Groton - The Bluff Point to Preston trail will not include passage through the Groton reservoir system.

Based on information from the director of Groton Utilities, which manages the reservoir, and an independent insurance consultant, the City Council decided not to respond to a request from the Bluff Point to Preston Trail Committee.

Currently, educational groups, under direct supervision of Groton Utility personnel, are the only members of the public allowed access to the properties.

By not putting the trails committee on the agenda for a future meeting, the council eliminated the opportunity for the committee to show the council its plan for a 14-mile hike or bike trail that would have traversed city-owned watershed property adjacent to the Ledyard and Morgan reservoirs and the Groton watershed between Routes 117 and 1.

The council's discussion centered on its exposure to risk and liability.

"Groton actually self-insures for the cleanup costs if there was some type of contamination," Chris Wardruff, the independent insurance consultant, told Mayor Marian Galbraith and the City Council. "There's no direct insurance coverage in place to cover that. That's called a 'first party' type of policy."

He said the city does have a "pollution liability" policy that would take effect were someone to bring a lawsuit against the city as a result of contamination.

"There's a distinction between the two," he said.

Also, both Wardruff and Paul Yatko, director of Groton Utilities, reminded the council that new legislation protects municipalities from liability when a person is injured using municipal reservoir property, provided there is no charge for access.

Dave Holdridge of Ledyard, chairman of the trail committee, who did not attend the council meeting, said in a telephone interview last week that the new legislation makes it more attractive to municipalities to open reservoirs to the public for the limited use.

"We would be disappointed not to have a chance to discuss our master plan along with the analysis of the policies existing in other reservoirs in Connecticut and how other reservoir companies have handled these issues," he said. "The majority of reservoir lands do allow some degree of access to their resources."

Yatko said last week that despite the protective new legislation, there are management issues that need to be resolved before recreational access to the reservoir could be considered.

"Groton Utilities is charged with the stewardship of the water supply for some 6,800 ... customers," he said. "Our obligation to protect the reliability and quality of that water supply ... is paramount and comes before all other considerations."

He said protecting the water quality meant protecting it from sabotage, malicious mischief and accidental contamination. Security and access control would have to be monitored as well, he said, including keeping track of who was on the property, limiting access to designated areas and assuring the property would be properly vacated when it should be. He said roads and paths would have to be improved so emergency vehicles could have easy access when necessary.

"Having to spend money on these, and other issues that we have not begun to think about, is not trivial," he said. "If they are not paid for by the beneficiaries of this access, they will have to be borne by the customers of Groton Utilities."

Holdridge said his group's goal is to create a trail thought the open valley that exists from Bluff Point to the Preston Community Park at the northern end of Route 117. He said using the reservoir property is the preferred route.

"We've studied the alternative routes. They're longer, use more public roads and not as direct," he said. "The good thing about the Groton Utilities property is that the trail is already there."

He said the Ledyard Town Council wrote to the Groton City Council recommending that Groton hear from the committee.

"We never heard from them. I'm not sure what to do if someone doesn't want to talk," Holdridge said Wednesday. "We have lot of information in our master plan.

"We hope these pristine areas can eventually be open for non-motorized recreation," he said. "Lots of people who live in Ledyard and Preston work in Groton. A lot of them would love to ride bikes to work. Recreational trails grant programs encourage this sort of alternative transportation."

c.potter@theday.com