"An Act Concerning a Connecticut Plan for Public Water Supply Coordination” (Public Act 85-535) was passed by the Connecticut General Assembly in the 1985 legislative session. The Legislature found that “in order to maximize efficient and effective development of the state’s public water supply systems and to promote public health, safety and welfare, the Department of Public Health (DPH) shall administer a procedure to coordinate the planning of public water supply systems.” The act provides for a coordinated approach to long-range water supply planning by addressing water quality and quantity issues from an area-wide perspective. The process is designed to bring together public water system representatives and regional planning organizations to discuss long-range water supply issues and to develop a plan for dealing with those issues. The process is governed by CGS Sections 25-33e through 25-33j and the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies Section 25-33h-1 (doc).
The state has been divided into seven management areas based upon a number of factors, including similarity of water supply problems, such as proliferation of small water systems, groundwater contamination problems, and over allocated water resources. After public hearings, area priorities were established to aid in starting the planning process.
The planning process is designed to bring water utility representatives, regional and local planning officials together to discuss long-range water supply issues and to develop a coordinated water supply plan for addressing these issues in each management area. These coordinated plans are to be built upon individual water supply plans from each utility. Individual water supply plans are required to be produced by public water systems that serve over 1,000 people pursuant to CGS 25-32d. The “areawide supplement”, must include an assessment of water supply problems and conditions within the management area, exclusive service area designations, and integration of the area's individual water supply plans into a cohesive areawide plan, which emphasizes cooperation and coordination between public water systems.
The types of problems public water systems are faced with include:
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uncoordinated planning among public water systems
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competition between public water systems for expansion of service areas
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increasing regulatory requirements
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aging and substandard infrastructure
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inadequate source protection
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difficulty in developing new water sources
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inadequate financing
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poor management
Many of these problems lend themselves to areawide analysis and solutions.
Water utility representatives and local officials use a team or consensus approach to solve the problems identified in each management area. This Water Utility Coordinating Committee (WUCC), which is convened by the DPH, then has a vested interest in the plan and its implementation because it is their plan rather than a State conceived solution.
Each WUCC will be reconvened periodically to revise the areawide supplement to reflect the changing status of the individual plans and current planning at the time. This iterative process results in a living document that requires constant vigilance and regular updates to reflect the changing status of individual water supply systems, the economic impacts to projected demographics and the environmental impact on our drinking water supplies.
WUCC Meetings
Tuesday May 14th, 2013 Housatonic Water Utility Coordinating Committee - 10:00am, Brookfield Town Hall, Lower Meeting Room, 100 Pocono Road, Brookfield, CT 06804
WUCC Reports
