Letter: Beacon Falls WPCA has no regulations

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To the editor,

Regarding Kurt Hummel’s request for a septic tax credit reported in Citizen’s News on Aug. 19 and [First Selectman] Chris Bielik’s subsequent comments about opening a “Pandora’s box,” the actual source of the problem, simply stated, is as follows:

The Water Pollution Control Authority of Beacon Falls has no rules and regulations to speak of.

This can be verified. Go to the Beacon Falls’ town website and click on the link for the Town Ordinance (upper left of the home page). The entire WPCA ordinance is on pages 7 to 9. These (three) pages essentially describe what you would need to do to be a member of WPCA.

That is all.

The framework of the WPCA Ordinance isn’t anywhere near comprehensive enough to describe a sewer use tax or septic credit. Nor is it anywhere near the caliber of every other town in the Naugatuck Valley. Derby would be the next smallest town in the Valley. Their rules and regulations are well detailed and may be found online at this website: ecode360.com19871113.

For the record, I know of no towns that implement a septic tax credit. However, the sewer use tax is so common these days that the vast majority of towns in Connecticut that have sewers have implemented it. The right and manner to do so is given by state statute.

Let’s expand the list of towns that have taken the effort to write rules and regulations for WPCA. How about Harwinton? Only a short ride up Route 8 from Beacon Falls.

Here’s a town with 1,000 fewer people than Beacon Falls. Further, the residents of Harwinton that are on municipal sewer comprise about 10 percent of the town. Beacon Falls is estimated at nearly 50 percent. Yet the Town of Harwinton, with so few people on sewer, has already written a comprehensive set of rules and regulations — over 60 pages worth, in fact.

How can that be?

If anybody is worried about opening a “Pandora’s box” at the idea of a town meeting, how about writing and instituting some practical and comprehensive rules and regulations? Isn’t that a primary reason for having these boards and commissions in the first place?

Greg Campbell

Beacon Falls

2 COMMENTS

  1. After hearing Mr. Campbell at a recent Board of Selectmen meeting make this statement that there are no WPCA Regulations I fact-checked this and yes there are regulations that can be found in the Town Clerk’s office. In addition they are being reviewed and in the relative near future, will be made accessible on the Town website.