MDC Presents Flooding Solutions to 'Four Mile Road Area' Residents

Residents of the “Four Mile Road Area” were invited to meet with MDC representatives and West Hartford Town officials on Thursday night at Town Hall for a discussion of planned solutions to persistent flooding problems they have experienced. The most significant problems occurred on March 6-7, 2011, when rapid snow melt combined with excessive rain.

“I’m very sorry about what you’ve gone through. We’re here to talk about a solution so that this does achieve a good outcome,” said Mayor Scott Slifka in opening the meeting.

As he introduced the MCD officials who presented a slide show about the planned solution to the flooding problem, Town Manager Ron Van Winkle said, “We’re very pleased that they are going to be able to spend a substantial amount of money to fix this.”

Although some residents were disappointed that they did not have an opportunity to tell their stories and vent their personal frustrations, Newport Ave. resident Judy Brusby did make a brief presentation about the public health impact and dangers from flooding and back-up of the sanitary sewage system. Brusby experienced significant damage to her basement from the March 6-7 flooding, and cited a Department of Public Health Fact Sheet which detailed the possible components, including microbes and hazardous bacteria, of the sewage which flooded her basement.

Town Engineer David Kraus detailed the combination of factors which resulted in the serious overloading of the sanitary sewage system and caused back-up into the basements of area residents.

“Part of the problem is the number of people upstream whose sump pumps take water out of their basements and put it into the sanitary sewage system,” said Kraus. Part of the solution will be to encourage people to discharge their sump pumps into their yards or directly into the town drain, rather than into their home’s existing sanitary sewer drain.

MDC’s Chief Executive Officer Charles Sheehan assured residents that “every individual claim will be responded to.” While he said that did not mean that every claim would be paid, he pledged the MDC’s commitment to fully grasping the different components of the problem and presenting a solution.

Tim Dupuis presented the audience with the MDC’s detailed, four-phase plan for addressing the flooding problem. As part of the “Clean Water Project,” the MDC is currently working to resolve structural and capacity problems with the water and sewer systems throughout the metropolitan area. Targeted for final completion in 2020, this overall $2.1 billion project includes planned expenditures of $345 million to specifically address West Hartford’s problems.

“In West Hartford we are very interested in first finding out how this problem occurred and finding out where there are illegal connections to the sewage system,” said Dupuis. By illegal, he was referring to sump pumps and other devices that pump clean water into the sanitary system and overload it during heavy rains.

According to Dupuis, Phase I of the project – installation of backwater valves as a stopgap measure – is already underway. Residents who would like to have a backwater valve installed, or have one which does not work properly, should contact the MDC at 860-278-7850x3600. Phase I also includes scheduling inspections to determine the exact nature of the situation at each residence.

Phase II involves increasing the sanitary sewer size on designated parts of the system to address inflow and local storm water connections. “This will be a more permanent solution, and will definitely solve the problem,” said Dupuis. Phase II is currently being designed, and construction is scheduled to begin in 2012.

Phase III is completion of sewer repair and lining, and Phase IV is removal of private property storm water and ground water sources from the sewer system. The MDC indicated that a complete outline of the plan would be posted on its website (www.themdc.com) immediately.

“This is a conceptual solution; we’re here to collect data tonight,” said Sheehan, who urged residents to meet with MDC representatives after the meeting to discuss their individual situations in-depth. “All of us will be back. We’re not walking away from this situation tonight.”

Four Mile Road resident Bill Wadsworth was instrumental in organizing neighborhood residents to call for this initial meeting with the Town and the MDC after individual efforts resulted in finger-pointing. He was pleased to hear that there were “good short-term and long-term remedies with dates in mind.”

Although Wadsworth was a bit disappointed that residents were not able to tell their stories in a public forum, he said, “The neighbors are now unified and will continue to be until this is resolved.”

Judy LaRosa, who lives on Boulevard, said, “I believe it’s a start, but we won’t know until we have another really large storm on top of extreme snow melt.” She already has a backwater valve in her home, but experienced back-up flooding in March when the valve closed and prevented any flow from her home into the sewer system.

LaRosa felt “encouraged” after the MDC’s presentation, and is glad to be part of the pilot program which will initially receive the benefits of this solution. As the owner of an older home in an established community, she understands that the problem cannot be solved easily. “It’s a result of the charm and age of this community,” she said.

Other areas of West Hartford were also hard hit by flooding of the sanitary sewage system this winter, but the Four Mile Road area was chosen to pilot the MDC’s solution because it had the highest concentration of affected residences.