Old Lyme WPCA says selectmen will review state order
Old Lyme — Water Pollution Control Authority Chairman Kurt Zemba said the town's course of action, following a state order to complete a wastewater management study, is up to the selectmen.
The WPCA on Tuesday directed its attorney to draft a letter to the selectmen with cost estimates for the additional work required from engineers and options on how to handle the order.
Zemba said the selectmen, along with the Board of Finance, then will review the information.
The WPCA said options for the town include complying with the order, ignoring or appealing it, or asking the state for an extension.
Last month, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection issued an order for the town to finalize a wastewater management plan for several shoreline neighborhoods.
Town officials previously had told the state that the town lacked funds for the study, after townspeople rejected in May an appropriation for bills associated with the study.
DEEP's order requires the town to also submit an "Environmental Impact Evaluation" based on the plan. The evaluation will be open to public comment under the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act.
The town should then revise the plan by incorporating its responses to comments from the state and public, the order says. The plan also should outline a proposed schedule for the recommended "remedial action" to be completed no later than Oct. 31, 2018.
Andrew Lord, the WPCA's attorney, explained Tuesday that the order received by the town is to complete the study with a proposed remedial action, not to actually implement the study's recommendation.
But he said DEEP may follow up with direction to the town once it receives the finalized study.
According to DEEP's June 16 order, drafts of the study, submitted last year by the town's consultants, say the conveyance of wastewater from several shoreline neighborhoods through East Lyme's sewer pipes to the sewer plant in New London is the "most cost effective and technically feasible alternative" to on-site systems.
These neighborhoods have dense development, small lot sizes, a risk of flooding, substandard on-site systems and "adverse subsurface conditions," according to the order.
The neighborhoods identified are Hawk's Nest, Miami Beach Association, Sound View, Old Colony Beach Association, Old Lyme Shores Beach Association and an ancillary area along the shoreline.
Twitter: @KimberlyDrelich
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