facilities the city owns in Bristol, which could allow them to produce up to 23 million gallons of drinking water per day.

The New Britain Water Department owns the White Bridge Water Works Facilities, which are located in Bristol. The facilities include buildings and equipment, some dating back to the 1920s. The facilities are set on 303 acres of watershed land.

An engineer’s project summary said, that, “The wellfields are registered for 8MGD (million gallons a day), and the surface station is registered for 15MGD,” However, the engineer noted that, “Due to the age of the equipment and the antiquated pumping systems, the facilities are not able to operate near their capacities.”

Proposed are three projects, to be funded by $40,900,000 from the state’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). The projects would be at the White Bridge Waterworks Facilities Upper Wellfield, White Bridge Waterworks Facilities Lower Wellfield and White Bridge Waterworks Facilities Pond Pumping Station.

The plans include drilling new wells, building a new pump station, demolishing older facilities and equipment and returning the land where older facilities were to wetlands.

The Council’s Democratic Majority Leader, Ald John McNamara (D-4) said that he supports the rehabilitation of the White Bridge Water Works Facilities as an investment in the future of the city’s clean water infrastructure as long as the low-interest loan is guaranteed before the project begins. The Council has an 8 to 7 Democratic majority.

The engineer’s summary for the project said that much of the current equipment, “has reached the end of its useful life or, due to its age, is very difficult if not possible to find the necessary replacement parts for sustained operations.”

The engineer also added that, “One of the key points about these facilities is that they are each grandfathered by law via Registered Diversions. As a result of this, if operations are ceased, the diversions are lost.”

The state Drinking Water State Revolving Fund,

provides long-term below market rate loans to community and non-profit, non-community public water systems (PWSs) to finance infrastructure improvement projects. Examples include storage tanks, treatment works, and water mains. Loans have interest rates at approximately half the market rate and repayment terms can be up to 20 years. The program supports and recognizes strong infrastructure sustainability programs that emphasize prevention as a tool for ensuring long term safe and affordable drinking water to Connecticut’s residents.

The proposed commitment to update the city’s existing clean water infrastructure is in contrast to earlier proposals affecting the city’s clean drinking water supply under Mayor Erin Stewart (R).

One proposal under Stewart was to commercially mine a hill at an important upstream part the watershed of New Britain’s primary drinking water reservoir, the Shuttle Meadow Reservoir. The proposal would have replaced the important watershed land with a large hole in its place. That proposal was defeated and withdrawn by Stewart when the extent of the damage it could have caused to the city’s clean drinking water supply and the environment was exposed.

Another was the proposal of the Stewart administration to sell the city’s Patton Brook Well, located in Southington at considerably less than its true value. The Stewart administration had argued that the water from the well was not needed for New Britain.

However, the New Britain Progressive later exposed that, far from having a surplus of water, New Britain was actually in a “Water Supply Alert” condition. That Alert was during the summer of 2016, when the Stewart administration, rather than implementing conservation measures, was arguing, instead, that the Patton Brook well was unnecessary for the city. As a result, New Britain ended up forced to purchase water from Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), and Stewart was forced to abandon the sale of the Patton Brook Well.

Now that major investments are under consideration for the White Bridge Water Works Facilities, when asked if he thought that the city should now make similar investment into upgrades at the Patton Brook Well, as part of New Britain’s drinking water supply, Ald McNamara said that it is something that should be considered.