Saybrook Signs First WPCA Septic Upgrade Contract

OLD SAYBROOK - With the stroke of a pen, the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) has moved from planning state-mandated septic system upgrades in the Wastewater Management District (WWMD) to installing and constructing them. The first contract to upgrade 25 septic systems, 18 of which are in the Saybrook Acres neighborhood, was signed this month between the town and Lombardi Gravel and Excavation, LLC, of Oakdale, whose bid for the work was $247,748.30. The firm is scheduled to complete the upgrade work in this contract within the next 90 days.

In a June 27 letter to First Selectman Michael Pace, the state Department of Environmental Protection Bureau Chief Betsey Wingfield writes that "all of the conditions and assurances needed to be met prior to authorization to award the contract have been fulfilled. The [DEP] authorizes you to award the contract."

Seven of the 25 septic systems included in this first contract bundle are failed systems that present an immediate risk to public health and safety if not repaired. As a result, Lombardi has committed to upgrading and repairing these systems first. When those seven systems are completed, the contractor will then mobilize its team to the Saybrook Acres neighborhood (referred to as SA-1) to do the septic system upgrades on the 18 remaining properties.

"Mr. Lombardi will make sure that all of his employees will have a shirt with the company's logo or emblem indicating they are an employee," said Pace; the company's trucks will also have the company logo painted on their doors.

Before the contractor enters a resident's property to begin an installation, Pace said a WPCA employee will call the homeowner in advance to alert him or her. Work on these properties will begin this month.

"Some people have called in to WPCA from Saybrook Acres asking for calendar adjustments [for the on-site work]. To the extent we can do that [for a planned special event like a family party, for example], we make every effort to accommodate and make changes," said the WPCA's Gratia Lewis.

Lewis said that property owners normally would be without access to on-site wastewater treatment for no more than four to six hours during the system installation. While the excavation is underway, a WPCA employee will be on-site monitoring the process. In addition, a Connecticut River Area Health District (CRAHD) sanitarian also will inspect the work to ensure it complies with health code standards. The CRAHD employee also is responsible for issuing a discharge permit for the newly installed system when successfully installed.

The septic installation firm also is insured and has posted with the town both a performance and a payment bond to cover the full cost of the work, should the firm for any reason be unable to perform. The firm also has supplied a certificate of insurance and certified it will meet the requirements to subcontract three percent of the contract work to qualified minority business enterprises and five percent of the work to women's business enterprises.

The WPCA will not ask the homeowner to pay his or her share of the septic system installation's costs on the day the septic installers are on his or her property.

"The town pays for the septic system upgrade and then the town is in turn re-paid through grants, loans, and from the benefit assessment fund into which homeowners' payments, their 50 percent share of their septic upgrade's cost, are deposited," said Lewis.

Homeowners will be billed for their share of the project costs through the WPCA's new benefit assessment process. For the homeowners in this first group of septic upgrades, the benefit assessment process will begin in the fall.

SA-2 and -3 areas, with 44 septic system upgrades, will be combined and plans call for them to be released for bid in early August and installations at these properties planned for the fall.