DEEP hearing set on Brookfield natural gas compressor station expansion near middle school
BROOKFIELD — Residents have the chance to share their
thoughts on Iroquois Gas' proposed
expansion of a natural gas compressor station, located just 1,900 feet
from Whisonier Middle School.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
is holding a virtual public hearing about expanding
the Brookfield compressor station — which has drawn opposition for
its potential
negative health impacts from town leaders residents and the Sierra
Club — at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Some residents, conservationists and town and state
officials have worked for years to try to stop the expansion of Brookfield’s
natural gas compressor station, which is on an 80-acre property at 78 Meadow
Lane owned by Iroquois.
The expansion plan would involve two steel pipelines that
enter and exit the station: The Algonquin pipeline, built in 2008, comes in
from the southwest, and the Iroquois pipeline, built in 2009, comes down from
the north.
Iroquois wants to more than double the capacity of the
compressor station to receive an additional 125 million cubic feet of natural
gas per day, according to an operating permit filed with DEEP.
The Iroquois natural gas pipeline, which runs from Canada
through New York and Connecticut and under Long Island Sound, began operations
in 1992. When Iroquois proposed a compressor station for the pipeline in 2006
for Brookfield, residents objected, saying it would be a risk to the health and
safety of neighbors and the staff and students at Whisconier.
Despite objections, the compressor station was built.
To testify on the expansion, people must register on DEEP's
meeting website.
People wishing to speak or submit written comments at the
hearing may sign up to do so in their registration. Persons must register with
full names; use of initials, phone numbers or other abbreviations will not be
accepted.
The informational hearing will be moderated and recorded by
a DEEP hearing officer and will begin with presentations from the applicant and
DEEP, followed by oral and written comments from members of the public.
Written comments should be sent to DEEP.Adjudications@ct.gov
and will be accepted after the informational public hearing until the
hearing record closes at the end of business on Jan. 15.
After the hearing is closed, DEEP staff will prepare a response to comments
document and issue their recommendation. DEEP spokesman Will Healey said that
process will likely take months, depending on the number and nature of comments
received.
The public comment will focus on the expansion proposed by
the Iroquois Gas Transmission System. The proposal for Brookfield, part of a
larger expansion project by Iroquois, is moving through the approval process on
many levels.
On Aug. 1, the New York Department of Environmental
Conservation approved air permits to increase output at gas compressor stations
in Dover and Athens, N.Y.
The Brookfield air permit was the last air permit needed
before construction could begin in both New York and Connecticut.
Iroquois estimates the $272 million project would allow
Iroquois to provide more natural gas to customers to heat and power homes and
businesses.
Waterbury water main repairs, sliplining project near end, mayor says
WATERBURY — The city's mayor says two major projects
involving the local water supply are nearing completion after a
break caused thousands of residents to lose water.
In a release on Wednesday, Waterbury Mayor Paul
Pernerewski said the water
main break repairs on Thomaston Avenue, and the ongoing 42-inch sliplining
project related to the repairs, are almost done.
Concerning the water main break on Thomaston Avenue, which
caused thousands
of residents to lose water in mid-December, Pernerewski said all pipe
work in the ground has been successfully replaced, pressure tested and is now
operationally available.
"The temporary bypass has been removed from the 36-inch
low service main, and full volume and pressure are currently flowing to the
city," he said.
The 36-inch high pressure main has been pressure tested and
disinfected, Pernerewski said, adding the results were "acceptable."
He said that line will be opened to the 42-inch main once that work is
completed later this week. Repairs to the 12-inch line have also been pressure
tested without issue, he said.
Pernerewski said the roadway of Thomaston Avenue also has
been fully backfilled and is awaiting paving, which should take place next week
once the asphalt plant reopens.
"This was a complex failure affecting some of the most
critical water infrastructure in our city, and the progress made in a short
period of time is a direct result of the tireless work of our crews and
contractors," he said. "I am grateful to everyone who worked around
the clock in extremely difficult conditions, and I want to thank our residents
and business owners for their patience and cooperation throughout this
process."
Pernerewski said the city was pressure testing the 42-inch
sliplining project Wednesday as well. Sliplining is when a smaller pipe is
inserted into an existing pipe that is deteriorating.
"While crews encountered issues yesterday with several
mechanical connections, those problems have been resolved and the pipe is
currently holding pressure," he said. "The line must maintain
pressure for a full 24-hour period before it can be approved for operational
use."
Once pressure testing is successfully completed, Pernerewski
said, Murphy Pipeline will begin backfilling and closing the nine pits
located between Waterville Park and the start of the project further down
Thomaston Avenue.
That pipe has been out of service for nearly nine months, he
said, so the pipe must undergo a disinfection period of 24-hours followed by a
bacteriological sample. When the samples are clear, it will go back into
service and allow water to flow again from the treatment plant through the
repaired 36-inch high service main.
Bradley Malay, the city's superintendent of water, said the
final testing and restoration is crucial to the project.
"Every component of this system has now been repaired
and tested, and we are moving through the final validation process," he
said. "Holding pressure, completing disinfection, and confirming
bacteriological results are critical steps to ensure long term reliability and
water quality before the system is fully returned to service."
When the 42-inch main is in operation, the city will be
fully function and the city's ability to respond to any future main failures
will be significantly strengthened, Pernerewski said.
Pernerewski said the next steps involve evaluating and
advancing a plan for critical valve replacements within the water system. He
said doing so will better isolate sections of the system in the event of
failures, reducing how wide the impact is.
"As we move out of response mode and back into normal
operations, this is the right time to take a hard look at system upgrades that
will strengthen our ability to isolate and respond to future issues," he
said. "This event has reinforced the need to keep investing in the
reliability and resilience of Waterbury’s water system."
Trump’s offshore wind project freeze draws lawsuits from states and developers
JENNIFER McDERMOTT
Offshore wind developers affected by the Trump
administration’s freeze of five big projects on the East Coast are fighting
back in court, with one developer saying its project will likely be terminated
if they can’t resume by the end of next week.
Norwegian company Equinor and the Danish energy company
Orsted are the latest to sue, with the limited liability companies for their
projects filing civil suits late Tuesday. Connecticut and Rhode Island filed
their own request on Monday seeking a preliminary injunction for a third
project.
The administration announced Dec. 22 it was suspending
leases for at least 90 days on the five offshore wind projects because of
national security concerns. Its announcement did not reveal specifics about
those concerns.
President Donald Trump has been hostile to renewable energy
technologies that produce electricity cleanly, particularly offshore wind, and
has instead prioritized oil, coal and natural gas that emit carbon pollution
when burned.
Interior Department spokesperson Matt Middleton said
Wednesday that Trump has directed the agency to manage public lands and waters
for multiple uses, energy development, conservation and national defense.
Middleton said the pause on large-scale offshore wind construction is a
“decisive step to protect America’s security, prevent conflicts with military
readiness and maritime operations and ensure responsible stewardship of our
oceans.”
“We will not sacrifice national security or economic
stability for projects that make no sense for America’s future,” Middleton said
in a statement.
Equinor owns the Empire Wind project and Orsted owns Sunrise
Wind, major offshore wind farms in New York. Empire Wind LLC requested
expedited consideration by the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia, saying the project faces “likely termination” if construction can’t
resume by Jan. 16. It said the order is disrupting a tightly choreographed
construction schedule dependent on vessels with constrained availability,
resulting in delay costs and causing an existential threat to the project financing.
Orsted is also asking a judge to vacate and set aside the
order. The company says it has spent billions of dollars on Sunrise Wind,
relying on validly issued permits from the federal government. It said in the
filing that its team met weekly with the Coast Guard throughout 2025, and this
week, with representatives from other agencies frequently attending, and no one
raised national security concerns.
The administration's order paused the leases for these two
projects, as well as for the Vineyard Wind project under construction in
Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and Coastal
Virginia Offshore Wind in Virginia.
Dominion Energy Virginia, which is developing Coastal
Virginia Offshore Wind, was the first to sue. It's asking a judge to block the
order, calling it “arbitrary and capricious” and unconstitutional.
Orsted is building Revolution Wind with its joint venture
partner Skyborn Renewables. They have filed a complaint over the order on
behalf of the venture.
The filing by Connecticut and Rhode Island seeks to allow
work on Revolution Wind to continue.
“Every day this project is stalled costs us hundreds of
thousands of dollars in inflated energy bills when families are in dire need of
relief,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement.
“Revolution Wind was vetted and approved, and the Trump administration has yet
to disclose a shred of evidence to counter that thorough and careful process.”
Avangrid is a joint owner along with Copenhagen
Infrastructure Partners of the Vineyard Wind project. They have not indicated
publicly whether they plan to join the rest of the developers in challenging
the administration.
The Trump administration previously halted work on both
Empire Wind and Revolution Wind. In April, it stopped construction on Empire
Wind, accusing the Biden administration of rushing the permits, then allowed
work to resume a month later. Equinor finalized the
federal lease for Empire Wind in March 2017, early in Trump’s first
term. The final federal approval was in February 2024.
Work on the nearly completed Revolution Wind project was
paused on Aug. 22 for what the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said were
national security concerns. A month later, a federal judge ruled the project
could resume, citing the irreparable harm to the developers and the
demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits of their claim.
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Meriden tries again to secure federal funds for Green expansion project, sensory garden
MERIDEN —The city is moving forward on financing its plans
to expand the Meriden
Green across Mill Street and convert the four-acre site into a sensory
park.
The expansion of the Meriden Green will be on the site of
the former Mills Memorial Apartments public housing complex.
The project would see several major additions to the Green
with wheelchair-accessible gardens that are designed to stimulate senses like
sound and touch.
Plans also include a small amphitheater/outdoor classroom
space, stream-side exploration path, walkable sculpture garden, pollinator
garden, mosaic trails, and more. To seamlessly integrate the new space with the
existing Green, Mill Street will be eliminated.
The City Council’s Finance Committee will hear the plans
when it meets Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The panel will vote on authorizing City
Manager Brian Daniels to apply to the Environmental Protection Agency office of
Brownfields and Revitalization for a $4 million grant later this month. The
approval will also authorize Daniels to receive the funds, according to a
resolution.
Design drawings are 60 percent complete, officials said, and
the city has been waiting for state funding to complete the work but was
rejected in several earlier rounds.
The park proposal involves exposing more of the brook to
sunlight and building a sensory park on the site.
The expansion of the Meriden
Green will be on the site of the former Mills Memorial Apartments
public housing complex.
Mayor Kevin Scarpati has said the city wants to make it a
unique environment that’s different from other open spaces in the region —
giving an enriching space for children and families.
“Our Public Works Department and engineers worked with
consultants, worked with members of the central office team, the Meriden Board
of Education, to create an environment for children and adults of varying ages
as well as abilities to be more inclusive and really build something that would
tend to those with disabilities,” Scarpati said in 2023.
“There would be all sorts of different sounds and the
ability for kids and adults to touch and feel and participate in ways that
traditional parks wouldn’t allow them to. And so that’s the purpose of and the
meaning behind it.”
The work is part of a complex flood control project, a
multi-faceted plan to eliminate serious flooding from Harbor Brook in the
downtown area.
The project included bridge replacements on Cooper Street,
Cook, Perkins, Coe and Bradley avenues and Cedar Street. The Center Street
bridge is the last one.
Underground, the Cedar Street bridge work included widening
and deepening channels and eliminating choke points in the system of culverts.
The most visible part of the project was uncovering Harbor Brook at the Meriden
Green. The last and final bridge to be rebuilt is on Center Street.
Like many of the other bridges, the Cedar Street bridge was
too small to contain a 100-year heavy rainstorm, officials said. Water was
backing up into the Carabetta apartments upstream. The reconstruction will
remove the Carabetta properties from the flood plain.
Workers also had to protect wood turtles from harm and
relocate them to safety during the construction phase. The species was
identified by a wildlife expert as living in the area in need of protection.
The brook flows downstream from Brookside Park, under
Interstate 691 and behind the Meriden Enterprise Center at 290 Pratt
St. The city received a $3.8 million grant to pay for the bridge work.
The channel expansion continues to the Center Street bridge
where the rebuild is more involved and will likely take longer.
The Center Street bridge project involves moving underground
and overhead utilities, including electric and gas lines. According to the
Public Works Department, the utilities are relocated and the bridge demolition
is complete and a secondary box culvert has been completed. Final designs for
the road reconstruction were sent to the South Central Region Council of
Governments.
Milford Capital Plan Targets Aging Schools, Infrastructure and City Facilities
MILFORD — A proposed five-year capital
plan from Mayor Richard Smith maps out how Milford could invest
billions to modernize schools, repair aging infrastructure and expand public
facilities — if funding materializes.
Equal parts to-do and wish list, the $4.37 billion plan will
act as a guideline for Smith’s administration and schools to address Milford’s
projected infrastructure needs and priorities. Depending largely on federal and
state grants, with the town typically paying on average about 36% of final
project costs, the proposed projects will not come to fruition unless the City
Council, school board and other elected boards agree to fund them.
The plan “serves as a strategic planning instrument,
identifying and outlining the City’s anticipated capital needs over the next
five years,” Smith wrote in a memo to the Planning and Zoning Board, the first
to review it. “It is important to emphasize that the CIP is a planning
framework only; it does not constitute a funding commitment by the city, nor
does it assign priority to any individual proposal over another.”
The 2026-2030 plan helps keep Milford eligible for grants
which require long-term planning, Smith said.
“Milford has consistently demonstrated success in securing
external funding and leveraging non-city resources to advance projects, and it
is my expectation that this plan will continue to position the City favorably
in pursuing such opportunities,” Smith wrote.
The Planning and Zoning Board voted 8-0 to approve the plan
with no discussion of it during a Tuesday meeting. The Board of Aldermen will
be among the other town governing bodies to review it in the weeks ahead.
Upgraded elementary school playgrounds, new turf for the
high school athletic fields and high school swimming pool repairs are among the
proposed school projects. The plan calls for spending $2 million on turf
upgrades at Jonathan Law and Foran high schools; $1.2 million in school
playground upgrades at various public schools; $8 million for ongoing HVAC
repair and upgrades at town schools; $1 million on school parking lot upgrades;
and $300,000 for the Foran pool engineering study.
Superintendent of Schools Anna Cutaia released a statement
Tuesday in which she supported the plan generally, particularly emphasizing the
air-systems repair projects.
“The most urgent capital projects address health, safety,
and the reliability of our school buildings. Investments in HVAC systems, air
conditioning, and asbestos abatement are essential to maintaining safe, healthy
learning environments and avoiding costly emergencies,” Cutaia said in the
statement.
“Improvements to playgrounds, athletic fields, parking lots,
and auditoriums benefit both students and the broader community, as these
spaces are used beyond the school day,” she added. “We appreciate the continued
partnership between the Board of Education and the City in planning thoughtful
investments that support our schools and the Milford community.”
The report cited the pool project as needing speedy approval
and could need a full replacement.
“The pool at Foran High School is starting to fail, and we
have growing concerns about the immediate potential closure of this part of the
school,” according to the plan. “A design phase is necessary because the extent
of repairs is uncertain. Architectural and engineering services for pool design
involve a specialized team dedicated to creating safe, code-compliant, and
functional natatorium spaces.”
The plan also proposes $10 million to upgrade culinary
spaces at the three public high schools, $10 million to expand the Therapeutic
Services career pathway so students can graduate as certified nursing
assistants, and $12 million to renovate school gymnasiums.
Several of the school district’s oldest buildings are also
addressed in the plan. Harborside Middle School, which was last renovated in
1998, is slated for a long-term study, while Live Oaks Elementary School needs
a new media center. Built in 1961, the school hasn’t been renovated since 1968.
Calf Pen Meadow Elementary, built in 1955, has never had major renovations and
needs an air conditioning system, traffic safety improvements and a new media
center, the plan states. These costs have yet to be determined.
The school board has considered dramatically reshaping the
city’s education infrastructure to reflect changes in teaching practices and
the aged nature of many schools. The concepts under consideration include
combining Foran and Jonathan Law high schools, and closing Harborside Middle
School and two elementary schools.
Though well-maintained, the city’s public school buildings
are an average of almost 66
years old.
Other city departments will also get upgrades. Several city
sewer pump stations that date back to the 1970s will get new pumps and control,
including those at Captain’s Walk, Carriage Drive, Crowley Street, Kinlock
Street, Kurt Volk, Morningside Drive, Naugatuck Avenue and Wanda Road,
according to the plan. That project has an estimated $8 million cost.
Smaller projects include the construction of a modern fire
training facility on Eels Hill Road to provide the fire department with a safe,
realistic, and controlled environment for conducting live-fire and technical
rescue training. The new facility will consist of a modular multistory training
tower, live-burn rooms, smoke generation systems, and simulation props designed
to replicate fire conditions.
Milford Fire Headquarters, last renovated in 1992, needs
$1.5 million in improvements, including repaving the parking lot, replacing
windows, and cleaning and repointing the building’s brick and mortar. Interior
improvements like painting, upgrading flooring and replacing ceiling tiles are
also needed.
The proposal includes $4.1 million in new equipment for city
police, including body cameras, dash cameras, interview room video systems,
stun guns, cloud storage and Evidence.com and Fusus software products. The plan
again proposes a new police headquarters costing up to $90 million, which has
appeared in capital plans for decades but has yet to move forward.
Milford also plans to spend $6.1 million on a new building
to house the city Health Department and Department of Human Services, with
another $4.9 million coming from ARPA funds. The project will include a
multipurpose first-floor space for clinic operations (mass vaccination and
routine immunization clinics), meeting space, and potential use for public
health emergencies.
Washington Field, Eisenhower Park pavilion, the Walnut Beach
recreation area and several other recreational outlets will also get upgrades
as part of a $21 million allocation, according to the plan.
That includes $2.5 million for Washington Field’s softball
field, which requires new drainage as its adult and youth leagues “continue to
lose an incredible number of games due to weather and the field not being able
to drain properly,” the plan states.
Meanwhile, Eisenhower Park is slated to get a new pavilion
equipped with electricity for music and lighting, as well as a small storage
room.