Consultants to finalize wastewater plan to include Sound View
Old Lyme — The Water Pollution Control Authority's consultants officially have received the go-ahead to work on finalizing a wastewater management plan for the town's shoreline.
The consultants are slated to update the plan, currently in draft form, to include connecting Sound View and an area north of Sound View to sewers.
Hawk's Nest will be removed from the plan until further groundwater monitoring is completed.
The consultants are expected to respond to comments from the state and finalize the report. The amendments to the original scope of work would cost $24,948.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has confirmed that the amendment is eligible for 55 percent reimbursement from the Clean Water Fund, WPCA Chairman Richard Prendergast said at Tuesday night's meeting.
First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder has signed the document and sent it to Woodard & Curran, he said.
The WPCA had approved moving forward with the work in June.
The town is under an administrative order from DEEP to complete the wastewater management plan. After it is completed, DEEP could then order the town to potentially implement the plan, according to a town document outlining the project.
The WPCA would provide a recommendation on how to respond, and the Board of Selectmen, along with the Board of Finance, would decide whether to move bonding for the project to a vote by the townspeople.
Three private beach associations in town — Miami Beach, Old Lyme Shores and Old Colony — are working on plans for sewers.
The Hawk's Nest neighborhood is expected to undergo additional groundwater monitoring and on Tuesday, the WPCA discussed the multi-phase process for that testing.
The WPCA voted to send a proposal for the initial phase of the testing to DEEP.
Those initial steps would include evaluating the existing monitoring wells in the neighborhood and conducting "flow mapping" to show the direction the water is moving, which could help determine where additional wells should be placed, according to the WPCA members' discussion.
The state may revise the scope of those services and send the proposal back to the town, Prendergast said.
The next step would be for the first selectwoman's office to review the proposal and potentially move it forward for local approval, he said.
During public comment, some residents questioned why additional testing is needed in the Hawk's Nest neighborhood, while others agreed with collecting more data.
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