Wilton Reaches 99% of Sewer Capacity Allocation from Norwalk

Wilton’s calculated sewer demand has reached 99% of the town’s capacity allocation from Norwalk, according to figures presented to the Water Pollution Control Authority at its meeting Wednesday, Jun. 10, leaving little remaining capacity for future development under the town’s current agreement.

Continuing a practice begun by former DPW Director/Town Engineer Frank Smeriglio, DPW Senior Civil Engineer Stephen Santacroce provided WPCA members a brief update on town-wide sewer flows during Wednesday’s meeting.

Santacroce explained that the only significant difference since the last WPCA meeting on May 6 was an increase in the volume being held in reserve for vacant properties and adjacent residences not connected to the sewer system. The calculated theoretical flow — estimated at 65 gallons per person per day — increased by nearly 21%, up from 30,729.98 gallons per day to 37,931.98.

Santacroce explained to GOOD Morning Wilton that the increase is due to factoring in the 110,800-square-foot building on 15 River Rd., which is part of Kimco’s Wilton Center project. DPW’s tracking spreadsheet lists the building as vacant. As GMW previously reported, Kimco recently said the current tenants of the office building have announced they are leaving, and the building is expected to be empty by year’s end.

This increase brings the total calculated daily flow to 640,243.69 gallons per day, 99% of the town’s allocated sewer capacity under its agreement with the Town of Norwalk of 650,000 gallons.

Still, the 640,243.69-gallon-per-day figure does not represent actual sewer use. Rather, it reflects WPCA’s theoretical calculation of current allocations, approved projects and reserved capacity using standard flow assumptions.

Boucher reiterated that Norwalk has not agreed to provide more capacity, but Wilton will continue discussing the issue with them “to see if they have a change of mind.”

“The only thing that we really can entertain is if a property that is on the market or is being sold, they have water capacity for their previous operations, but if there’s a new use for that particular building or increased use, that difference between what they are legally allowed to have versus a new one really presents a problem for that development at this point in time,” Boucher explained. “Anything that is vacant, that does not mean that their water capacity goes away. It means that we … hold it in reserve for them to be used once they fill either to capacity or someone buys it and they decide to have a new use. But again, if there’s a big change upward that may be limited based on our water capacity.”

Boucher noted that, in practice, there is often a difference between how the town and developers calculate estimated capacity.

“The standard that we use — and has been, I think, what Frank [Smeriglio] always felt was an industry standard — was … 65 gallons per person when you’re calculating, say, an apartment, and 150 per bedroom, whereas oftentimes we’ll have an application that may want to use 55 gallons per bedroom instead,” Boucher explained. “So you could see that there’s a range of opinion when it comes to flow.”

WPCA members did not offer any comments on the higher number.

WPCA Approves Rate Hike and Budget, Addresses Healy’s Staff Salary and Benefits Question

Also during Wednesday’s meeting, the WPCA approved a 2.7% sewer rate increase for 2027, to $300 per unit up from $292.

Second Selectman Ross Tartell said that the increase is “actually a very low increase” that compares favorably with the sewer rates of other towns, and reflects cost savings that Wilton has been able to achieve. Boucher agreed, noting that the increase is “potentially less than our surrounding communities.”

During discussion of WPCA’s 2027 budget, Chief Financial Officer Dawn Savo addressed questions raised by Board of Finance member Kim Healy at the May 6 special meeting about the allocation of portions of some Town employee salaries and benefits to the WPCA budget.

Savo said that CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CLA), the Town’s auditing firm, reviewed the $60,000 staff allocation and determined it was appropriate.

Savo explained that past practice was to assign one person in the tax office to WPCA, for “ease of accounting.” However, former Department of Public Works (DPW) Director and Town Engineer Frank Smeriglio also allocated a percentage of hours for three DPW staff members based on the amount of time he calculated was being dedicated to WPCA activities.

“I reviewed it with [DPW Administrative Manager] Jen [Fascitelli], I sent it to the board, and as you could see that that $60,000 really was only covering the tax departments,” Savo said. “And so we use those figures. And I think everybody is okay with that now.”

Tartell suggested the Town consider implementing a system to track staff time devoted to WPCA activities.

When Healy joined the meeting after Savo’s explanation, Boucher briefly summarized the conversation for her and said that the authority “took that very seriously.”

As the WPCA members reviewed the budget, Tartell noted that the only significant differences between the 2025 and 2026 actuals appeared to be decreases in connection fees and interest penalty charges, both of which decreased.

“What you brought up on the connection fees, that may be an error in the funds,” Fascitelli said. “The revenue may have been misapplied to the wrong line for the service. we’re going to look into if it should have gone towards the user charges.”

“Well, I’ll let you guys figure that out,” Tartell replied. “It’s not large enough to be meaningful, at least not in my mind.”

The members voted 5-0 to approve the 2027 WPCA budget and associated sewer rate increase. WPCA Member Lori Bufano was not present. No members of the public spoke during the scheduled public hearing.