Norwalk Aquifer agency accepts two reregistrations, rejects one and sets May resubmission deadline

At a meeting of the Aquifer Production Agency in Norwalk City (date not specified in the transcript), commissioners voted to accept two facility reregistration applications as administratively complete, rejected one pending application as incomplete and set a May 7, 2025 resubmission receipt date so the applicant could be considered at the May 21 meeting, agency staff said.

Agency staffer Alexis told the commission that the APA requires reregistration of facilities every five years under regulations adopted in February 2009 and that the agency’s role is to determine whether applications are administratively complete, not to grant conditional approvals. “By registering, the facility owners are kind of self-certifying that they are meeting all the best management practices that are required,” Alexis said.

Staff reported the agency must reregister a total of 31 facilities; five new registration submissions were received with the meeting’s receipt date. Two of those submissions—registration letter B (RA24Number99, Hutchinson Tree Care Specialists) and letter D (RA2410187, New Canaan Avenue mobile station)—were found to be complete and the commission voted to accept them as complete. Tammy seconded the motion after Commissioner Anna moved; the chair announced the vote passed by show of hands.

The commission discussed a pending registration, RA2497 for Sean’s Lawns, originally submitted in July. Staff recommended rejecting the current submission as incomplete because it likely could not be completed before the agency’s automatic-acceptance deadline (the transcript gives an action date of January 22). Alexis recommended rejecting the application and setting a resubmission receipt date of 05/07/2025 so the applicant could submit a fuller, complete package ahead of the May 21 meeting. After a motion by Tammy and a second by Anna, the commission voted to reject the application and require resubmission by that date.

Commissioners asked staff whether rejected or late applicants could resubmit. Alexis said the relevant state statute is “not super clear” and that she has discussed the issue with the state office of aquifer protection; she said, based on those conversations, applicants generally have the opportunity to resubmit. The transcript records Alexis as the source of those clarifications.

On another agenda item, Alexis reported she has contacted the law department about drafting enabling language for a citation-and-fine ordinance tied to aquifer protection but has not yet received draft text. Alexis stated, “We Norwalk would be the first APA agency to adopt a citation and fine process for Aquifer.” Staff said it will update the commission at a future meeting once the law department provides draft language.

Separately, the commission approved its minutes (a motion by Commissioner Schulman, seconded by Commissioner Rowena) with one abstention from Commissioner Tabacnik. Staff proposed increasing the number of meetings early in 2025 to handle the reregistration workload, with meetings scheduled on the third Wednesday of designated months at about 5:45 p.m., and the commission agreed there was no formal vote required on the draft schedule.

The commission adjourned after a motion by Commissioner Rowena and a second by Tammy. The next scheduled steps are the staff follow-up on the ordinance draft and the resubmission of RA2497 by May 7, 2025, for consideration at the commission’s May 21 meeting.