It’s not a royal flush, but better than nothing. After years of negotiations, Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst announced today a tentative 10-year agreement between Trumbull and Bridgeport to allow Bridgeport to continue processing its neighbor’s wastewater through the city’s Water Pollution Control Authority. The majority of Trumbull has sewers but no treatment plant so for the better part of 40 years its sludge has been processed in Bridgeport.
There’s a lot of money in the business of processing poop. Bridgeport and Trumbull officials have discussed for years joining forces to create a regional sewer authority possibly including Monroe that would purchase the municipal wastewater assets of the respective communities. Herbst and Mayor Bill Finch, not the best of buds, could not come to terms on the particulars of a regional authority.
In 1998 then-Mayor Joe Ganim and First Selectman David Wilson had cemented the most recent agreement. As the agreement expired Trumbull began exploring options for treatment of its waste.
When Bridgeport and Trumbull could not come to terms, Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis served as a mediator. In lieu of a longer-term arrangement Trumbull entered into a 10-year agreement with Bridgeport according to Herbst.
The tentative agreement is contingent upon approvals of the Trumbull Board of Finance and Trumbull Town Council.
>”The agreement provides for a discount rate that will eventually be phased out over a ten year period,” according to a Herbst news release. “The discount rate would be placed in an escrow account pending Trumbull’s departure from Bridgeport. During the next ten years the Town of Trumbull will explore other options to treat its waste water effluent. If Trumbull fails to find alternate methods to treat its effluent, our municipality retains its right to file rate appeals with the City of Bridgeport after year ten.”
Bridgeport cannot direct bill Trumbull users under this arrangement “as they attempted to do through various administrative and legal challenges. What Bridgeport residents pay for their rate, we will pay the same to Bridgeport.”
Herbst says the old contract between Trumbull and Bridgeport had a penalty provision if Trumbull extended the number of gallons allocated. In this tentative agreement, there is no penalty provision.
Bridgeport sought $2.2 million in arrearage from the Town of Trumbull. Under the terms of this agreement Trumbull will pay $1.6 million. Sewer rates will not increase for town users due to this payment, according to Herbst.
Herbst says once Trumbull cedes from Bridgeport and develops an alternate wastewater solution, “all money placed in the escrow account will inure to the Town of Trumbull. This money can be used at a future date to provide our residents with rate relief or be used to offset the capital costs associated with upgrading our system or relocating to another, adjoining municipality.”
Herbsts says a long-term solution for treating the town’s wastewater, in lieu of building its own plant, is connecting to neighboring Stratford, or a combination of Stratford and Fairfield.
“Building our own treatment plant is not practical from a financial and environmental standpoint,” says Herbst. “If Trumbull were able to connect to the Stratford system, I believe we could develop a plan that long term would stabilize and potentially reduce sewer rates for the two communities. I have had extensive conversations with my friend and colleague John Harkins and I have indicated a willingness to initiate these discussions with Stratford. I do know that this is predicated upon the outcome of the pending appeal and prospective referendum relative to the Stratford merger with the Greater New Haven WPCA. I believe an agreement can be reached with Stratford if they merge with the New Haven WPCA or if they remain their own entity.”
This is an election year for Republican Herbst and Democrat Finch. When this 10-year agreement expires who knows if either of them will be in public office.
No problem, we probably won’t even notice because apparently theirs does not stink.
Thank you for this Poop Scoop!
Self-respect is necessary, without it no one else will respect you or your city!!!
There goes Tippy’s golden handshake right down the shitter!
The original poop deal allowed Trumbull to open up Trumbull Shopping Park, et al., and thereby steal our downtown and East Side retail icons, setting the stage for our retail-sector collapse and the loss of very important tax base. Later, we lost much extant and potential industrial tax base to the Trumbull corporate park.
This deal not only steals and diverts tax base from Bridgeport, it also crowds out future Bridgeport development.
The smart thing would be to force Trumbull to create their own treatment plants, preferably in Tashua. But instead, those two good old boys from Trumbull, Bill and Tim, hit another brown home run for the home team, once again pitching a brown-out against Bridgeport.
Good work, Bill! You always do a great job for Trumbull. Why, you could even be First Selectman there after Timmy gives up that gig to preside over the Regional Sewer Authority.
Well, as they say, it flows down hill.
Any Bridgeport mayoral candidates out there ready to initiate a challenge of this in court?
Does the City Council have a chance to nix this smelly deal?
Have you seen any coverage of this issue in the CT Post lately? For you researchers out there, how long has it been? Maybe three years or more?
Mayor Finch was pushing for our own Regional Authority where City sewage and wastewater facilities could be sold to for a good amount, $40 Million comes to mind. And there would be a Board where the Mayor would place nominees to represent our City interest. But what would happen to the $40 Million infusion? Never mentioned. And since we are not afforded publicity from multiple PR persons about this subject, out of sight and out of mind. Kicked down the road.
Who keeps track of how this action has moved to a Court venue and Judge Bellis again weighs in to settle a City matter? Ten more years of effluent, organic and political to face with everything flowing towards Long Island Sound?
Let us hope regional understanding and practice grows as the infrastructure ages so expenses are monitored and controlled within a sustainable range. Time will tell.
JML,
Do you know anything about the zoning change being discussed Monday night?
I am aware that Black Rock NRZ has been looking at certain changes in zoning along Fairfield Avenue to go along with a “zoning overlay district” to guide decisions in the future. There was a recent meeting where a number of issues were discussed with OPED and Zoning office personnel. My sense is there were several questions remaining in spite of general favor after the presentation, and one of the questions had to do with specific mention of AAA, AA, and or A zoning references.(I don’t have the information available at the moment. Doing this strictly from memory and I attended only part of the meeting.) I am sorry if my answer does not satisfy but your question is not very specific, and I am making a guess that what I witnessed last week is relevant to your question. Time will tell.