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HISTORIC BASE LINE DATA: 1980
HVCEO REPORT ON KENOSIA AQUIFER
On the western fringe of the Danbury urban area, this large and important aquifer comprises 2.5 square miles of direct recharge area and 4.7 square miles of "ancillary" area.

Major land use includes a belt of commercial and light industrial use extending westward from the Interstate 84-Route 7 interchange along Mill Plain Road and Backus Avenue), peripheral residential areas that are low and medium density, the highway interchange, the Danbury Airport, Danbury Fairgrounds, Lake Kenosia, St. Peter’s Cemetery, and very extensive wetlands.

Except for the cemetery and the upland residential area south of Lake Kenosia (zoned RA-40, 1-acre residential), virtually, the entire direct recharge area, and a major proportion of the secondary recharge area, is zoned for light industrial (IL-40, LCT-40, IG-80) and commercial (CG-20, CL-10) use.

Lake Kenosia atop the Kenosia Aquifer.
Photo courtesy of Rick Gottschalk.

City sewers have been extended along Mill Plain Road and Route 7 south to Miry Brook; future sewers are programmed for most of the major roads in the area. There are 4 industrial waste disposal sites located here, one on the primary and three on the secondary recharge area that involve metals and solvents. One contaminated well on the aquifer has been identified, and 5 with "impaired" water quality nearby.

Despite the rather intensive roadside development which exists, the extensive wetland, airport, fairgrounds, cemetery, and lake areas have had the salutary effect of restraining intensive urban development. The aquifer is, in fact, in major use.

Two wells, owned by the City of Danbury, supply water to the municipal system via the West Lake Reservoir (safe daily yield, combined wells, rated at 2.16 million gallons per day; one well (105 ft. deep) can produce at 400 gallons per minute and the second at 200 gallons per minute).

Records of about a dozen wells have been compiled for this aquifer, indicating yields ranging from 10 to 200 gallons per minute. It is apparent this valuable aquifer needs special protection to assure its continued water supply potential.

Major future developments which will intensively impact this aquifer and its secondary recharge areas include the construction for Union Carbide and other corporate office sites, the new Interstate 84 interchange, new Route 7 expressway, additional industrial and commercial development around the airport, and the new State College campus.

Major protection strategies should emphasize preservation of the existing wetlands, rapid completion of sewer service to all major sites and frontages, elimination of all industrial discharges and waste sites, design controls to prevent highway (also airport and parking lot) deicing salt infiltration, stringent density limitations on new corporate-office and industrial sites (low site coverage), and required storm water filtration and recharge.

CT DEP WATER DIVERSION PERMIT
A CT DEP water diversion permit dated 3/25/99 authorized the City of Danbury to withdraw water from its well field in this aquifer. The permit authorized “a combined maximum withdrawal of 2.5 million gallons of water per day from wells 1, 2 and 3... The permittee is prohibited from diverting waters from the well field between Labor Day and Memorial Day.”

According to the Danbury Water Department's 2005 report "The City of Danbury maintains several wells at the Kenosia Town Park for use in prolonged periods of low precipitation."

DEP MANDATORY REGULATORY
AREA IN KENOSIA AQUIFER
The CT Department of Environmental Protection provides a map of the mandatory regulatory area, the western aquifer area on this Danbury map.

Correspondence from Paul Stacey of DEP to Danbury dated 11/26/2008 notes that "The Level A Mapping for Danbury's Lake Kenosia Well Field... dated September, 2008.. is hereby approved."

DANBURY WATER DEPARTMENT STATEMENT OF 6/2008
In consultation with state regulatory agencies, the City plans to expand future use of this resource.