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Not So Forward Thinking

I read with interest the Aug. 31 letter to the editor titled “Forward Thinking Risk Management.”

Many years ago, the State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection was telling our town leaders that they needed to install a town-wide sewer system to reduce pollution in our waterways. Under Mike Pace’s (first selectman) leadership and with Carl Fortuna (current first selectman), who was the head of the Board of Finance at that time, fought the State and won the right to install town-wide septic systems instead.

They created the Old Saybrook Water Pollution Control Authority, which, as I recall, the Harbor News received many letters to the editor criticizing that authority.

Now, the town is left with the beach communities, which cannot have traditional septic systems because they are in flood zones and, in some cases, only a few feet above sea level. Some homeowners in these beach communities only use their clothes washing machine at low tide so as not to flood their yards with dirty clothes water.

Now, the town leaders are planning to install sewers in these low-lying communities and pump the sewage elsewhere in town. Are all the town residents going to pay for this?

I had heard that originally, the town-wide sewer system was rejected because of who owned the property where the sewage treatment plant was to be built.

Now, all these years later, the septic vs. sewer system is still not resolved. Many realtors would tell you that a town with a sewer system is more desirable.

It would appear this decision was not so forward-thinking after all.

Edson Bourn

Old Saybrook