Connecticut Water will increase its spending on infrastructure improvements this year by 39.5 percent to $58.6 million, officials with the Clinton-based utility said this week.
Last year, Connecticut Water spent $42 million on improvements to water treatment systems, replacement of aging pipelines, upgrades to cyber security and other projects.
Of this year’s spending, $18 million will go toward what is known as Water Infrastructure and Conservation Adjustment (WICA) program. That is important to ratepayers because WICA expenses are allowed to be recovered through a customer surcharge after they are reviewed by utility regulators, according to Dan Meaney, a spokesman for Connecticut Water.
Any other improvements that don’t relate to infrastructure or water conservation must be approved by regulators, as well, through a request for higher rates. Meany said Connecticut Water’s last rate case was in 2010 and the company does not plan to seek one from utility regulators this year. Craig Patla, the company’s vice president of service delivery, said since the inception of WICA in 2008, Connecticut Water has replaced more than 80 miles of old and undersized water mains, or about five percent of its distribution system. Overall, Patla said $105 million has been invested through WICA over the past 8 years, which represents an investment of about $1,115 for each of the utility’s 91,000 customers in Connecticut. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Zoning change sought for Cromwell’s former Nike site
CROMWELL >> A Hamden developer has proposed a zone change for the former Nike site that could open the way for construction of as many as 160 high-end apartment units.
The Planning & Zoning Commission’s review of the Belfonti Companies proposal continues Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in the upstairs meeting room at Town Hall.
The 8.74-acre Nike site, which is located at the end of Country Squire Road, has been closed and left vacant for years. It is “in a state of some disrepair at this time,” according to a description in Belfonti’s application. The property was one of a series of a dozen anti-missile/anti-aircraft sites scattered across Connecticut in the depths of the Cold War in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The site is zoned for single-family residential housing.
However, last summer, the PZC revised a portion of the zoning regulations, Town Planner Stuart Popper said in an interview in his Town Hall office last week. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Southington bridge project subject of Wednesday meeting
SOUTHINGTON — Rehabilitation and the traffic impact of a West Center Street bridge will be the topic of a public information meeting this week.
The bridge carrying West Center Street over the Eightmile River is in need of repair to its deck. According to a state inspection in 2014, the 55-year-old bridge’s “concrete riding surface has uneven bituminous patches, (chips) and hollow areas throughout.” The “underside of the deck deterioration is estimated at over 40 percent and the condition is rapidly worsening.”
The work will cost about $1.5 million. The state will pick up about $718,000 or 48 percent of the cost and the town would pay the remaining 52 percent. The town engineering department will meet Wednesday at 6 p.m. to talk with residents about the project and its effect on traffic. The meeting will be in the assembly room of the Municipal Office Building, 196 N. Main St.
The restoration will include some lane closures. According to Public Works Director Keith Hayden, the plan is to install traffic lights alternating one way traffic across the deck. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
BEACON FALLS — A company that has proposed what it says will be the largest fuel cell project in the world has officially submitted its bid to regional authorities, which must approve its plans to build here on Lopus Road. Beacon Falls Energy Park LLC is one of dozens of companies nationwide to bid for clean energy projects through the New England Clean Energy Request for Proposal organization. It wants to construct a 63.3-megawatt fuel cell project.
The plans have been unanimously approved by the Connecticut Siting Council, which reviews all energy generation proposals in the state, and now all bids must be reviewed by the clean energy organization. It was established by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, Eversource Energy, National Grid and Unitil to identify projects that will advance the clean energy goals of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to the organization's website.
William Corvo, manager of Beacon Falls Energy Park, believes his team has proposed the best project to meet those goals.
"The Beacon Falls Energy Park proposal offers the many benefits of renewable, clean and affordable in-state generation to Connecticut," he said. "Many of the competing bids involve wind, solar or hydroelectric projects, which would be developed and built to generate and bring electricity to Connecticut from as far away as Maine and from outside of New England — in Maryland, New York and Canada."
Fuel cells, which are considered a Class I renewable energy source in Connecticut, generate continuous power and are not dependent on the weather or time of day, unlike intermittent renewables such as solar or wind, he said. Because of their continuous availability, fuel cells avoid the cost and pollutants incurred by intermittent projects, which require parking power generation when the sun does not shine and wind is not available. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The plans have been unanimously approved by the Connecticut Siting Council, which reviews all energy generation proposals in the state, and now all bids must be reviewed by the clean energy organization. It was established by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, Eversource Energy, National Grid and Unitil to identify projects that will advance the clean energy goals of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to the organization's website.
William Corvo, manager of Beacon Falls Energy Park, believes his team has proposed the best project to meet those goals.
"The Beacon Falls Energy Park proposal offers the many benefits of renewable, clean and affordable in-state generation to Connecticut," he said. "Many of the competing bids involve wind, solar or hydroelectric projects, which would be developed and built to generate and bring electricity to Connecticut from as far away as Maine and from outside of New England — in Maryland, New York and Canada."
Fuel cells, which are considered a Class I renewable energy source in Connecticut, generate continuous power and are not dependent on the weather or time of day, unlike intermittent renewables such as solar or wind, he said. Because of their continuous availability, fuel cells avoid the cost and pollutants incurred by intermittent projects, which require parking power generation when the sun does not shine and wind is not available. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE