The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Water line work to resume in April
$24.4M project will bring fresh water to Superfund site in Durham
DURHAM — Work will soon resume on the Durham Meadows Superfund project in the center of town, bringing fresh drinking water from a yet-to-be-built water tank near the Middletown line to families and businesses dealing with the effects of 30 years of contamination.
The water line project will remedy 50 private wells serving 54 locations. All have been using carbon filters and bottled water provided to them by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The goal is to resume work in April. “We have a very ambitious construction schedule that we hope to achieve. It will set us up to really get the vast majority of work done by the end of next year,” said project manager Ed Hathaway of the EPA’s Boston office.
Superfund areas consist of thousands of contaminated sites across the nation that exist due to dumping of hazardous waste, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. These sites include manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills and mining sites, according to the EPA.
The project will encompass building an 800,000-gallon water storage tank at the top of Talcott Ridge Road in Middletown, which also will provide fire protection.
In September, state, federal and local officials from Middletown and Durham gathered at 281 Main St. to herald the start of the $24.4
million construction project.
That property, a privately owned field, has become a staging area for construction crews, Hathaway said. Work is expected to be complete this year.
When construction wrapped up for the season in December, due to the weather and unavailability of asphalt plants in cold weather, much had been accomplished, according to Hathaway
Crews installed 10,000 linear feet of water main, mostly up Route 17, to three miles away, along Talcott Ridge Drive in Middletown. That included the clearing of trees at the water tank, booster station, and meter vault locations, Hathaway said. “We’re gearing up for year two, and we’re very excited.”
Next up will be laying the water main from Middlefield Road along Route 68, and then to the skating pond in Durham, Hathaway said.
“Once we get the get the main work done on 17 and 68, we’ll start branching down the side streets: Talcott Lane, Maple Avenue, Maiden Lane, and we may or not get to Pickett Lane to put the water in for the school district this year,” Hathaway said.
“We’ll start curb-stop connections, which is where we jump out from the water main to the edge of individuals’ property to set them up for water connections; then bring water into houses. But we won’t actually start the water flowing yet. That will be next year,” he said.
During the Durham Fair in late September, which draws up to 200,000 people from throughout the area, as well as New England, work was halted to accommodate crowds.
The two-year process of preparation involved several hearings and discussions with Middletown residents concerned about what construction would entail, Hathaway said.
“We did lower the tank a little bit, and made some other adjustments to the clean-up plan to address concerns to the extent we could. In the end, they recognize it’s a water line that needs to go in. It will be a short period of time for which they’ll still have some inconvenience,” he said. The water storage container will be 79 feet tall.
Many Middletown residents were worried about a possible disturbance to the neighborhood as trucks move back and forth. “Then there was the physical appearance of the tank. We tried to give an understanding as to whether they’ll be able to see the tank, and how much of it they will see,” Hathaway said.
“It really should not be visible to the vast majority of the neighborhood. Some part of the top of the tank will stick out above the trees,” he added.
Work on Route 17 takes place at night, side roads during day. “Safety is one of our most important considerations. We make sure we have flaggers, and clear demarcation of our work area,” Hathaway said.
A public hearing on the issue is scheduled for March 24 at the Durham Library, 7 Maple Ave., at 7 p.m. For information, visit epa.gov/superfund/durham or contact Community Involvement Coordinator Darriel Swatts at 617-9181065 or swatts.darriel@epa.gov.