The ever vigilant oystermen of Norwalk are keeping an eye on the electrical cable work being done across the sound to Long Island. Imagine if they knew commentators here were proposing 
power cable replacement project that began last month and slices through oyster beds in Norwalk Harbor on its way to Northport, N.Y., has not damaged the beds, shellfishermen and city and power company officials said.
“We had big concerns about the natural beds they go through - that’s where we get our seed oysters from,” said Norm Bloom, owner of Norm Bloom & Son shellfish company.
Contractors working with Northeast Utilities “seem to be going out of their way out there” to protect the beds, Bloom said.
NU owns the portion of the 11-mile cables in Connecticut waters. The other portion is owned by Long Island Power Authority.
NU decided to replace the seven cables, installed in 1969, because they were struck over the years by dredges and anchors, and released insulating fluid into Long Island Sound.
NU is pulling up cables from the floor during the first phase of the project. Spokesman Frank Poirot said that phase should be complete by the end of the month.
The second phase, which NU officials said should be finished by April, will replace the old lines with three solid-core cables.
Shellfishermen and city officials were worried that silt stirred up by the work could damage oyster beds, so several conditions were attached to NU’s replacement plan.
Among them was a “silt containment device,” or a PVC-type pipe that fits over the cables as they are pulled up and keeps silt from blanketing shellfish beds.
John Frank, a city shellfish commissioner who pushed for the condition, said the success is encouraging. But he and Bloom cautioned that NU still must finish the project.
source: Advocate, Power cable project pleases officials, By Tim Stelloh, December 11, 2007
