EL upland review area might extend

Increasing it from 100 to 500 feet will help protect bodies of water, Inland Wetland Agency says

East Lyme — In an effort to further protect the town’s various bodies of water and drinking-water aquifers, the Inland Wetland Agency unanimously proposed extending what’s known as the town’s upland review area from 100 to 500 feet at a meeting Monday.

The upland review area, or the 100 feet surrounding any water body, are areas the agency regulates activity within, meaning homeowners and developers proposing to build anything from a shed or a porch to a home or septic system within that area must first submit an application to receive a permit from the town to complete such work.

The extent of activity proposed in the area determines if the applicant can receive an administrative permit from Wetlands Enforcement Officer

Gary Goeschel, or if they must go before the Inland Wetland Agency for further review.

Goeschel, who works for the Inland Wetland Agency as its inland wetlands agent and is also the town’s planner, said by phone this week he typically issues permits for activities such as decks, sheds, pools and emergency septic repairs, while “larger-scope” projects, such as new homes, subdivisions and commercial developments, must go before the agency.

Increasing the area from 100 to 500 feet will allow Goeschel and the agency to review and regulate a greater number of activities near town waterbodies and watercourses, thereby protecting them, agency members have reasoned. Goeschel, who expressed opposition to increasing the upland-review area,

said by phone this week the new rule would require additional permitting fees for many homeowners and landowners in town, as well as future developers, and could decrease property values.

After scheduling a June 8 virtual public hearing on the matter Monday, agency members say they are hoping residents will weigh in on the proposed change before the agency makes a final decision, which members also clarified may be amended to increase the review area by 100 or 200 feet, instead of 400, depending on the feedback they receive.

The agency already has notified the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection commissioner of the proposed changes for review and comment, and also plans to notify the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, as well as abutting municipalities, such as Old Lyme and Salem, for their review and comments.

Monday’s vote came as the agency also is considering passing several other revisions to its regulations — which Goeschel said he and the commission have been working on for several years now, as the regulations have not been updated since 2011 — but it decided instead to focus only on the upland review area for the time being.

“That seems to be the big piece, and I would like to knock that piece off,” Agency Chairman Gary Upton said Monday. “I don’t want to rush all these important policies and updates. It’s been a while since these regulations have been updated.”

While discussing the proposal Monday, member Rosemary Ostfeld said other towns throughout the state — such as Glastonbury, Burlington and Rocky Hill, among several others — have implemented 200to 500-foot upland review areas around certain bodies of water, such as lakes and vernal pools, and have created even larger upland review limits in areas with steeper slopes.

Ostfeld, who made a motion proposing the 500-foot review area Monday, argued by phone this week the move would put East Lyme in line with the state’s more “progressive” towns, allowing the wetland agency to better ensure town water is “adequately taken care of.”

“The wetlands agency is essentially the first port of call for any development process” that has the potential to impact inland wetlands, she said. “It’s important that during that first step we conserve our existing water bodies.”

“Protecting our water enables us to reduce our reliance from other towns, where we do get some of our water seasonally, thereby helping us reduce further costs in the future, if we do our due diligence,” she said.

East Lyme public water customers receive their drinking water from seven separate wells throughout town and, in summer months, from the Lake Konomoc reservoir in Waterford, which is controlled by the city of New London. All seven wells draw from either the Pattagansett or Bride Brook aquifers.

In recent months, the town has planned a more than $5 million project to install additional filters for drinking water coming from two of its wells in an effort to keep manganese at safe drinking levels, as dictated by the state’s Department of Public Health.

Goeschel said by phone this week that while most Connecticut towns have established 100-foot review areas since the federal Clean Water Act was amended in 1972, “with the exception of a handful who have established larger areas due to special circumstances, such as a vernal pool or a slope,” DEEP allows municipalities to set their own upland review areas as they see fit.

“This (proposed 500-foot upland review area) would be atypical compared to the majority of municipalities within the state,” he said. “This proposal feels like a blanket, where they are proposing to increase the area in general, whereas in other communities, the conditions to do that were for different reasons.”

“My argument is that extending (the review area) doesn’t necessarily improve or better the wetland,” he said by phone this week. “But regulating the proposed activity and requiring the activity to be performed in a certain way, for example requiring certain porous materials be used, can better improve the environment . ... I would rather focus attention there.”

While agency member Phyllis Berger said she felt extending the review area to 500 feet was “a little extreme” at Monday’s meeting, she said she believes “the town is getting overcrowded and the town’s wetlands aren’t being valued enough.”

Upton added to that point by phone this week, saying he’s seen developers propose subdivisions, septic systems and multi-unit apartments that “just skirt” the upland review area, potentially impacting a body of water in a way the agency has no say over.

“The applicant will put the septic system just one to two feet outside the upland review area and say, ‘you can’t do anything about it because it’s at 103 feet,” he said. “We want to hold developers and people using the land to a higher standard. For me, that means putting in buildings and septic systems that are not within feet of the wetlands.”

“We are trying to protect the water, the groundwater and the organisms, including people, that rely on that water,” Upton continued. “We are appointed to guarantee its preservation and protection for not only us, but for our kids and generations to come. This isn’t about letting businesses or developments do something that doesn’t ‘hurt our watercourses too much.’”