Aliyya Swaby Photo
WPCA engineering chief Thomas Sgroi with Paolillo
New Haven’s sewer authority — which now manages wastewater for four municipalities in the region — is looking to expand down the shoreline to Stratford.
The board of the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) held a meeting in late March to discuss merging Stratford’s wastewater system with the rest of the region, ideally by the start of July. The merger, board members said, would allow Stratford to qualify for more public money while spending less on top management positions.
Stratford residents at a town meeting last week said they worry it would cost them jobs and control over their facility.
The New Haven-based WPCA, formerly controlled by the city, was expanded into an independent entity in July 2005 in order to help the city plug a one-year budget hole with one-time revenue. The quasi-public agency manages wastewater for New Haven, Hamden, East Haven and Woodbridge. The city representatives in these four municipalities and Stratford have to vote for the acquisition, or else it will not happen, said WPCA Executive Director Sid Holbrook.
East Haven is the only town to have approved the merger so far. Hamden and Woodbrige will vote in the next couple of weeks. The item will go to New Haven’s Board of Alders in the next couple of weeks and from there to a public hearing, said Annex Alder Al Paolillo Jr. (pictured top right), who is also a chairman of the authority.
Click here to look through the presentation board members saw in March.
Board members have been looking into partnering with Stratford since 2013, said Gabriel Varca, the authority’s director of finance and administration. Since the town already has its own water pollution control facility, the acquisition would be uncomplicated, he said. “It’s not much of a physical merger,” he said, but rather an administrative and financial one.
WPCA management would take over the Stratford facility’s assets, including pump stations, equipment and infrastructure. Varca said Stratford would save money by consolidating certain services, including regulatory compliance and sludge management. And the Long Island Sound would benefit, since the WPCA’s East Shore plant and Stratford’s facility both discharge there and would share methods of environmental protection, he said.
Update: Right now, Stratford sends its sludge to Naugatuck treatment facility Veolia for incineration. Varca said they have not yet determined whether it would continue to go there or if it would go to New Haven’s facility. But either way, the incinerator will work at full capacity, he said. If the WPCA decides to burn Stratford’s sludge, other communities outside of the WPCA also using the facility would have to send their sludge elsewhere.
At a town meeting at Stratford Monday, many who spoke were against the merger, said Peter Stallings, superintendent of the Stratford Water Pollution Control Facility. “They felt, ‘Why lose ownership of the facility?’” he said. They suggested finding other ways to bring more money to the facility. Stallings declined to give his own opinion on the matter.
Varca and Holbrook (pictured), who attended Monday’s meeting, said many of these comments were based on “misconceptions.” Stratford neighbors expressed worry that employees of the current facility would be negatively impacted in the transition to a merged authority.
“That’s not based on fact,” Holbrook said. The town’s council will make the final decision “as to whether it is to the benefit of Stratford,” he said.
New Haven neighbors and other current WPCA users would not be paying for Stratford’s debt, board members said. Stratford neighbors would have a separate rate based on its towns costs, determined annually by an independent study and approved by the board.
WPCA meetings are open to the public. The next meeting is April 14 at 6 p.m. at the WPCA administrative offices at 260 East St.
To the editor, was the picture of Mr. Varca and Mr. Holbrook taken at the WPCA offices? If it was I find it ironic that the WPCA who is charged with cleaning our water using bottled water.