Decades of flooding and sewage runoff has plagued Hartford residents. CT officials tout progress
After decades of flooding and sewage runoff plagued
residents in Hartford’s North end, officials say the $170
million investment made by the state in 2023, combined with a special
fund under the Clean Water Act, has made measurable progress towards fixing one
of Connecticut’s long-standing environmental injustices.
After years of tireless advocacy from Hartford leaders to
address flooding and inequities in the city, state and local officials,
including Connecticut House Speaker Matt Ritter, Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection commissioner Katie Dykes, Metropolitan District Commission chairman
Donald Currey, and community activists Bridgitte Prince and Cynthia Jennings,
gathered Wednesday on the city’s Barbour Street to celebrate the progress that
has been made.
“In many communities, aging sewer and wastewater
infrastructure is struggling to handle more frequent, intense rainstorms,
resulting in street flooding, and in this case, sewage backups in homes,” said
Dykes.
“I am so proud that, working together with Speaker Ritter,
the city of Hartford, the MDC, and Hartford’s residents, DEEP was able to
develop and implement this innovative solution to a critical challenge. DEEP is
committed to continuing this critical work, which is so central to our mission
of protecting public health and the environment, especially in our most
vulnerable communities. I am thankful for Governor Lamont’s support for these
unprecedented investments, and I also want to recognize the incredible DEEP
staff, whose creativity and hard work was critical to the success of this
project.”
In 2023, Gov. Ned Lamont authorized $85
million in state funding from the state’s Clean Water Fund to address
sewage overflows in streets and basements. Administered by DEEP officials, the
$85 million in enhanced funding was used to create a pilot program for
privately-owned infrastructure that is connected to the public sewerage system,
and which can contribute to sewage overflows.
Officials say overflows are caused by a combined sewer
system that collects rainwater runoff, domestic sewage and industrial
wastewater into one pipe. Normally, it can transport all of the wastewater to a
treatment plant. Sometimes the amount of runoff exceeds the capacity of the
system. When that happens, untreated stormwater and wastewater flow into nearby
waterbodies. Many of these combined sewer systems are over 100 years old, far
older than the Environmental Protection Agency, which was created in 1970.
Over the decades, as more awareness spread on environmental
issues, municipalities began to phase out combined sewer systems. However
several combined systems remain in densely populated areas including Hartford.
As Connecticut’s climate changes, more frequent and intense storms have lead to
more overflows.
Over the last three years, officials said over 4,200 homes
in Hartford’s North End were contacted by the MDC, and over 1,200 participated
in the pilot program. The program is separate from The
Hartford Flood Relief and Compensation Program, which delivered $12 million
to 660 homeowners and businesses through the state comptroller office.
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“We are replacing decades of systemic neglect with real,
tangible infrastructure progress in the North End of Hartford,” said Hartford
Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said in a statement. “This collaborative effort with
CT DEEP and the MDC is about protecting our families’ homes and building a
Hartford that can withstand the realities of climate change.”
Officials also said that, from 2023 to March of this year,
the MDC has inspected over 10,000 privately owned sewer laterals that connect
homes to the public sewer system. During that same time, almost 5,000 laterals
were replaced or rehabilitated using state and MDC funding, which is typically
a cost incurred by the homeowner and can cost upwards of $10,000, officials
said.
“I want to thank Commissioner Dykes for her steadfast
support on the flooding issue. We literally created new programs and
implemented new ideas in a matter of weeks,” Ritter said. “In my 16 years
at the legislature, this is one of my prouder moments and it would not have
happened without Katie and her vision and support. I wish her the best in
her next endeavors and I trust that the residents and businesses of Hartford
who were negatively impacted by these floods feel the same way.”
Over 1,000 homes also have had backwater valves installed to
prevent public sewer water backing up into homes during high-flow conditions,
and almost 500 homes received sewer infrastructure improvements at no-cost to
the homeowners, according to the MDC.
Around $30 million of the $85 million committed through the
pilot program has been used, according to officials.
“Hartford’s North End has been disproportionately impacted
by sewer overflows for too long, and I am glad that the state has been able to
step in and provide the support and actions needed to deliver relief to this
neighborhood,” Lamont said. “I am grateful to all the partners who’ve been
working together to address this complex issue, and I particularly applaud DEEP
for the progress they have made.”
In addition to work the MDC is conducting on private
property, officials said they have made substantial progress on public sewer
infrastructure in the city’s North End. Over the last three years, the MDC has
replaced nearly 15,000 feet of storm drains and sewers and has repaired and
rehabilitated 125,595 feet of sewer mains, according to the agency. Because of
this work, officials said it removes approximately 18 million gallons of
combined sewer overflow volume to the Park River each year.
“The flooding was a health hazard and it caused a lot of
cancers and a lot of respiratory conditions. We can say that the most important
thing that’s happened with this whole project is the fact that people’s lives
have been changed for the better,” said Jennings.
Jennings, who once had to wade
through standing water to do her laundry and later came down with a
health condition attributed to breathing in mold, has been a vocal advocate in
fighting for funding to address the flooding. She said that many people in the
North End developed health conditions over the years as a result of the
unsanitary conditions sewer overflows caused.
“We have so many people who have died from liver cancer and
other diseases that they got while living in an unsafe condition. So while it’s
important to address the issues with the water and sewers, it is more important
to address the health issues people have faced in this community and had no
other options.”
Prince, a longtime community activist in Hartford, said that
she is pleased to see the progress being made. Prince, along with Jennings,
advocated for years to state and city leaders to address the flooding issues.
In 2023, Prince filed a lawsuit claiming discrimination based on race that she
“demonstrated that the handling of the Hartford sewage outflow victims paled in
comparison to the remedies afforded to suburban crumbling foundation victims,
who were predominantly white.”
Prince along with Jennings’ advocacy cleared the way for the
state legislature to pass several key flood compensation programs.
“Generations to come will now be able to live safely and in
a healthier environment by cleaning up the sewage overflows,” Prince said. “You
have primarily Black residents in the North End with sewage coming into their
homes and then you go to Glastonbury and you’re not seeing the same thing. So
we pursued this as discrimination based on race and also location. Again, the
demographics in the North End are predominantly Black. So after years of
neglect, we have now become a national model. I am just so glad that we pursed
it and persevered. We will keep watching over the next 20 years and holding our
leaders accountable.”
CT Department of Transportation to close bridge on I-691 in Meriden for 2 months
MERIDEN — A
bridge over Interstate-691 in Meriden will be
closed for rehabilitation for two months beginning Sunday night.
The North Wall Street bridge will be inaccessible to
motorists that day starting at 6 p.m., according to the state Department of
Transportation.
It is expected to reopen sometime around Aug. 23.
Pedestrian traffic over the bridge will be allowed
throughout the construction period, the DOT said.
Detours will be in place in both directions.
On the highway’s northbound side, from south of the North
Wall Street bridge, motorists should travel east on Wall Street, take a left
onto Gravel Street, then a left onto Baldwin Avenue, and proceed to North Wall
Street.
New Lantern Hill Road bridge opens on Stonington-Ledyard line
Kimberly Drelich
The new Lantern Hill Road bridge at the Stonington-Ledyard
town line recently opened, after a nearly nine-month closure for construction.
The new $2.75 million bridge has a wider roadway, as well as
improvements to help prevent flooding, Ledyard Public Works Director Steve
Masalin said.
Masalin said that in 1983, the Lantern Hill Valley
Association, now the Lantern Hill Valley Alliance, had raised concerns that the
narrow bridge made it difficult for two-way traffic to safely pass, especially
for larger vehicles and trucks.
Since then, the condition of the bridge over Whitford Brook
deteriorated so that, in addition to safety improvements, it needed to be
replaced, he said. A few years ago, load restrictions were placed on the
bridge.
The new structure, which opened last week, is wide enough
that two full-sized vehicles can pass in each direction, Masalin said. Before,
the bridge was so narrow that drivers would frequently have to slow down and
let a vehicle from the other direction pass.
To help prevent flooding, the bridge is also higher and has
an expanded area beneath it for water to flow through, he said.
The structure also preserves fish passage, Masalin added.
Masalin said the construction was done by B&W Paving
& Landscaping, and WMC Engineers did the design and permitting for the
project.
While the construction project faced some hurdles and
delays, including the need to temporarily relocate utility wires and a tough
winter, he said the crews plowed through.
Masalin said the project required the
planning efforts of both towns to move forward. He said Ledyard took the
lead on managing and administering construction, while partnering with
Stonington.
Stonington First Selectman Bill Middleton said Ledyard Mayor
Fred Allyn III was great to work with.
“It was great that we could come together and make that work
for both towns,” Middleton said.
The project cost approximately $2.75 million, including
construction, contingencies and construction engineering, Masalin said.
Masalin said about half the funding will come from a State
Local Bridge Program grant, while the remaining balance of the cost will come
out of $3 million in state funding that the Lantern Hill Valley Alliance worked
with state Sen. Cathy Osten, D-19th District, to secure.
“It’s a very important bridge for us to get done, because it
was the first piece of the puzzle to take care of the watershed in that area,”
Osten said.
The rest of the $3 million will go toward other
infrastructure projects, such as dams and a culvert replacement, in the area,
Masalin said.
Betsy Graham is the president of the nonprofit Lantern Hill
Valley Alliance, a lake association formed in 1973 to protect Long Pond and Bush Pond
and the dams there.
She said the bridge was designed and constructed with the
bridle shiner, a small fish, in mind. The fish is a species of concern in the
brook and needs the river base for its life cycle.
Graham said the bridge is also part of the main passageway
for residents in the area to get to Mystic.
“Our grocery stores are there. Our doctors are there. I-95
is there. Jobs are there,” she said.
Graham said the bridge had already been down-rated for the
load it could carry and was slated for closure in the future, if the problem
was not addressed.
Residents felt the impact during the nearly nine-month
closure when they had to take detours that added significant miles to their
trips, she said.
“We are thrilled that the bridge is reopened,” Graham said.
After decades of delays, construction begins on Manchester Parkade redevelopment
A Dallas-based developer was scheduled to break ground
Wednesday on Silk City Commons, a 232-unit apartment complex at Manchester’s
long-vacant Broad Street Parkade site, formally launching a mixed-use project
that has been in the works for nearly two decades.
Anthony Properties, operating through APR Manchester LLC,
planned a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday morning with town officials,
general contractor Live Oak Contracting and development partner Perry Reid
Properties. It comes about two months after Anthony Properties purchased
the roughly 23-acre parcel for $3.6 million on April 28.
The roughly $80 million project takes its name from
Manchester’s history as a silk manufacturing center. Designed by Dietz &
Company Architects, the development will feature market-rate apartments, about
13,000 square feet of commercial space along Broad Street, a pool, pickleball
courts, a dog park and community gathering areas.
The site is near the Bigelow Brook Greenway, Center Springs
Park and the Cheney Historic District.
The property has sat vacant since discount department store
chain Bradlees filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in late 2000 and completed
liquidation in 2001.
Town officials first targeted the site for redevelopment in
2008. The effort included a 2021 development agreement with another firm that
was terminated in 2022 over financing concerns, followed by litigation that was
settled last year.
Anthony Properties emerged as the prospective buyer in
October 2025, when it filed an application with the Planning and Zoning
Commission.