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WPCA Still Needs Watching

I have been attending Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) meetings for more than two years. I listened to neighbors whose systems were installed in Phase One complain about their properties and lawns not being restored to their original condition. I listened as some residents pleaded for fair resolution and were brought to tears by WPCA negative responses. These people followed the process of sitting privately with the program manager to get a resolution, with no resolution. Their last resort was appealing to the state for a resolution, however the financial expenses to pursue their issue forced them to stop.

Phase One was closed out and there was to be no further recourse. However, at the WPCA meeting on Nov. 9, a bill for $4,500 was presented to the commission for approval to pay a landscaper for lawn repairs on two properties in Phase One. Homeowners in Phase One were told once the appeal period had passed, no further action could be taken. I inquired from where the money was coming and why these two properties were chosen. No one could answer why. The fact that money was taken from the sewer avoidance fund and used for these repairs makes me question why this fund had not been utilized to resolve earlier complaints, which would have saved money for the property owners who hired attorneys to challenge, the town who hired attorneys to defend, and the property owners who repaired their property at their own expense.

The WPCA program is in Phase Two and is not 50 percent completed after five years. With two years left to meet the court-stipulated date for completion, homeowners in the Wastewater Management District waiting to install their systems better pay attention. What you are told is not necessarily the way the WPCA operates.

Barry O’Nell

Old Saybrook