April Showers Bring New Expenses For Turkey Creek Sewer
CROMWELL — Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District knows it isn’t just tax refunds that need spending this month. During the regular monthly meeting of the TCRSD board, an estimated $590,000 project was approved while the board continues to tackle remaining SWAP connections and digs into a $1.7 million reversal project from the town of Syracuse.
Those numbers might be astounding, but the board feels the updates are not only justified, but imperative.
On Monday evening, April 16, the board heard from Jones & Henry Engineers Ltd. Representative Brian Houghton just how much one large improvement could help the district. Locals may recall the SWAP connections that wrapped around Syracuse-Wawasee area called for not only renovations by homeowners (currently 185 of 237 estimated new sewer systems up and running), but also some significant changes at the district plant in Cromwell. These changes included a new clarifier tank, a humongous concrete structure to hold incoming wastewater, but the newest developments are calling for a fourth tank for the district.
This will bring overall wastewater capacity from approximately 1.5 million gallons to a little more than 2 million. Board members met to discuss these needs with Houghton and presented a few key points.
• In one day, the district sees between 200,000 to 900,000 gallons of flow
• Increased rainfall and snow melt have nearly maxed out current systems
• The district is always anticipating adding more flow (and more revenue) as needs progress
• 45 percent of the flow is from the trailer park within Enchanted Hills
Although the trailer park is a small portion of the district, it is an overwhelming amount of the flow. While the district has managed to decrease that percentage from a previous 66 percent, there is more to be done. Houghton presented a few options for this, including:
• Lining laterals ($626,000 estimate at time of 2012 study)
• Repair of the lateral-T connections ($417,000 estimate) or,
• Chemical gel to seal and surround laterals ($258,000 estimate)
At the heart of the issue, the district is taking on large amounts of ground water, stormwater, or other wastewater infiltration and cannot pinpoint it by exact location due to the massive amount of homes per connection. District Superintendent Timothy Woodward said many of these connections stem from the inception of the trailer park in the early 1960s.
After all this discussion, the committee recommended the district spend an estimated $590,000 to create the necessary capacity for additional flow as well as address the smaller fixes at the trailer park on an annual basis to continue decreasing the contributing percentage. This “hybrid option” as board member Don DeWitt called it was put up for a motion and was carried.
While this back-and-forth took up the majority of the meeting, a few other important items were covered, including:
• The town of Syracuse formally requested the district present any and all documents pertaining to its portion of the flow and boundaries and listed examples of maps, meeting minutes, resolutions and ordinances.
• Woodward and his team have saved each SWAP area homeowner between $400-$600 by having grinder stations and pumps delivered directly to the district for assembly and prep before going to the contractors for installation and connection.
Houghton also updated the board on the large Syracuse to Cromwell reversal project, noting IDEM has officially approved the construction permit. The project will include the northwest side of Syracuse Lake. Several included locations are Ogden Island, Kale Island, Willow Grove, Kanata, and Pickwick Park. Although “Northshore and Eastshore are clearly within the district’s territory,” as noted by Houghton, that section is currently excluded from the project. To add those two areas would be an additional $1.35 million cost.
TCRSD board will meet again at the Cromwell location at 7 p.m. Monday, May 21.