In an effort to soften the high cost of sewer line hookups for people purchasing a home in Wilton adjacent to a sewer line, the Water Pollution Control Authority did away with a requirement that new homeowners connect to the system within 90 days of purchasing their house if the property’s septic system is operational.

The move was prompted by a request from resident Emily Hamlin, who is selling her home on Wolfpit Rd.

Hamlin explained that the buyers had misgivings about what could potentially be a very expensive project should they move forward with the deal. “The buyers had become increasingly concerned about this upfront cost… They are currently waiting to see the outcome of this meeting,” Hamlin said.

Depending on the distance, the cost of connecting to a sewer line can run into tens of thousands of dollars.

“Understandably, they are concerned about moving forward without a guarantee from the town that they don’t have to do this very expensive work,” Hamlin said.

Wilton Department of Public Works Director Frank Smeriglio voiced his support for the waiver and suggested that he be given authority to okay exceptions going forward.

“My opinion is that I definitely recommend that you approve that,” he said.

“It is a hardship for property owners to connect,” he said, noting they would also have to wait for up to a month to even get an answer from the WPCA on whether a waiver would be granted.

“The new owner has to connect within 90 days,” he said, “and just being how volatile it is to buy a house now, it’s just so hard to compete, and adding another expense just makes it such a hardship.”

Members of the WPCA decided to take it one step further and approve a blanket waiver for any new homebuyer. They intend to notify all current homeowners in the relevant parts of town that the condition will no longer apply when their homes are sold.

“I want it to be clear that we’re only waiving the resale aspect of the requirement and not the septic-failure issue,” Selectman Bas Nabulsi said.

Smeriglio pointed out, however, that when someone’s septic system fails, the Wilton Health Department requires that they connect to the sewer.

“The Health Department would not let them redesign their septic system,” he said. “They would have to connect at that point. If there’s a hardship at that point, that’s a different hardship that would have to be provided.”

He said the number of houses that aren’t connected is relatively low, at about 25 dwellings.

“There’s really not many because we just have sewers on Route 7 [Danbury Rd.] and really on Wolfpit because it goes up to Miller-Driscoll School,” he said. “It’s very limited.”

Smeriglio emphasized that postponing their connection would not impede anyone from connecting to the sewer line in the future.

“We would never give their flow capacity away to a developer and then at some point tell a property owner they can’t connect,” he said. “That’ll never happen.”

He noted, however, that flows from residential houses are relatively low, so with the town’s concerns over its flow capacity, there would be no reason to limit residential connections.

Sewer Flow Update

Smeriglio also gave the WPCA an update on the town-wide sewer flow, noting that numbers for the last couple of months were lower than expected.

“I would have thought that with the rain that we had, the numbers would have bumped up a little bit, but they have not,” he said.

Currently, the average theoretical daily flow for approved projects listed as being in construction, including 141 Danbury Rd. and 64 Danbury Rd., is around 465,000 gallons daily, down from an average of 505,000 daily.

Overall, including approved projects not in construction and miscellaneous projects, the town’s theoretical sanitary sewer flow totals 634,000 gallons daily, which is a reduction from 761,000 and below the 650,000 average that Wilton can send to Norwalk per its current agreement.

“It’s positive information,” Smeriglio said, crediting repairs and rehabilitation aimed at curbing excess flow in the system per the Infiltration and Inflow Study work the town invested close to $1 million in last year.

The WPCA is also in the process of seeking state grant money to help defray those costs.

“We have not heard back from the state bonding application that we put in,” Smeriglio said.