COPY OF BROOKFIELD, CT 2001
PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT
TEXT CONCERNING SEWERS
The following text is drawn from the Brookfield Town Plan which became effective in July of 2001.

SECTION 14 – PROVIDE FOR UTILITY SERVICES
Establish a Meaningful Sewer Plan
Brookfield has sewer service in parts of the community, primarily along the Federal Road corridor from Danbury to New Milford. Brookfield has a Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) that oversees the operation of sewage facilities in Brookfield.

Brookfield does not have a sewage treatment facility and all sewage is treated in Danbury. Brookfield has an allocation at the Danbury Water Pollution Control Facility for 500,000 gallons per day (GPD) of wastewater. While the amount of sewer capacity allocated is about 430,000 GPD, current usage is about 250,000 GPD. Brookfield can acquire additional sewage capacity from Danbury.

The management of sewage facilities in Brookfield needs improvement. The sewer system has grown in response to perceived current needs with no long-term plan for where or how service should be provided.

Brookfield should consider establishing a sewer limit line to avoid situations where sewer service expands beyond areas where the community wants it. It should be the philosophy of the Town to use infrastructure to support the desired land use pattern rather than have availability of infrastructure dictate land use.

In addition, Brookfield has not effectively managed the sewer allocation that is available to the community. Rather than allocate a certain amount of sewer discharge to each property in accordance with present or future land use and using this to design and manage the system, sewer allocation has been loosely allocated to some uses and made available on a “first come – first served” basis to other uses. Since some uses may have “over-reserved” sewage capacity, there may be inadequate flow capacity available to new uses unless additional capacity is acquired and/or existing capacity is fairly allocated.

Excerpt from Brookfield's 2001 Plan
showing existing and proposed sewered areas

The clear preference in Brookfield is that sewage capacity be used to support economic development. However, to accomplish some of the strategies of this Plan, sewer service should also be considered for other land uses in the Federal Road corridor (mixed business/residential uses in the village, municipal uses, institutional uses, and elderly housing). Other residential uses (including multi-family residential uses) can be allowed to utilize the sewer system if those uses meet a housing need identified in the plan.

A more definitive sewage allocation scheme within a sewer limit line would help accomplish Brookfield’s community development goals and be more equitable and logical. In addition, any uses proposed would need to be:

--- Located inside the sewer limit line, and
--- Within the sewage capacity allocated to that property (the sewage allocation can be used to guide land use and intensity in accordance with the recommendations of this Plan).

Sewer service could also be made available to address septic system failures in Brookfield. Continued septic failures could adversely affect public health and water quality in these areas and sewer service would help address this issue.

RECOMMENDED SEWAGE PLAN
The Plan of Conservation and Development recommends that Brookfield establish a sewage plan that consists of:

--- A sewer limit line, and
--- A sewage allocation program.

The sewer limit line would define the area within which sewer service would be available to land uses. The sewer limit line would be based on the land use recommendations of this Plan of Conservation & Development, as may be amended. Sewer service would not be provided to land uses outside of this line without declaration of a public health emergency or a finding of some other significant rationale for extending sewer service to other areas.

Areas within the sewer limit line would be classified as sewage sub-sheds based on the configuration of sewage infrastructure. A study would be undertaken of the number of users in each sub-shed and the sewage flows attributable to different land uses.

With this information, an analysis can be performed of typical flow rates and this can be used as a planning / regulatory tool for maintenance, expansion and use of the system. Most significantly, it can identify the potential ultimate flow in different sub-sheds and the system as a whole to determine if there are any deficiencies relative to system capacity.

Within the sewer service area, each parcel would be assigned a sewage allocation based on its current or anticipated water use based on:

--- The land use recommendations of this plan of Conservation & Development,
--- The capacity of the sewer infrastructure (such as pipe sizes, flow rates, pump stations, and similar considerations).

Through this method, deficiencies (if any) in the sewage system can be identified and addressed. Unused allocations would stay with the property unless the WPCA approved a transfer of allocation and a document was filed on the land records. Unused and or unallocated sewage capacity would remain the property of WPCA in accordance with this program.

This type of sewage management plan can be used to effectively manage both the sewer system and the land uses in the Federal Road corridor. It is a fundamental concept of this plan that infrastructure should support the desired land use pattern rather than the availability of infrastructure dictation land uses.

Public Sewer
Public sewer service can:
--- Provide for adequate sewage disposal,
--- Protect public health
--- Prevent pollution, and
--- Support desired development patterns.

Sewer History
In 1970, there was discussion about sewering the entire town. This proposal was not favored.

A 1980 proposal to sewer the Candlewood Shores, Ravenswood, Pleasant Rise, and Meadowbrook areas and installing five community systems was defeated by voters.

Brookfield established a sewer avoidance program in the mid-1980’s to reduce septic failures and the need for sewer installation. This program seems to be working well and will reduce the possible future need for sewers in most areas of Brookfield.

Sewage Plan
Over the years, it appears that Brookfield has addressed its overall, long-term sewage needs retroactively rather than pro-actively planning and providing for what it wants. It is for this reason that the plan recommends the creation of an overall sewage master plan.

A sewage plan very similar to that proposed for Brookfield has been used in Simsbury for more than 30 years.

The basic principals of the system are: • A sewer limit line, and • Sewage allocation to each property within the sewage service area based on the ultimate use of the property.

BROOKFIELD, CT SEWER SERVICE
HISTORY (UPDATED ONLY TO 1992)
The first sewer pollution abatement order issued to Brookfield was by Connecticut’s Water Resources Commission in 1967. In 1968 a consulting report prepared for the Town by Manganaro, Martin & Lincoln recommended that the southwest area of Brookfield be designated a priority area for sewer development, with sewers discharging via a force main upstream into the Danbury municipal sewer system. The Brookfield effluent was proposed to be treated in Danbury and discharged into the Still River, thus coming back through Brookfield on its way northward into New Milford.

The 1968 report also advocated a regional sewer project serving much of central and northern Brookfield and discharging into the sewage treatment plant serving New Milford. The goal of this recommendation was for Brookfield to benefit from the economies of scale achievable in a larger sewage treatment plant, and to take advantage of the Housatonic River’s assimilative capacity to receive treated sewage effluent, which substantially greater than that of the Still River.

Under the 1968 plan, Brookfield would have shared the costs of a multi-town treatment plant as well as the costs of a sewer interceptor from Brookfield to New Milford, running along the Still River. As need developed, existing small lot development on Candlewood Lake would also be sewered, together with sewage brought under the lake from New Fairfield. All these flows would be treated in New Milford. The routing of these sewage flows from northern Brookfield to Danbury was considered and rejected as being less cost-effective than the New Milford solution.

In 1972 the Brookfield Sewer Commission was established and later renamed the Brookfield Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA). In 1974 an intermunicipal agreement was signed between Brookfield and Danbury, which provided for the treatment of up to 0.5 MGD of Brookfield sewage by the Danbury treatment plant. The Federal Road sewer system was constructed to serve the southwestern commercial area of Brookfield. Collected sewage is pumped southerly into the Danbury sewer system for treatment. (See the figure entitled Areas Where Sewers Serve Adjacent Road Frontage).

In 1974 differing viewpoints between New Fairfield, Brookfield and New Milford led to a cessation of further consideration of sewering the central and northern areas of Brookfield, including the Candlewood Shores area. In 1977, a proposal to fund Brookfield’s $8.1 million share of the proposed expansion of the New Milford sewage treatment plant was rejected by Brookfield voters.

Following that landmark decision, a new engineering study commissioned by the Town stressed a sewer avoidance policy. The result in 1980 was a report by Hayden, Harding & Buchanan calling for sewering the Candlewood Shores, Ravenswood, Pleasant Rise and Meadowbrook Manor areas and pumping gray water (waste water from sinks, etc. that is other than from sanitary facilities) to a sand filter treatment facility proposed to be located on the Still River in Brookfield.

The report also called for the repair and expansion of septic systems and the construction of five small community septic systems throughout the Town. The project cost at is the time was $6.42 million, with the entire amount to be paid by user assessments and fees. This proposal was rejected by the Brookfield Board of Finance, which requested additional information.

In 1982 the Brookfield WPCA came back with the same sewer avoidance plan, with a revised cost estimate of $7.5 million. This proposal was approved by the CT DEP. However, in 1983 Brookfield voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposed sewerage plan.

In 1985, the DEP issued an order that approved Brookfield’s plan to implement an on-site wastewater disposal management program. All on-site septic systems serving one and two family dwellings were to be inspected. By 1991, 3,486 on-site septic systems had been investigated, with a finding of 114 system failures. Fifty-two per cent of these system failures were corrected by the spring of 1992 and the second round of inspections had been initiated.

In 1987, the Town imposed a 6-month moratorium on the expansion of sewer service beyond areas currently served by the existing Federal Road sewer system. The Board of Selectmen was concerned that the Town’s 0.5 MGD allocation from the Danbury sewage treatment plant might become totally committed before future sewer service needs were fully understood.

In 1991 an organization of businesses known as the Route 7 Sewer Association proposed the extension of the Federal Road sewer line from its terminus at Route 133 northward to the New Milford border. This $4.6 million dollar project was designed to serve the businesses within the area, which currently use on-site septic systems.

Septic systems in this area were reported to have a high rate of failure, limiting business development. The users served would pay for the cost of this expansion. The sewage collected by the proposed system would be treated at the Danbury treatment plant. The addition of the amount of sewage projected to be generated from within this new service area would put Brookfield near its currently negotiated flow cap with Danbury of 0.5 MGD. Construction was initiated in 1992.

BROOKFIELD CT USE OF THE DANBURY CT
TREATMENT PLANT (UPDATED ONLY TO 1992)
A 1974 Brookfield-Danbury intermunicipal agreement allows Brookfield to send up to 0.5 MGD of sewage to Danbury for treatment. The Beaverbrook interceptor, which serves both Bethel and Brookfield, is the controlling physical factor limiting Brookfield’s sewage flow to Danbury. The actual flow of Brookfield sewage to the Danbury treatment plant was about 0.15 MGD in 1991.

In 1989 the Brookfield WPCA sought to increase Brookfield’s allocation of the Danbury treatment plant’s capacity from 0.5 MGD to 1.2 MGD. Since the Danbury system was originally constructed, and in part state and federally funded, in response to pollution abatement concerns, CT DEP has the power to allocate Danbury treatment plant capacity for Brookfield’s system and subsequently allowed an increase of 0.3 MGD, to a total of 0.8 MGD, in 1991.

Brookfield’s share of the cost of the CT DEP mandated upgrade of the Danbury sewage treatment plant is $3 million. This is based on Brookfield’s 0.5 MGD treatment capacity allocation. Brookfield voters approved this payment April 7,1992.