Meeting tomorrow's water needs

The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments (SCCOG) is responding to the region's needs for additional potable water supplies by actively moving forward with an effective results-oriented plan. The existing drinking water supply systems throughout southeastern Connecticut may range in size, but each is vital to providing safe and reliable drinking water to its cities and towns.

The need for safe and reliable drinking water in the region has grown over the past several decades, but additional supplies have not. Projections estimate that by 2040 the region will experience a short fall of potable water supplies by as much as 10 million gallons a day. Because the region has not developed a major water supply for some time now, the need to maintain existing supply reliability and to provide new supplies for near-term economic and population growth (5-10 years), water supply development needs to begin now.

Water systems in southeastern Connecticut, like most regions in Connecticut, have developed incrementally over decades and, in several cases, a century. Utilities have expanded these systems to address specific problems or needs in various communities. This approach has resulted in isolated water systems and the absence of an overall strategy to meet the region's water needs.

Several years ago, as a planning strategy, SCCOG created a Regional Water Committee to assess and support the water-supply needs of our communities and encourage a cooperative environment in meeting those needs. This Regional Water Committee subsequently determined that it would be beneficial to involve the region's largest water utilities in the planning.

Approximately two years ago, the Regional Water Committee formed a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and approached the region's water utilities for their technical perspective. The TAC has been working diligently to develop a priority planning document that identifies water-supply development priorities and potential interconnections between existing water systems.

The cities of New London, Norwich and Groton are the region's three largest public water supply systems, each treating and delivering approximately 6 million gallons of water a day. For over a century, these three water systems have expanded to incorporate not only private and business growth in their communities, but in surrounding towns as well. These three large water systems are spread somewhat evenly geographically around the 20 communities with representation of the council of governments, creating a "core" for the region's water supply and distribution assets.

For planning purposes, the council of governments agreed to create three distinct sub-regional planning areas based around these three major utilities - a southwestern sub-region (New London), a northern sub-region (Norwich Public Utilities) and a southeastern sub-region (Groton Utilities). This structure can form the basis for meeting the region's long-term water needs.

The team of policy makers and TAC members has been making steady progress in promoting the development of viable water supplies to supplement the northern and southwestern sub-regional water systems. (Groton Utilities, in the southeastern sub-region, has ample water supplies.) This effort has been well received by local communities as well as numerous state planning and regulatory agencies. However, the sighting and permitting of any new water supplies in the region will be a time-consuming, complex process, and likely to generate opposition. It will require years of study and permitting before construction could begin on the improvements necessary to meet regional water-supply needs.

As part of this process the TAC has worked to identify key interconnection possibilities to distribute water among the "core" water systems of New London, Norwich and Groton. Interconnections are a key component to improving system reliability and public safety by allowing utilities to share water during a time of crisis.

In recent years, a number of critical connections have occurred and others will be completed soon. The Thames Basin Regional Interconnection Project, connecting Norwich, Groton and New London, the East Lyme/ New London interconnection and the Groton/Aqurion Water Company interconnection have provided enormous benefits to the region as well as developing an open, transparent effort that has built trusted relationships.

It is the firm belief of the

SCCOG regional water team that with sound technical reasoning and political resolve, southeastern Connecticut can and will realize the benefits of a regional water system.

Chris Clark is the operations manager for the Mohegan Tribal Utility Authority and a member of the regional water and technical advisory committee assessing the region's drinking water needs.