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ORIGIN OF WATER SUPPLY
WATERSHED DESIGNATION
Wolf Pit Brook runs northwesterly thru Bethel from just south of the Redding Town Line down gradient to East Swamp Brook and then out of Bethel into the Still River in adjacent Danbury. The portion considered for potential water supply use by state and regional plans is all in southeastern Bethel, the entire drainage shed upstream from about the 435 foot contour line, which is just north of the intersection of Route 58 with Hoyts Hill Road.

Route 58 generally bisects this potential water supply watershed. Local roads such as Sunset Hill Road to the east of Route 58 and to the west Starr Lane and Country Way fall within the watershed. A tributary stream to Wolf Pit Brook west of Route 58, Putnam Park Brook, is also in this state designated area.

The 1973 Plan of Conservation and Development for Connecticut identified the Wolf Pit Brook Watershed in Bethel and Redding as a potential new water supply watershed. The area in Bethel is about 1,377 acres which is about 13% of Bethel's total land area.

View of a pond on Wolf Pit Brook in
Bethel. Photo courtesy of Rick Gottschalk.

The potential supply designation was then paralleled by DEP's stream classification policies, mandating an "AA" highest designation for the Brook and its tributaries, and a "GAA" designation, the strictest, for all of the land area in the watershed.

Since 1973 the State Plan Map for Bethel has maintained the strict AA and GAA designations for Wolf Pit Brook and its watershed. These generally discourage the introduction of sewers and dense development, but do not restrict single family development on large lots. The watershed is zoned for two acre residential lots in both Bethel and adjacent Redding.

HVCEO water resource studies in the early 1970's noted Wolf Pit Brook in Bethel as a potential future water supply reservoir site. The drainage area upstream of a potential dam was calculated at 2.18 square miles, reservoir storage was seen as 220 million gallons, and an estimated safe yield of 1.0 million gallons per day (MGD) was projected.

REVISION IN 1987 FROM POTENTIAL
RESERVOIR TO POTENTIAL DIVERSION
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “Housatonic River Basin Urban Study” of 1982 offered more details on the reservoir proposal. The dam would have been 40 feet high and 1800 feet in length. The spillway elevation was to be 460 feet and the estimated development cost was $4.8 million.

However, in 1986 the CT Interagency Water Resources Planning Board (IWRPB) reviewed potential new surface water supply sites previously identified by that Board. One result was that in 1987 Wolf Pit Brook was changed from a potential reservoir to a potential diversion. In doing so they realized that a diversion pipe, without the ponding of water a dam would provide, would have much less safe yield than the earlier reservoir proposal.

The record of the IWRPB decision of 1987 states: “The water quality classifications in the area are A, AA, GA or GAA and there are no known discharges or pollution sources, indicating that the site would be acceptable for water supply. The land use and development in the area may, however, preclude the feasibility of the proposal for water supply.

There is a cemetery within .5 miles upstream of the proposed impoundment. There is a natural area, Wolf Pit Nature Preserve on the brook which reportedly contains a rare species of wild flower and is an area of historical significance."

Continuing, "There is evidence that there has been extensive residential development in the area, with several new homes and subdivisions built since the 1980 air photo review. There are new roads shown and indications there will be additional large lot development in the area.

The proposed reservoir development would necessitate relocation of .5 miles of Route 58 and there is high danger of highway spills and ice control with this heavy duty road nearby. At least 4 homes within the impoundment site would have to be relocated and an additional 6 homes would be affected as the access road is relocated.

While this site may appear satisfactory in terms of present water quality, the economic, political and environmental impacts of the recent development in the area would make it infeasible as a potential reservoir site. It is recommended that the Board consider elimination of this site as a potential reservoir site and consider it as a potential diversion."

WATER SUPPLY STATUS TODAY
As noted above, within state water resource planning the Wolf Pit Brook Watershed remains designated as a potential water supply resource. The HVCEO regional plan also makes this recommendation.

As an update for its revised regional plan, the following overview of potential use of Wolf Pit Brook for water supply use was developed for the HVCEO in 2006 by noted water supply expert Donald Smith of Roald Haestad, Inc. of Waterbury, CT:

"Wolf Pit Brook is a Class AA stream located in southern Bethel. The State’s 1973 Plan of Conservation and Development identified Wolf Pit Brook as a potential reservoir site. The reservoir was changed to a diversion in the 1987 state plan.

The watershed at the potential reservoir site is 2.18 square miles; the storage was reported to be 220 million gallons and the safe yield (the water available during a 100-year drought) would be about 1.0 millions gallons per day (MGD).

View of Wolf Pit Brook in Bethel.
Photo courtesy of Rick Gottschalk.

Without a reservoir on Wolf Pit Brook, the water would have to be stored elsewhere. The only reservoir close to the diversion site is the Bethel Water Department’s Chestnut Ridge Reservoir.

The potential diversion site is at about elevation 440 and the spillway elevation of Chestnut Ridge Reservoir is elevation 674, so the diversion would have to be pumped up southwesterly to that Reservoir. The diversion would require construction of a small dam or weir across the Brook, a pumping station, and a pipeline about 1.7 miles long.

Chestnut Ridge Reservoir has a useable storage capacity of 47 million gallons and a tributary watershed of only 0.37 square miles. The reported safe yield is 0.17 MGD. Diverting Wolf Pit Brook to the Reservoir would increase the safe yield; but with the available storage, the total Chestnut Ridge Reservoir yield would probably not exceed 0.5 MGD.

The Chestnut Ridge Water Treatment Plant was constructed in 1909 and is reported to be in poor condition. The treatment plant would require extensive rehabilitation in order to handle the additional flows.

Any diversion would have to comply with minimum stream flow requirements, which would reduce or prohibit diversions during the low flow periods when it would be needed most. But minimum stream flow releases would have only a minor affect on the yield of a reservoir system.

The costs for the diversion pumping station and pipeline, the energy cost for pumping, and the treatment plant rehabilitation would have to be considered in the development of the diversion.

It would also be possible to pump the diversion up over the drainage divide to Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut’s Saugatuck Reservoir Watershed in Redding, but the additional yield would be insignificant to that large system.

Both the Town of Bethel and the Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut were contacted regarding future use of Wolf Pit Brook. Neither one has considered it as a future source in their plans. Danbury’s use of this source is even more unlikely."

As of July of 2006 Bethel had no plans to expand the safe yield of its reservoir system. Also, the view was that that running a diversion from Wolf Pit Brook seems very costly and potentially unreliable during drought conditions.

In November of 2006 the CT Department of Public Health made as a mandatory condition of approval for Bethel’s water supply plan that Bethel’s Wolf Pit Brook be mentioned. Discussion was then added, with the conclusion that "The Bethel Water Department is not considering Wolf Pit Brook as a potential future source."

However the 2007 Bethel Plan of Conservation and Development took a longer view and recognized the drainage area of Wolf Pit Brook as a potential future water supply watershed.