Boucher ‘A Little Concerned’ with Norwalk’s Lack of Engagement in Discussions about Sewer Capacity

Wilton’s Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) addressed three key matters at Wednesday night‘s (Feb. 12) meeting:

• First, Department of Public Works Director/Town Engineer Frank Smerliglio updated the members on the latest town-wide sewer flow levels. Town officials have been carefully monitoring flow levels since 2023, as they neared the flow limit under the town’s contractual agreement with Norwalk, where Wilton’s flow is discharged.
  
• The WPCA also discussed an application for additional sewer allocation for 232 Danbury Rd., where the Wilton Volunteer Ambulance Corps (WVAC) is planning its new headquarters. WVAC’s headquarters will require a higher allocation than the structure currently on the property.
  
• The WPCA held a confidential executive session with Town counsel Pete Gelderman regarding the ongoing litigation over the WPCA’s decision to reject a sewer application for a proposed multifamily housing development at 19 Cannon Rd. The Town is currently appealing a superior court decision that found in favor of the applicant. GOOD Morning Wilton will report the appellate court decision when it is announced.

Flow Levels

Smeriglio reported that the latest sewer flow measures are currently averaging 474,000 gallons per day — which he called “a good number.”

“It’s lower than what we’ve seen before,” he said, attributing the reduction to lower rainfall as well as some minor improvements in Wilton’s sewer system designed to reduce “inflow and infiltration” (I&I). (Other planned I&I improvements are expected to have additional impact when completed over the next few years.)

In the meantime, the WPCA continues to take a cautious approach to managing the remaining available capacity under the contract with Norwalk, including a reserve capacity for vacant buildings and those currently under or approved for construction, whose theoretical flows will eventually become real.

However, any future development or growth of existing businesses like ASML could be constrained by a lack of available capacity.

“We have to start doing, at some point, the contract negotiations,” Smeriglio said.

When asked by a resident during the public comment portion of the meeting if it’s “inevitable” that Wilton will need to increase the current contractual flow limit, First Selectman Toni Boucher responded, in a word, “Yes.”

Boucher also revealed she is “a little concerned” with Norwalk’s responsiveness to her inquiries to date — adding that Town officials’ efforts to engage in discussions with Norwalk about additional capacity have been largely unproductive so far.

“We’ve made many, many attempts to engage Norwalk into those discussions,” she said. “So far, they have not responded other than to be very nice and [say] that they’ll get back to us… We’re trying to work with them as best we can.”

232 Danbury Rd.

The WPCA members also discussed an application for additional sewer capacity for 232 Danbury Rd. An engineer working on behalf of the Wilton Volunteer Ambulance Corps (WVAC) attended the WPCA meeting to present the proposed sewer plan for WVAC’s new headquarters, which involves a new lateral extension (a 6-inch pipe in place of the 4-inch pipe that serves the current building) to the existing sewer main.

The engineer explained that WVAC’s estimated flow will be 1,650 gallons per day, which exceeds the 440 gallons for the existing building, resulting in a request for an additional allocation of 1,210 gallons.

After asking questions about the assumptions made in the estimates and reviewing other technical information, the WPCA members voted unanimously to approve the additional allocation, subject to certain conditions outlined by Smeriglio.

[Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story quoted Smeriglio describing planned I&I improvements as “game-changers.” He did not use the term in that context.]