"The Waterbury Connecticut Republican American Newspaper"
Wastewater plants left high and dry
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
BY PAUL HUGHES
Copyright © 2007 Republican-American
HARTFORD - Norwich City Manager Robert Zarnetske is urging the state government to literally flush $157 million down the toilet next year.
This is the amount that Zarnetske and other local government officials contend is needed to ease a backlog of wastewater treatment projects in Connecticut.
A coalition of municipal officials, environmentalists, labor groups and business organizations is asking Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the legislature to approve $394 million in bonding for local and regional projects in the next two years. The group held a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
The Clean Water Investment Coalition contends that lack of state funding has stalled projects in 66 towns, including Waterbury, Torrington, Sharon, Salisbury, New Milford, Naugatuck, Middlebury, Goshen and Cheshire.
The collective price tag for all those projects is more than $2.1 billion.
The requests range from a low of $150,000 to a high of $300 million.
The bond-supported Clean Water Fund was established in 1986 to provide grants and low-interest loans to municipalities for sewage disposal and wastewater treatment.
In that time, the fund has financed 445 projects worth $1.45 billion.
"We are here today because the Clean Water Fund in Connecticut is in trouble ... At present, our funding levels are not sufficient to get the job done," Zarnetske said.
A number of Democratic and Republican legislators attended the Clean Water Investment Coalition's news conference, including New Milford Rep. Clark Chapin, the ranking House Republican on the Environment Committee.
Clark said New Milford is still awaiting $27.5 million to expand its wastewater treatment plant.
The Western Connecticut town is also seeking another $2.2 million for two other projects. The city of Waterbury is looking for $40 million for a rehabilitation project, and the city of Torrington is requesting $27.2 million to upgrade its sewage treatment plant.
Rell included $70 million in general obligation bonds each for the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years in her proposed $35.8 billion, two-year state budget. These bonds pay for grants to local governments.
The Clean Water Investment Coalition contends $157 million in general obligation bonds is needed in 2008 and another $137 million in 2009.
Rell also proposed providing $175 million in revenue bonds in 2008 and 2009 to finance low-interest loans. Revenues from wastewater treatment projects are used to repay the bonds. The Clean Water Investment Coalition didn't address the issue of the revenue bonds.
From 1986 to 2002, governors and legislatures approved an average of $48 million a year in general obligation bonds for the Clean Water Fund.
From 2003 through this year, only $40 million in new general obligation bonds was approved, and cutbacks in prior authorizations totaled $78 million.
This resulted in an annual loss of nearly $8 million over the last five years, according to a study that Rell ordered.
The reduced funding stalled wastewater treatment projects. The legislature's research office estimated a backlog of more than 400 projects.
