Anger at Old Lyme sewer meeting over possible sewer assessment for homeowners

Old Lyme ― The presentation of a $53 million sewer installation plan Wednesday night pitted residents against the cost against state and local forces who see it as a way to clean up Long Island Sound and promote economic development.

During the Town Hall meeting, more than 100 residents of the Sound View Beach neighborhood voiced concerns about a lack of transparency and what they said were the selfish interests among officials from four private beach areas and the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority.

Brian Cornell, a resident of the Portland Avenue extension across Route 156 from the beach area, told WPCA Chairman Steve Cinami the presentation did not clear up questions about how much the project will end up costing, how much it has cost already, and why alternatives are not being explored.

“I think because I’m more confused than ever now, we should just shut this blasted project down and, Mr. Cinami, you should resign your position and we can all go on our happy ways,” Cornell said to applause.

Since 1982, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has been trying to get the town to stop polluting groundwater, surface water and tidal water. More recent consent orders with the private beach areas of Old Colony, Old Lyme Shores and Miami Beach led to the creation of the current plan for the shared sewer system.

Sound View Beach, which is under the purview of the town government rather than a private beach association, was added to the plan in 2019. That’s when taxpayers at a referendum endorsed the move based on a promise that residents of the impacted neighborhoods would pay for Item.

Individual Sound View residents on Wednesday were told their share would be about $22,556 over 20 years, or $1,368 a year, based on a two-bedroom home with a bathroom and kitchen.

Cinami said the local authority has been working to find the fairest way to distribute the burden among residents. He emphasized sewers have been endorsed by independent engineers and DEEP staff members as the most feasible and economical way to address pollution flowing from homes into the groundwater and Long Island Sound.

“If I could resign and the problem goes away, I would do that,” he said. “But the problem doesn’t go away.”

Nisha Patel, director of the DEEP’s water planning and management division, said failure to adhere to the legally binding consent orders signed by the private beach areas could result in financial penalties. Sound View has not been issued a consent order yet because it is voluntarily working with the state to resolve the pollution.

The state points to data collected in Sound View between 1998 and 2013 as evidence that a pollution problem exists. Patel acknowledged the numbers are dated but said the underlying factors haven’t changed: There are many houses on small lots with soil and rock conditions that make septic systems ineffective at preventing sewage from getting into the groundwater.

But residents opposed to the project argued some septic systems have been updated since then, others have been demolished, and a town ordinance enacted in 1997 to require residents to pump out their systems every seven years has had time to make a difference.

Money concerns

Among the proponents who stood up during a question and answer session was Frank Noe, who serves as the chairman of the Old Colony Beach Association’s Water Pollution Control Authority. He has identified himself as the owner of multiple properties in the Sound View area, including the site of the beachfront Kokomo’s restaurant and a now-demolished dance hall on Hartford Avenue ripe for redevelopment.

Noe said he has no problem bearing his share of the project expense, which after an expected $26 million in state and federal funds is expected to cost the neighborhoods about $27 million in total.

Noe called for framing the expense in a positive way.

“All I’ve heard tonight was negative, and concerns about money,” he said.

Noe purchased the former dance hall site more than 10 years ago for $110,000 with plans to redevelop it into an apartment complex. But he told The Day upon its 2019 demolition that he held back while waiting for the sewer project to move forward and while trying to navigate strict town zoning regulations.

On Wednesday, he told residents to focus on the $1,368 annual cost of the sewer project rather than the total $22,000 outlay.

The suggestion outraged members of the audience who felt the business owner was minimizing their concerns.

Sally Woitowitz, a resident of Swan Avenue across Route 156 from Sound View Beach, told him she could lose her year-round home. A man in the back of the room yelled out that just because Noe could afford it didn’t mean residents like Woitowitz could.

Amid raised voices, Noe called for silence.

“It’s $1,300 a year,” he yelled.

People’s homes

The cost of construction, exacerbated by inflationary fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, proved higher than expected in successive rounds of bidding.

Cinami said he’s hopeful a new bid process in the fall could lead to construction beginning this winter after officials revised their estimates and secured state and federal funding to help defray costs.

Local officials are now looking at a roughly 25% increase in costs compared to the lowest bid received in 2021. DEEP project engineer Carlos Esguerra said the agency’s “rule of thumb” in determining how many residents can reasonably be expected to spend amounts to 2% of the town’s median income, which I have identified as $122,000. That equates to $2,440 a year.

First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker reflected the Sound View residents’ concerns about the cost of the project when she asked what she’s supposed to say to people who have already put in septic systems and will now have to pay tens of thousands of dollars more.

“Look around this room,” she said, referencing many residents on fixed incomes. “These people are not young. “These people could lose their homes.”

She invoked the possibility of complaining to the state’s top attorney about forcing the expense on people who can’t afford it.

“I am sure that Attorney General (William) Tong would take that into consideration,” she said. “Because I don’t think he really wants to take away people’s houses.”

Patel emphasized the need to make the project affordable to the community. She said that’s why the agency offered a forgivable loan amounting to up to $15 million to supplement the same amount already secured through the Clean Water Fund.

“We are trying to find a solution that is implementable and to provide as much state assistance to buffer the economic impact of this,” she said. “And we understand there’s an impact here.”

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