COPY OF BRIDGEWATER, CT 2001 PLAN OF
DEVELOPMENT TEXT CONCERNING SEWERS
The following text is drawn from the Bridgewater Town Plan which became effective February, 2001.

First, the Utilities section states that "This part of the plan primarily considers water quality as it is affected by private water supply, private sewage disposal systems and storm drainage. Only private water supply and private sewage disposal systems are considered in conformance with this plan." Then the "Objectives" section states "Protect surface and groundwater supplies." Then also, "Maintain a sewer avoidance policy."

BRIDGEWATER CT SEWER AVOIDANCE
HISTORY (UPDATED ONLY TO 1992)
In Bridgewater’s 1967 Plan of Development, three locations for sewage treatment plants were mapped. However, after two decades, no pressing need for municipal sewers had ever been demonstrated, and no CT DEP pollution abatement orders had been issued.

The most recent Plan of Development revision of 1985 has dropped the sewage plant sites and has adopted a strong sewer avoidance policy instead. As an outlying community, this reflects both the 'Smart Growth" trend and the anti-sprawl philosophy of the HVCEO Regional Plan.

In the 1985 update of the Plan of Development, the Bridgewater Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the implementation of local, regional and State planning objectives for maintaining Bridgewater as a limited growth area and a “remote” greenbelt Town in the Housatonic Valley Region.

The Commission’s method for achieving these goals was to adopt 2, 3 and 4-acre minimum lot sizes so that developments would require no municipal sewer collection/treatment system either at present or over the long term.

In the February 2001 update of the Plan of Conservation of Development, the Bridgewater Planning and Zoning Commission again maintained a town–wide sewer avoidance policy. The Plan of Conservation and Development also require inspections of septic systems around Lake Lillinonah and along the Shepaug River.

There are two on-site sewage treatment systems in Bridgewater which are CT DEP regulated discharges. The Burnham Elementary School, in the Village Center, has a CT DEP permit to discharge treated sewage effluent into Clapboard Brook, and the Bridgewater Common has a CT DEP permit to discharge treated sewage effluent to groundwater.