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WPCA officials present 10‑year collection and treatment plan, say state review pending
Summary
WPCA engineers told the committee Norwalk submitted a 10‑year plan to Connecticut DEEP and will pursue collection system rehabilitation and treatment plant upgrades; projects are staggered pending state comments and grants.
Ralph Kolb, senior environmental engineer with Norwalk’s Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA), briefed the Economic Community Development Committee on March 31 about a multi‑year plan to rehabilitate the city’s wastewater collection system and upgrade treatment facilities.
Kolb said the WPCA manages roughly 200 miles of sewer pipe and proposed a 10‑year program of pipeline rehabilitation, manhole repairs and trenchless pipelining (CIPP) in several neighborhoods. He said the plan, submitted to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) in September 2022, is intended to reduce inflow and infiltration, preserve existing assets and help comply with a pending consent‑order process.
Kolb and Vanessa Baladares, chief of operations and public works, said the city is already doing targeted lining and manhole work in places such as Bell Island, Samus Street and Martin Beach. They asked the committee to authorize roughly $7.6 million this year for collection‑system work, saying that amount reflects projects ready for bidding and construction and that prior authorized but unissued project balances remain available.
On treatment‑plant work, Kolb said Norwalk has filed a wastewater treatment plant facility plan with DEEP and is beginning design of final settling tanks; DEEP may partner on construction funding and will factor the project’s priority points when allocating Clean Water Fund assistance.
Why it matters: The WPCA is an enterprise fund; its projects are usually financed by revenues of the authority but require council authorization for bonding. Kolb and Baladares said some work is being staged while the city awaits DEEP’s formal response to the facility plan. Committee questions focused on whether the scaled‑back request for this year is sufficient; WPCA staff said the shown amounts reflect a realistic, staged work plan and remaining unissued authorizations carried forward from prior years.
Ending: WPCA staff said they will continue to brief the committee and try to time grant applications so readiness documents line up with state grant cycles.
