Four Corners sewer/water project could cost $14 M

Any development or growth of the intersection of routes 44 and 195 - known as Four Corners - will have to wait more than a year, not because there in no space for new businesses, but because property with poor septic systems and  water-quality issues doesn’t tend to draw developers.

At a public forum held on June 9, members of the Four Corners Sewer Advisory Committee told more than 40 people in attendance that they hope to change this picture.

The forum was a chance to present their proposal for a $14.1 million project, one that is linked to pending information from a study of the University of Connecticut’s water supply - because the project would involve tying into UConn’s system.

The town’s share of the cost of the project, ideally, would be assisted with grants, in addition to bonds, said the advisory committee’s Chair Gene Nesbitt.

Nesbitt said UConn has until July 2010 to determine if the campus needs an additional water source to meet its needs. If so, water would be piped from the Snipsic Reservoir in Tolland by the Connecticut Water Co.

And Mansfield would construct additional mains to service properties at Four Corners that would replace private wells and septic systems.

Partnering with UConn made one resident, Betty Wassmundt, uneasy. “This should be a town project,” she said. “This shouldn’t involve UConn.”

Mansfield Public Works Director Lon Hultgren responded that the town cannot finance the project alone.

“They’re the elephant, we’re the tail,” he said, referring to UConn. “Our hope is that they will need water and they will pay a good share of the cost to bring that in.”

If the university isn’t involved, the committee will need to start over again and find a different source for affordable water.

Hultgren added that the town is under pressure by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to address water-quality issues at Four Corners.

A DEP official confirmed Tuesday that the agency is monitoring the town’s progress with addressing these issues. “We’re working with them right now,” said Joseph Higgins, a DEP engineer for municipal facilities. “As far as we see, they’re taking it seriously.”

Higgins was unable to give a timeline within which the town would have to solve its water-quality issues before the DEP would take further action.

Reported by Caitlin M. Dineen

Posed June 10, 2009

Also see “Bringing sewers/water to Four Corners: town discussion on June 9“