Connecticut’s track record with sewage treatment centers and with sewers in general, well, it stinks. Spills, overflows, breaks in sewer lines, failures at processing plants are more common that you would believe. It is all in the headlines – it is all on the internet. Here are just a few reported incidences.

Dec 2008: 28 million gallons of untreated sewage seeped into Long Island Sound when a sewer main broke in Greenwich over 4 days.

May 2014: Heavy rain sent an unprecedented amount of wastewater rushing through Stamford’s sewage treatment plant overwhelming the facilities disinfection system and spilling 25 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the harbor.

October 2017: Due to heavy rain, MDCs overflow of sewage was 94 million gallons which entered drains at Park River, plus 27 million elsewhere. One million gallons of sewage entered Piper Brook, WH. (MDC is the Metropolitan District of CT, chartered by the Connecticut General Assembly to service Hartford County.)

October 2017: Millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled from Waterbury’s waste water treatment plant into the Naugatuck River after a five-hour power failure at the treatment plant prevented the facilities emergency response system to trigger alarms.

2017: State legislature passed a bill requiring DEEP to post notice of spills on the DEEP website within 24 hours, because spills were not being reported to the public in a timely manner.

Dec 2017: 3.6 million gallons of raw sewage split from the Mattabassett treatment plant in Cromwell. In total, in 2017, there were 384 sewage spills in Connecticut – 100 million gallons of raw sewage flowed into the Connecticut River.

August 2018: 57,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Croton River in Westchester County, because debris and dirt blocked a sewer line, causing a spill at the Crotonville pump station.

July 2020: 2.1 million gallons of sewage poured into the Mill River and Long Island Sound due to a leak at the Greater New Haven Waste Water Treatment Center when a sewer main broke.

February 2021: Save the Sound initiated legal action against the New Haven WPCA for violating the Clean Water Enforcement Act claiming that NWWPCA knew there was corrosion in the main, exasperated by a sinkhole, which resulted in the main sewer break and spill. Case is still pending.

April 2021: Senator Cohen leads Senate passage of updated “Sewage Spill Right to Know” bill.

July 2022: In Springfield, as a result of heavy rain, more than 7 million gallons of rainwater and untreated sewage spilled into the Connecticut River. Chicopee also experienced significant sewer discharge into the Connecticut and Chicopee rivers, stemming from the Exchange Street pumping station, the Jones Ferry Road pumping station, the Leslie Street pumping station, and from the Medina Street plant, and the Jones Ferry Road treatment facility. Chicopee has spent $215 million on their sewer system and expect to spend an additional $250 million to correct problems.

Aug. 5, 2022: Channel 3 reported that the Connecticut River was affected by a sewage break in Massachusetts, which released hundreds of thousands of gallons of sewage and untreated stormwater into the Connecticut River. A water main break also caused flooding of a sewer pump station along the Connecticut River.

Get the picture? There are pictures of sewage breaks online too and hundreds additional reports.

Old Lyme so far has been a sewer avoidance town, as are our neighbors in Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Essex and Clinton. The Connecticut Department of Health says Old Lyme is not polluting the Sound. Help protect the Sound. Say no to sewers and expanding loads to treatment plants that are already performing badly. Say yes to new technology, to upgraded septic systems, to 7-year pump-outs, and please, pick up after your pets.

The author is the Secretary of the Sound View Sewer Coalition.