Officials seek water service extension

PORTLAND — Town officials from Portland and East Hampton are scheduled to sit down Friday with state officials and water company representatives to discuss extending water service through Portland into East Hampton and perhaps beyond.

Portland hopes to extend an existing water line east along the Route 66 corridor, while East Hampton is in desperate need of a reliable water supply.

Leaders from the two towns will be joined by from officials from Hebron and Marlborough as well as representatives from at least two water companies for the meeting, which is being held by the state Department of Public Health.

In a Nov. 21 letter to DPH commissioner Dr. Paul Pino requesting the meeting, Portland First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield acknowledged East Hampton has “significant water quality and quantity issues.”

Portland has been asked to allow the Metropolitan District Commission “to utilize portions of our system to expand their services to supply water” to East Hampton, she said.

Portland annually buys some 146 million gallons of water from the MDC.

While sympathetic to East Hampton’s needs, Bransfield said “MDC’s request raises several concerns for Portland, including questions about the current system’s capacity, the need for ongoing maintenance, potential fee structure and billing and the impact to our customers.”

“Despite the immediate need of a neighboring community,” Bransfield said, “We have a responsibility to ensure that this decision is made with the best interests of our citizens in mind.”

Further development of the Route 66 area, which “would expand Portland’s tax base,” “would require expansion of both water and sewer capacity,” Bransfield noted.

During a conversation in her Town Hall office Wednesday, Bransfield said expanding water service to East Hampton opens the door to a similar expansion to communities further to the east.

Looming above all these issues is the question of funding a waterline expansion.

In a report to the Town Council earlier this month, East Hampton Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said it could cost plus/minus $80 million to bring a reliable water system into the center

of town.

Both he and Bransfield hope the state will provide a $40 million grant to help facilitate their shared goal of extending water service in their communities.

In her letter to Pino, Bransfield called for “an in-depth study” of the issues.

For his part, Maniscalco is looking for something sooner and more definite.

“We have a very, very significant need for reliable service here,” he said, ticking off the needs: the necessity of bringing potable water to the Village Center and along the Route 66 business corridor in the area of Town Hall, as well as associated issues involving Lake Pocotopaug.

Employees in Town Hall rely on bottled water because the well that services the 70-plus year old building is, like many wells in town,

contaminated.

“So, we kind of need to address these issues and address them soon,” he said during a phone conversation Thursday morning.

“We can’t sit around and wait for another study,” Maniscalco told the Town Council last week.

Council Chairwoman Melissa H. Engel agreed.

“We’ve got to get a move on,” she said.

Maniscalco said he welcomes the opportunity to sit down with Bransfield, DPH officials as well as representatives from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Hebron Town Manager Andy Tierney and Marlborough First Selectwoman Amy Traversa.

Also scheduled to take part in the meeting are Chatham Health District Executive Director Don Mitchell, and representatives of the

Lower River Council of Governments, the MDC and the CT Water Co.

Maniscalco has been in discussion with both CT Water and the Aquarion Water Co. as well as MDC.

Speaking about Bransfield, Maniscalco said, “It’s pretty clear we have two different positions.”

“We both need water, but our time lines may not jibe,” he said.

He said he appreciates Bransfield’s vision of addressing the water needs of communities further to the east.

“Maybe East Hampton could be Phase One of that process and Marlborough and Hebron could be Phase II,” he said.

Maniscalco said he is “very hopeful that we will get some kind of direction for moving forward” during Friday’s meeting. “We’ve got to get something done.”