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Norwalk: Finally, DPW Acts on Illegal Sewer Hookups


by turfgrrl


June 6th, 2007 · 2 Comments

One of the many issues facing DPW in determining why the Sewer system is flooding, is the fact that there are many illegal hookups to the system. While they have know about them, the DPW has not been known for with swift pace for following through on forcing the hookups to be terminated. For example, its been years that illegal hookups exist on Olmstead Place, yet letters noticing those residents have apparently not gone out.

But with the moritorium on all new hookups on Westport ave, the opportunity to act presented itself and Hal Alvord explained all at a Public Works meeting last night. From The Hour:

More than a dozen Westport Avenue area property owners tied illegally into the city’s sanitary sewer system may see those connections terminated at their expense.

On Tuesday night, Director of Public Works Harold F. Alvord briefed the Common Council’s Public Works Committee on the effort, which would be done in connection with the Westport Avenue Inflow & Infiltration Remediation Project.

“There are 15 residential properties that have illegal connections to the sanitary sewer system,” Alvord said. “We want to correct those at the same time that we seal up the rest of that service area, which is over seven miles of pipe.”

The larger project is intended to halt the infiltration into the sanitary sewer system, and lift the city-imposed moratorium on new sewer hook-ups — and thus development — in the affected area.

Concerning the illegal connections, Alvord said the city could either issue an order to the 15 property owners, ordering them to “disconnect and repair,” or pursue the “freeholder process” and have the city disconnect the illegal hook-ups and make necessary repairs as part of the larger remediation project.

“(The city would) access the cost of the repair on each property against the property on the tax bases,” Alvord said. “We have a letter prepared to go out informing the residents what’s going to be done, giving them a detailed estimate of what the impact will be on their taxes.”

source: The Hour, End of the line for sewer hook-ups Illegal connections to be terminated with remediation project, by Robert Koch, June 6, 2007

Tags: In the News · Norwalk

2 Responses so far ↓ “Norwalk: Finally, DPW Acts on Illegal Sewer Hookups”



  • 1 itsridiculous // Jun 6, 2007 at 11:11 pm

    Many problems in Norwalk exist because of lack of enforcement, and yet we continue to to pass regulations, ordinances, statutes, and laws (what the hell are all those things?) that prohibit us from doing one thing and require us to do other things. How about this guys: DO NOT PASS ANY REGULATION, ORDINANCE, STATUTE OR LAW THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RESOURCES TO ENFORCE. Here’s how it goes now: Mike Greene doesn’t ask for additional zoning inspectors to enforce zoning laws because the legal department doesn’t have enough lawyers to process the violations and the courts are backed up with zoning cases……
    This is bad enough in zoning, just imagine how scary it would be if Harry Rilling were in a similar situation: I don’t need any more cops to enforce the law because the jails are full and the courts are full and the prisons are full, so why arrest anybody?
    The fact is that smoke test result letters have gone out to probably hundreds of residents, but if there is no follow up and no enforcement, than what good is it? The city spent our tax dollars to pay a contractor to schedule, perform and report on the smoke tests, and yet does not follow up with the violators. Here’s the solution - send a letter, give them 60 days to comply, or the city disconnects the illegal hook up and charges the homeowner. Case closed. Even better, if the city gave a C.O. on a home with an illegal hookup, then let the city pay to remedy it. Sadly, now that more than several years have passed since some of the last smoke tests, residents will demand another test to prove they are not in compliance, and new homeowners have since moved in, so more tax money will be spent.
    As to zoning, I’m glad to read recently that more cases are being managed thru housing court, but in order to really enforce the current laws, we’ll need hire more inspectors, sub out the legal letter work, and get a dedicated Fairfield County Zoning Court with a dedicated judge who hears only zoning cases.
    More to follow with a new witty list entitled ” we don’t need a “fill in the blank” -we just need to enforce the current “fill in the blank” law.

  • 2 anonymous // Jun 10, 2007 at 1:28 pm

    Its about time that they do something.