CAN'T BUDGE THE SLUDGE
New Haven gives up control of its sewage--and it all hits the fan.
               by Carole Bass   - April 28, 2005

   What started as a smelly deal for New Haven has turned into a victory for 
the environment and citizen activists.Or not.It depends on how you look at it.
   In coming weeks, elected officials in New Haven, Hamden, East Haven and
Woodbridge will vote on a plan to turn New Haven's sewer authority into a
regional body. New Haven activists raised a stink when the proposal surfaced
last summer, because it would have taken control of the East Shore sewage
treatment plant away from the city while still saddling New Haveners with
the water and air pollution it produces.
   Thanks to the activists' hard work, the new plan essentially gives New Haven
veto power over any expansion of the plant's operations. It also reserves
one seat on the new agency's board for a New Haven environmental activist,
sets up a $1 million environmental protection fund, and requires public
accountability.
   "I'm just so excited about what we achieved," says one former critic,
Alderwoman Elizabeth Addonizio. "It makes somebody like me feel I did the
right thing in running for alderman." Still, the proposal does fall short on 
some key points, say Addonizio and other members of the New Haven 
Environmental Justice Network (EJN). "Our job as environmental advocates is 
just beginning," she says. "But we need to stop and celebrate our victory."
    Victory is the wrong word, counters Anstress Farwell, another activist.
"What has been achieved here," Farwell says, "is an intricately negotiated
compromise which will allow all interests to remain on the field to fight on
another day. The core issues are unresolved." Those "core issues," as Farwell 
sees it, are two: Who will control the new sewer authority? And will it 
continue burning sludge from outside the New Haven region? 
   Right now, the sewer agency, known as the Water Pollution Control Authority,
belongs to New Haven alone. The mayor appoints the board, which makes all 
decisions. East Haven, Hamden and Woodbridge are customers; they pay for the 
privilege of using the sewage treatment plant, but they have no say in how 
it's run. Billing is complicated and controversial. Sewer users in different 
towns pay different rates. In the 1990s, New Haven had to take the other towns 
to court to collect, and ended up settling for less than the court ordered.
What's more, the aging system especially pipes and pumping stations need
massive capital improvements. New Haven has spent tens of millions on
upgrades; Hamden lags behind, and that costs all the towns both money and
pollution.
    The regionalization plan is supposed to fix all those problems. It sets 
up a new, regional WPCA that will buy the assets of the existing sewage
collection and treatment system from each town. The new authority will be an
independent body with its own board and bylaws, able to float bonds to pay
for the assets and then collect sewer fees to repay the bonds.
The people pitching the plan, most notably New Haven's finance director,
Frank Altieri, and the WPCA's current chief, Ray Smedberg, say it will save
money. Rates will go up, they say, but not as much as they would if things
stay as they are. Plus, by centralizing control, "environmental protection 
and benefits won't stop at the town line," Altieri told New Haven's City 
Plan Commission last week. Instead of, say, waiting for Hamden to fix leaky 
sewer pipes, the regional WPCA can just go do it. "You don't see this" 
kind of regional cooperation in Connecticut, Altieri said. "You don't see 
this in New England." 
    Regional cooperation is great, the activists of the New Haven EJN say. But
it has to be fair not just another way for the suburbs to step on their poor
neighbors in New Haven. The sewage treatment plant is a classic example of 
an environmental justice problem: one area bearing the brunt of something that 
benefits the region. The East Shore plant pollutes New Haven Harbor and 
Long Island Sound with treated, but still dirty, water. And it pollutes the 
air by incinerating sludge the solid stuff left over after the treated water 
gets pumped out. Yuck. To make some money on the side, the WPCA not only 
burns our own, homegrown sludge. It also burns stuff that's trucked in from 
as far away as Bridgeport. According to EJN figures, that non-local sludge 
accounts for nearly 40 percent of the burning which produces toxic air 
pollution for the breathing pleasure of East Shore neighbors.Double yuck.
    Plans for the new, regional agency gave New Haven four seats on the
nine-member board of directors. Because the city accounts for the majority
of WPCA users as well as the majority of environmental impact, the EJN
wanted a New Haven majority. The group also wanted a commitment to reduce or
eliminate incineration of outside sludge. But city officials said they couldn't
sell those changes to their suburban counterparts.They came up with a 
compromise: Any expansion of WPCA activities requires a two-thirds vote. 
If New Haven's reps vote together, they could block any nefarious suburban 
moves. A two-thirds vote is also required for approving any sludge contracts, 
including renewing existing deals when they expire. "It's a much better deal 
plan than it was six months ago," says EJN facilitator Lynne Bonnett.
She and other network members voted to support the new proposal, but "with
reservations." They expect to speak out at a Board of Aldermen public
hearing on May 4. 
    But the EJN vote was not unanimous. "The real issue is that the mayors 
of the other towns weren't willing to give New Haven a simple majority. And 
that they weren't willing to commit to a reduction in incineration," says 
Farwell, one of the dissenters. "That's a red flag. Isn't it astounding in 
this day and age that people didn't just say, 'Of course we won't increase 
incineration'?" Farwell agrees that the revised plan contains important 
improvements. But while Addonizio speaks optimistically about working with the 
new WPCA to phase out sludge incineration, Farwell is more skeptical.
"I'm an old lady, and I just know how these things go," she says. "I don't
want to have to come back in a year and talk about sludge again."
   After next week's public hearing, the Board of Aldermen's joint
Finance Municipal Service Committee will hold a workshop on the WPCA deal on
May 12, with deliberations on May 19. All meetings take place at 6 p.m. at
New Haven City Hall, 165 Church Street.