Referendum Question: Spend $2.5 Million for Sewers?

A referendum question will be before Farmington residents today on the November election ballot. A plan to install low-pressure sewer systems in a Farmington neighborhood, which has for years relied on environmentally troublesome septic systems is now up for the town’s approval.

The plan has already gotten the approval of a majority of residents in the neighborhood, the Water Pollution Control Authority and the Town Council. The question reads:

"Shall the Town of Farmington appropriate $2,500,000 for a low pressure sanitary sewer main serving approximately 95 properties on a portion of Woodpond Road, a portion of Woodruff Road, Shady Lane,Blue Ridge Drive, Helm Drive and a portion of Ridgeview Drive; and authorize the issuance of bonds and notes in the same amount to finance said appropriation?"

According to Town Planner Jeff Ollendorf, there have been a number of environmental issues due to septic system failure in the past. But the small lots are not ideal for septic systems, said Water Pollution Control Facility superintendent William Kaminski.

“Many of those homes were built in the '50s and they didn’t have the same regulations or the same concerns as we do now, so there is a very real danger of contamination.”

To alleviate the septic-system problem, Farmington has for several years now been attempting to replace the septic tanks in those areas with a traditional sewer system.

In 2007, under a sewer policy, which saddled homeowners with 75 percent of the cost of sewer installation, residents of two neighborhoods were given an estimated price tag of $28,000 per household to connect their homes to the proposed sewer.

The policy was changed in 2010 to a flat assessment of just over $10,000 per home.  Residents who choose not to hook up to the sewer line are able to opt out and defer payment of the assessment until the house is sold.

The balance of the project would be financed through the issuance of bonds as authorized in the resolution. The bonds plus interest would be paid off over a set number of years through the Town’s annual debt service budget.

The cost was one objection of residents in the Fairview Drive/Orchard Lane neighborhood, which was slated to be done at the same time as the Woodruff area. But residents of that area also rejected the idea of a low-pressure pump system rather than a traditional gravity sewer system, which was deemed inappropriate because of the area’s terrain and the method’s high cost.

Besides being a homeowner’s responsibility to hook up and maintain, the sewer pumps stick up in the yard and run on power. During the recent power outage, the Town warned residents not to run too much water into the pumps.

But according to Town Engineer Russ Arnold, there is no reason for concern.

“There are a number of safeguards in place in the case of a power outage,” Arnold said. “Since those homes are on well water, a power outage would mean that there wouldn’t be any water coming into their homes, so there wouldn’t be any danger of waste getting into their homes either.”

If approved, construction should begin in the summer of 2012 at a cost of roughly $4 million.