Old Lyme — Some residents of Miami Beach and Hawks Nest Beach say the town is leaving them in high waters as an 80-year-old drainage system at the Swan Brook outlet continues to deteriorate.

The system directs water from Swan Brook, which runs between the two beach associations, to Long Island Sound. Officials have said one is fully blocked and the other clogs regularly. The outlet is on Hawks Nest Beach Association property.

There has been disagreement about who should foot the bill to resolve the issues affecting multiple beaches. First Selectman Tim Griswold said this summer that Town Attorney Jack Collins advised him that the pair of 36-inch pipes and the wooden crib are the town's responsibility, since that's who built the system in the late 1940s and has repaired it since.

The clogged pipes cause flooding in the area of Columbus Avenue, Biscayne Boulevard, Corsino Avenue, Pond Road and even the Portland Avenue corner of Sound View Beach, according to residents who aired their concerns at a zoning meeting last week.

"I can't get out of my driveway three or four times a week," Corsino Avenue resident Mary Ann Watson said. "There is no way to get my car out of the driveway and go anywhere."

Leo Skrzypek of Swan Avenue said the situation is at its worst during exceptionally high tides influenced by the full moon, which he referred to as king tides. He worried about floodwaters overwhelming a sewer system and possibly causing untreated sewage to overflow.

The residents were at the meeting to object to a proposal to install a sewer system at Miami Beach. The special application is just one part of the elaborate planning process to bring sewers to four beach communities in Old Lyme: Old Colony Beach, Old Lyme Shores Beach, Miami Beach and Sound View Beach.

Similar special applications to install the central gravity system at Old Colony Beach and Old Lyme Shores Beach were approved by the commission last year. Hawks Nest Beach remains a holdout when it comes to planning for sewers.

Residents including Tom Larson of Corsino Avenue said a permit should not be approved for the Miami Beach sewers until the Swan Brook outlet is fixed.

"I think the town is really responsible for that and they're just kicking the can down the road," Larson said.

Miami Beach Association Board of Governors member and Federation of Old Lyme Beaches President Scott Boulanger said town officials are well aware of the problem. He pointed to efforts by the Hawks Nest Beach Association to get the problem addressed for years.

Meeting minutes from the Flood and Erosion Control Board show the issue also has been discussed there. In July 2019, members discussed the belief held by the administration that taxpayers don't fund projects on private property.

Boulanger said the flooding was so bad a couple of weeks ago, he called the Connecticut State Police and the town's emergency management director.

"(If) the street gets flooded out where I can't drive a vehicle down it, now what?" he said. "What happens if there's a fire? What happens if somebody needs care?"

Griswold last week said the ideal solution would be to use funds from the town's $2.16 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds. He said the first step is to determine if the project is eligible.

Guidance from the U.S. Department of the Treasury specifies the federal money may be used for water, sewer or broadband infrastructure investments, among other, less clearly defined uses. A committee of town staff members and residents began work in October to decide how to spend the town's allocation, but it is still in its initial stages and has not yet begun to address specific requests.

Griswold said an engineer with Mystic-based Docko Inc. came up with a preliminary plan and very rough cost estimate, which came in at $100,000 to $150,000. He has not yet asked the engineer for design plans or more accurate pricing.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection also needs to approve the project, according to the first selectman.

"If we could use the ARP money and get the DEEP to agree on the plan, we could get that job done," he said. "If we could do something in the next six months, that would be ideal because we could have it ready practically for the summer."

Douglas Brisee, of the Manchester-based civil, transportation and environmental engineering firm Fuss & O'Neill, at the Zoning Commission meeting said the hope is that installing sewers will help improve the storm drainage situation.

"We're sizing some of the pipes to alleviate those issues, but from an elevation perspective, we can't raise the road and solve the flooding issue in its entirety," he said.

Construction of the sewers in the beach neighborhoods hinges on a shared infrastructure project that will allow the Water Pollution Control Authority's future ratepayers to share a pump station — to be located in the Sound View neighborhood — as well as a force main pipe, enabling all four entities to send their combined sewage through East Lyme to New London for treatment.

The special permit for the shared infrastructure was approved last year by the Zoning Commission. The project has gone out to bid twice due to a higher than expected price tag. The second round of bids has been received and is being reviewed, according to officials.

e.regan@theday.com