WPCA Meets Deadline for Pump Station Design
The City's Water Pollution Control Authority is moving ahead with planning to replace the Roosevelt Drive Pump Station after meeting a November 1 deadline for submission of design plans to the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). The city had previously submitted a preliminary design report that included the basis for site selection of the Roosevelt Drive site and a preliminary design. WPCA had a deadline of November 1 for submitting the final design report which must also be approved by DEEP. The report is actually for 95% of the final design and there will likely be modifications before the final design is approved. The city's Water Pollution Control Authority has been making major progress this year on the city's aging infrastructure as called for in the 2014 referendum when voters approved a $31.2 million referendum for repairs and updates to the city's main plant and pumping stations. The WPCA has also been working on the city's agreement with a consent order issued by the Environmental Protection Agency regarding infrastructure and operation issues issued in July, 2016.
As part of the EPA order, the city replaced outdated pump stations on South Division Street and Burtville earlier this year. The plants were fully operational just prior to the EPA deadline of September 1. There is still some landscaping work to be completed in the next couple of weeks, but the plants are operating as required. The work was also completed within budget. The Roosevelt Drive pump station is a much bigger project and also part of the consent order. At the end of 2016, the WPCA working with the city's Infrastructure Committee chose the Roosevelt Drive site and received approval to proceed with the design work. The city will now await feedback from EPA on the submission, but will proceed with the permitting process with a goal of receiving approval from DEEP by the end of April, 2018. The current timeline calls for bidding on the project to take place in June with a contract approved at the end of August and construction to be completed in 2019. The Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments is working on a regional study to determine the feasibility of interconnecting, merging and/or abandoning wastewater treatment facilities in the Naugatuck Valley region along the Naugatuck River, located in Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck and Seymour. Until that study is complete, the WPCA's planning for Derby's main plant is on hold. WPCA has also met deadlines for submitting an Emergency Response Plan, an Inflow and Infiltration Control Plan, a Tats, Oils and Grease Program Manual and a Capacity, Management, Operation and Maintenance Program Self-Assessment (CMOM) and a CMOM Corrective Action Plan and a CMOM Program Manual. The EPA has submitted comments on the CMOM plans that WPCA submitted, and WPCA will be responding by the November 15 deadline for a response.
Story posted on November 2, 2017 |
