New Haven Independent

Correct! Long Water Land.

In a new presentation that he debuted Saturday morning at the Fair Haven branch library — while it rained two to four inches of the wet stuff outside — historic and environmental landscape activist Chris Ozyck turned his attention to that ubiquitous element in which our bodies and our world swim.

He said that New Haven tap water is in general excellent and that the ongoing separation of city sewer lines into separate lines for storm water and waste water is a major and ongoing improvement.

However woefully lacking is public education and even advocacy about simple steps every New Haven family can do to make a huge difference. For example: Always clean up that dog poop, which is full of the disease-causing bacterium listeria and washes into the water supply. And stop throwing pharmaceuticals and beauty supplies down the toilet.

Ozyck, who is the greenspace manager for Yale’s Urban Resource Initiative, brought in a branch of witch hazel, whose flexibility as a divining rod for water was tested by librarian Betsy Goldberg and her husband, East Rock Alderman Allan Brison of the Green Party. As Goldberg moved toward the door, the branch throbbed, indicating that it was pouring outside the building and all over the city, which was correct.

Here, in Q & A format, are some highlights of Ozyck’s “Water, Pure and Simple,” combined with questions put to him by his rapt audience:

Q: Where does New Haven’s water come from?
A: Many people think it comes from Lake Whitney. But it’s not so. It comes today primarily from Lake Galliard in North Branford.

Q: So what’s going on at Lake Whitney?
A: Lake Whitney and various other lakes are at what’s known as “extra capacity.” It used to be we had 9 percent extra capacity; now we have 29 percent. This generally means we won’t have water bans. The new water treatment plant, the “Sliver,” is a wonderful new building to walk around. It’s open to the public. It’s similar to the water treatment plant at Lake Galliard.

Q: Is New Haven tap water as good as bottled water?
A: It’s a lot better than most. In fact lots of bottled water is right out of the municipal tap. That’s one of that industry’s little secrets. Whitney Water identifies exactly where it comes from, and everyone agrees it’s pretty tasty.

Q: How long should we run the tap before we drink from it?
A: The older the house and the longer the distance the water runs through the pipes, the longer the wait. Maybe three to five seconds is all right, longer with the hot water. The issue is that the copper pipes are soldered together at the joints with lead. Hot water picks up tiny amounts of the lead more than the cold. A good idea is to take the first few cups-full and water the plants. Then you’re ready to go.

Q: What are some of the major threats to the water supply?
A: I’d call your attention to pet waste, especially dogs. Dogs (like people) are meat-eaters, and their waste contains listeria, bacteria that’s pathogenic. There’s other bad stuff as well. And even if the poop is on your yard, you can’t treat it as manure. Particles will wash into storm water down into the drains and into the river.

Q: What about chemicals in, for example, pesticides?
A: I’m not anti-chemical — they’re part of our lives — just when chemicals are misapplied or not cleaned up. For example, when there’s a traffic accident, even a fender-bender or a car bumps into a pole, and pieces of metal, sections of brake pad … brake fluid. The chemicals in these are bad. But usually no one cleans these things up properly. On the street, they wash into the drains and into the river.

Q: When’s the best time — and the worst — to swim in the Quinnipiac at the other rivers?
A: Well, the DEP [State Department of Environmental Protection] says don’t swim, but I have friends who do. The worst time is after rains, because the rivers are brown with sediments and soils and waste washed from the streets into the river, along with “floatables” like bottles and worse. The best time is when it’s not rained in many days.

Q: What’s the status of current water protection legislation?
A: It’s amazing that the laws didn’t start going on the book until the 1970s. Today, in phase two of the Clean Water Act, states charge the municipalities to monitor construction sites of an acre or more. It used to be five acres or more, so that’s a big improvement. Buffers between new construction and the water front are also growing larger, and that’s a good sign, the laws are pretty good. The problem is enforcement.

Q: Who enforces in New Haven, and how are we doing?
A: I’d love New Haven to get tougher about all these things because then we could go to the towns upstream with more authority. City Plan has its heart in the right place, but teeth to enforcement is key. In New Haven we don’t have an inland/wetland commission as some towns do. In the past, in matters of buffers between some of the new condominiums on the Quinnipiac and the water, I’ve had to go to the state DEP, and then the City Plan staff comes along. The professionals — architects and planners — know the rules they have to abide by or they get sued. The city agencies — all of them, not just Public Works but Parks and Recreation, all — have to take care now where they park their vehicles, where the oil or gasoline might leach out. All that’s good. The key thing is that the state must get tougher and push the municipalities more.

Q: Whom do you call when you see a public drain clogged or not functioning?
A: That’s the Waste Pollution Control Authority [WPCA]. Sewage water goes to their plant for straining, draining, filtering, burning. Storm water goes into the system of catches and basins and then into the river. That’s why the drains must be cleaned and be effective. The better we do that, the less brown the river will be after storms. But it’s actually not clear. If there are leaves clogging and so forth, maybe you call LCI or Public Works. And I’ve also heard that if a property owner has a drain in front of them, just like the sidewalk, it’s their responsibility to do the cleaning. It’s a gray area. Maybe our alderman who’s present can clarify the jurisdiction.

Q: What are other steps homeowners can take?
A: Avoid putting down driveways or other areas with asphalt or concrete. They are impermeable surfaces. The more permeable surface, that is, the more water can go through and filter into the ground, the better. Then the water moves back through the ground and its own natural filtering to the river. With asphalt, it just splashes right back in. Grass is not a whole let better than asphalt; in heavy rain, it doesn’t absorb or filter. Best is mulch in gardens or surfaces with layers of gravel. Xeriscaping — gardening with less water, with plants that use little water and surfaces that afford great drainage is key. In short, take steps to turn your yard as much as possible into a sponge. And careful what you put down your drains. The key is to make the water cleaner as it leaves your property.

A New Hazardous Waste Disposal Center
Ozyck called attention to a new resource, the “HazWaste Central” disposal site, operated by the Regional Water Authority, at 90 Sergeant Dr. It will open May 10 and close every year on Oct. 25. He urged people to bring there any items whose disposal methods they are not sure of. Phone: 562-4020. For the full schedule, click here.