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WATER POLLUTION
THE CROWJ.'H 0F THE PROBIEM IN CONNECTICUT
A THESIS
PRESENTED TO THE WADUATE FACULTY
OF
WESTERN CONNECTICUT STATE COLLEGE
OF THE RhQUIRENb;NTS FOR THE DEGREE
l b ThR UF SC lll-JCE
'.V✓esrern
..._
__ _
by
Peggy J • Hveem
September' 1968
LIS'l'
or T.A.ILBS
• • • .. • •
Ltft 0, IU.USTMTIOIIS •
llffllODUCTIOII
1 ..
..
.. . •
,.,.
• •
•
f.i
• • • • •
• • •
111
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
t
.. ...... - . .. . . .
4
VATIR • • • •
• • • • •
• • • • • •
The S011rc•• of Water
The UH• of water
the Probl•• of Pollution
11. 1'111 WAftllS
or COBBICTICUT.
26
• • • • • • • •
Tbe SOUl'C•• of Water
The V••• of Comt.ecttcut Water
Ill.
VATll l'OLt.UTtCII tR COIIBIC!'ICUT
41
• • • * • •
The Backgrovncl
TM he..a.t Sf.tu.aU.on
TM Couequeac•• of Pollution
APftllOUIS
BtBLtOGIAfB't'
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
•
•
81
119
LIST OF TABLES
Table
P ge
..
1.
Diltrt.butlon of Run•8ff • • • • •
2.
Freah
3.
Industrial Usea of Water
4.
Surface Waters of Connecticut • • • • • • • • • •-
• •
•
•
•
•
It
s
.. . . . .
11
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
14
Water uses for Major Purpos a • • •
ii
•
..
27
LIST OF ILLUSTRATivNS
Page
Estimated Withdrawal use of surface and groundwater
in the United States in 1960 in BGD • • • • • • •
..
Percentages or total daily water consumption by
major users from 1900 to 1980 • • • • • • • • • • •
l2
3. Annual Precipitation Normals • • • • • • • • • • • • •
26
4. Groundwater Availability • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
28
The Rivers and Streams of Connecticut . • • • • • • • •
30
Clean Watersheds and Polluted Rivers
• • • • • • • •
59
7. Major Rivers of Connecticut . • • • • • • • • • • • • •
62
2.
6.
•
Water has abi ys been th e~sence of life to manld.11.d.
'?be presence
or •bsence of water has dete - tned where h will U.ve.- how he will U.ve,
and even lf he will live~
Water resources dictate - hat he will grow nd
what he will build.
The severe drought of the 1960s, particularly f.n the Horth aat. has
brought h
to mlllione of
rlc as that there 1•• iadeed,
rge uddenly with the
tn this country. The shortage of ater 41d not
drought ln the
wate~ crisis
st populous section of our country these past few years;
it bas been developing since the founding of th
A\merf.cans at.i ll have as
upon it have tncre fed.
These
t:Lon.
ch water as they always had 1 but the demands
ncls·
y be attrlbuted to four causes••the
tnc•e se of popul tion. the growth of clttes. the development of the
*affluent• society. the lnventlon of synthetic tecbnology."1
!his latioa
t find more sources of water for now and for the
generattoaa to come. A number of
ys are open to provide more water, to
t.ns.u re against future water short gea.
i1ld to prevent this clvlllsatlon fr
dying of thirst as did many of the old civtlf.zattons.
volrs can be built to hold back the run•off.
earth's surface t. oc n, and
Ther
Hore storage reser•-
arly three-quarters of the
n h s the teehnologlcal
are stt.11 untapped eourcea of underground water.
1George • Stewart, lot So
Nlffi1n Company. 1,u). p .• 25.
l
1
ans to des llMte.
llore efficient methods
Bich Af You TI!lpk (Boston: Boughton•
•
2
of prod.U<itlon utllhlng less wate't per unit of product must be found ad
used.
No
tter wha.t the new source of• ter proves to be• it wlll• la
its tum, face the same
plague4..
jor problem with whtch our present souwces ere
la 1965, when Rew Yorkers saw their water supply reservoirs alrak
to less than 30 per cent capacity, when they turned off their atr ceadl•
tloners. vben the.y watched thetr lawns and garclena die of thtr t, ewbe• they
had to make a special request for a gl ss of water in
re t urant••the
filthy Hudson flowed th~ougb their mf.dat, emptying lato the harbor t the
rate of 29.920 galloos per second. 1
Wtthln the space
have taken aa idyllic
cr,etal•clear lakes•
most of thia heritage
of a few generattoas, profligate .Americans
laud laced with mighty rivers. dotted 1th
ntled with the purest atr. aad transformed
into a vast, malodOl'ous garbage pall. With
the careleeaness born of ignorance•
have suffocated ou-r st.reams
with raw sewage and industrial wastes.
We have t1;1med them murky
ud lifeless and killed ftsh vtth mtlltona and milltons of tons of
coal dust •ad acids;, oils aad c:hemlcals. Ve fouled our drir$ing
water with everything from dea4 nimala and dlseaae•ridden hospital
garbage to qld ttresses, wora•out tires, parts of junked c rs,
c ns. aad bottles.!
Vate!f ta our at.ogle most S.,Ortant resource. Clean water ts man's
most versatile aenant.
the lure of
lt spw turbines, creates beauty. slakes thirst.
ter is ltteaisttble. ven whea that water ts clea'fly unfit.
Clean water ts a national necessity.
tn 1965. Pre ldeat Johuon. la his special
beauty. stated that "every major river syst
ssage en national
ts now polluted. Waterways
that were •ee sources of pleasure and beauty and recreation are forbldden
,. so.
l•'Budson, An Open. aumd.ng Sewer," R!!f!!ek, LIVI (August 23., 1965),
2Ph:11 Seater • 1'Pollution Hems Us by Ail',, Water•" D4tl:,
. ew York)• April 25. 1968 1 p. 120.
:ws
3
t o human contact and. objecti01!lable to sight and $mel1.ul That same year,
the President's Science Adviso-ry Committee stated:
Pollution is an inevitable. consequence of an advanced ociety.
The situation ls becoming so serious that society must take
the position that no citizen, no industry, no mw:a.iclpallty has
the ~ight to pollute.2
Sixteen year earlier. Bdward
s.
Hopkins warned that "the average
river may be considered as continously grossly polluted.
All surface
waters should be considered as polluted water ••• u3
It la costing the nation $13 billion annually ta damages from water
pollution.
\'he longer pollution is tolerated, the higher the costs will be,
and if tolerated long enough, the coats will be prohlbtttve. 4
The time h s come to accept the co~cept that the beat way to insure
future supplies of water ts to clean up, recycle• and reuse the water that
is now available.
It ts not quantity but rather quality that is lacking.
1•'Bxcerpta from Johnson• s Special Hes age on I tional Beauty, ff
Rew
York
Tl9!s,
February.'• 1965, P• 1.
2"Pi-esidentlal rtndlqs on Af.r, WateT fo11utf.on."
(December, 1965), p. 8.
3Bdvard
s. Hopkins (ed.), J1ff!nts of S
llostrand Company, Inc •• 1939), pp. 49•50.
nltatiou
Amer&sae Cltv.
(Rew York2
4 •'Bconomics of Pollution," Batlon, CCIII (July. 1966), p. 4.
LDI
D. Van
.CBAPTD 1
WADB.
The Source of Water
Oceans cover nearly three-quarters of the earth'·s surface and con•
tain 98 per cea, of the earth's vater.
There are some 328 1 750,000 cubic
mt.lee of stable, virtually inexhaustible •ter in these oceaas. 1 This water
moves in a continuous hydrologlc 1 cycle.
Vapor ls removed from the surface
of the ocean by the heat of thei sun and carried by the atmosphere over the
land where lt falls to the surface in the form of precipitation.
Some of this prectpitatton ta returned immediately to the atmosphere
through evapo,:atten.
Some flows into rivers, lattes. and other surface water
bodf.es aa run-off• which in time retune to the sea or to the atr through
evaporation.
Some infiltrates the sou to be returned through evaporation
and the transpiration of plants.
Some of the water is absorbed by the sol1 1
to ·become eventually a part of the underground waterbodt.es. the aqulfers. 2
Bach year about 95 9 000 cubic mt.lea of water ev porate from ocean
and land surfaces.
!be land in turn receives about 24,000 cubic mt.lea la
prect,ttatton each year.
1Donalcl I.
&
carr.
The precip1t4tion received by the United Sta.t ea
Death of the
Company, lnc., 1966), P• JS.
Sweet
.w aters (lfaw, York: -· w.
w.
Norton
2ecmnect1cut Intette1i0l'l8l Planning Progra, Water, .A Reaou•ce
Inventorv. Technical Report 124 h-epa~ed by the Connecticut Development
Commlseioa (Hartford• 1963), p. 4.
4
s
each year amounts to about 1.56 trllU.on gallons, which gives the nation
an annual aver•se rainfall of 30 inche~. 1 This annual preetpitatlon is
unev nly distwtbuted throughout the United States, with two-thirds falling
east of the Mtssf.sst..ppi and one•thircl west of the Mlsstsslppl.
In the far
Pac:lft.c Nor~~st, the ~ 1 .p rectpi~atton can be as high _as 140 inches,
t1hile tn· areas of ~he Sou~h"'"'eS;t•
.su~ll ~s the Mojave Desert 1 the annual rain•
, ...
.
fall usually amo~ts
tt),
f
_,s·•t.h•. five·: inches. 2
'
'
•ttoa ••· a.· ·wh~l• ~, about 72 per cent of the precipltaU.en
. Por the
'
'
'
ts lost t.n evapo1r•tin •net t~aaapirat,~on, ;1lthough .t he transpiration cannot
be
considered entirely last to man as it is an essentlal , process of plant
U.£ • .About 28 pei' cent, or soma hat over 1,.100 billiOll gallons per day,
ts available as. run•o.f f. 3 Por the world as a whole, run-off water ls held
as follows:
TABLI 1
Percentage
Deposition
75
10
14
.3
Polar lee and Gl cl rs • • • • • • • •
Aquifers within 2 1 500 feet of urfac
•••
Aquifers 2t500 to 12,500 i et beneath surface
La:
8
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
••
livers • • • • • .. • • • • • • • •
!rapped la $Oil particles .• • • • • • •
In the atmospher• • • • • • • • • • •
Source of data:
York:
H.
w.
Wilsen
1D. S, Ha.lacy.
Inc., 1966). p. 82.
,. 27.
.03
.06
.035
G. A. Rikolaleff. Wat r Crtsts (Rew
eo ••
1967), P• 27.
The ater Criste
(Rew York:
2a. A. llkolaieff, Water §rials (Hew York:
'uatacy. op. cit. 1 p. 83.
B. P. Dutton & Co.•
H.
w.
Wilson Co •• 1967),
6
Seventy•flve per cent of the fresh water supply in the world today
is held in the gl ciera and polar caps, enough fresh water to
upply the
earth's inhabitants for thou ands of yeara.
An iceberg one cubic mile tn volume is tiny as icebergs go,
but consider bow t11Uch fresh water it would contain. A square mile
is 640 acres. We would thus have 640 times 5280 acre-feet, or
roughly 3\ million acre•feet. This amounts to about $100 million
worth of water at $0.10 pe~ 1000 ·gallons . Her would be ample
domestic water for 3\ million faaili s for a ye r. and there are
about that many fud.1 le · . in C 1 iforni
t present. 1
Another 24 per cent is held as groundwater.
The groundwat r in the
United States is estimated at the minimum to equal the amount of water contalned in the Great Lakes,
2
or at the maximum to equal all our non-riverine
surface waters, including th Great Lakes. 3 Thi
approxi
latter esti
t
would
te 35 years of run-off, although it has been a number of years
since an- accurate census has been taken of our underground water re ervoir.
Groundwater is stored in the aquifers, which are strata of permeable or porous tock.
springs.
Much of the groundwat r comes to the surface as
Th se sprinas range in ai&e from 200 gallons per day, as found
on the average farm, to a daily flow of many million gallons.
over 65 springs in the United States that have
about 60 million g llons .
There are
n aver ge daily yield of
Silver Springs, Florida, discharges 531 million
gallons per day. 4
Springs are the source of many streams which serve as headwaters
for a number of large rivers.
1
!!?!!•.
2
It is estimated that 40 per cent of American
p . 161 .
Ibid., p . 85 .
3
Carr, op. cit . • p. 78 .
4itopkin, op . cit . , pp. 49-50 .
7
rivers a1:e fed by groundwater. 1 Seep areas. as ,w ell as springs, feed
marshes, ponds,, and lakes.
While groundwater is not a great subterranean
river, it does move through the aquifers.
Some groundwater has been traced
moving througl\ an aquifer for as much as 300 miles.2
$oil moisture, some of it capillary water, is ·n ot to be conf~sed
with groundwater.
It cannot be tapped by wells as can gToundwater.
The water sources most readily available to man are surface -aters
of lakes and rivers.
Much of this available water still flm~s unused out
to saa.
The dependable fresh water supply of the United States in 1960
was about 315 billion galloas a day. By 1980• tbl supply ean be
increased to S15 billion gallons a day through impoundment and
othor devices. The maximum dependable supply wbtch can be deve1•
oped through engineering and extended public work is approxi•
mately 600~650 billion gallons a day. 3
Surface water supplies the bulk of the present demand throughout
the wowld and yet, it represents less than
supply.
Olle
per cent of the earth's
Groundwater uppltes only one•flfth of the wortd•s preseat needs,
yet represents 2S per cent of all thee rth•s fresh water, or over '8"lght
trUJton acre•feet ..4
(See Figure 1, page 8.)
1Balacy; op, ctt., p. 86.
211,td.
3tbld., p. 124.
4u. S. Department of Health, Bducation, aud Welfare, lgdustrial
I entives or Water ,o ll~tion Abatement. A Ae;ort Prepared by the Insti•
tute of Public Administration ashington. D. C., 1965), p. 6.
8
140
130
120
-
OROONDNATER.
D
SURFACE
110
100
90
80
70
60
so
40
30
20
10
0
Industrial
Irrigation
Municipal
Rural
llgure 1. - Estimated withdrawal use of surface and
grouadwater in the United States in 1960 in billions of gal•
lons per day (B.G.D.). Source: Glenn T. Trewartha, Arthur
H. Robinson, aud Bdwin H. Hammond, JJlemcmta of C-aoarfpl]y
(Nev York: lfcGraw•BiU Book Gompauy, 1967), p. 405.
lwbtle the 1960 consumption figure of approximately 273 billion
gallons per day for 1960 does not agree with other ftgu~es quoted in this
paper, the figures above do demonstrate the 80 per cent demand upon surface
and the 20 per cent demand upon groundwater supplies in the United States.
. 9
The Uses of Water
Water supplies are useful in ny ways ••• in domeatic
supply, for industrial proceaaee, for irrigation of crops, for
the production of mechanical power. as route of inland transportation, and in the added attractiveneas that they give to
scenic or recreation areas. 1
From colonial days, water has been one of America's moat important
resources and one of its cheapest and ..,t vei-satile.
To many Allericans,
it seems an inexhaustible resource to 1te u•ed in ualimited quaatity.
Th United States la th• biueat vater ho& in the werld .. Po'!)r
tropical countrie• .use lesa than S gallons of water per person per
day. Larg cnll!rcial t4tWil8 in Bagland use abwt 50 gallon• a day,
while the daily averag• for auch towns in the United States ia close
to 200 gallons per person. The highest water consumption of any
city in the world is that of Beverly Hills, C lifornia•-over 500
gallons per person per day•-wh re in an arid climate immense lawns
re aprinkled the Y9'r around and countless swimming pools are
filled and refilled.
Man mu t have wat r to live , but hi• daily normal functioning
requires no more than two t• three quart
a day . 3
In addition he require•
about 2.5 pounds dry weight of fooo daily.
It takes 500 poun4s ,of water circulating through on• wheat
plant from SQil aad air to bring a one pound (dry wei1ht) wheat
plant to maturity~ It takea two pounds of grain to produce one
pound of flour, or 1,000 gallon• of water to make one pound of
bread. If man lived by bread alone , he would need 2,500 pounds 4
or 300 gallons of water to make his 2.S pounds of bread per day.
But modern man, especially the American of the 1960s, doe
on bread alone.
He likes meat and vegetables every day.
not live
A mature head of
1Glenn T. Trewartha, Arthur H. R.obinaon, and Edwin H. R
nd.
Element• of Geography (New York: HcGrav•Htll Book Company, 1967), p. 404.
2Donald B. Carr, "The Politics of Pollution," Atlantic, CCXVII
(May, 1966), P• 93.
3John Lear. ''The Criaia in Water:
Review, XLVIII (October 23, 1965), P• 24.
4wtkolaieff, op. cit., p. 14.
What Brought It On," Saturday
16
beef conswaes 25 to 35 ,ounds of alfalfa each •d&y.
that amount of alfalfa
will utiltae 20,000 pout\ds of water before it reaches maturity.
tn erder
for man to add one pound of animal protein to bis daily diet. he will have
to round out
required the consumption of another 2,300 gallons of •ater.
hi diet with two pound.a of vegetable matter. another !00 gallons per day
will have b .en consumed.
dlet will ave~age about
The total water require at for a good Amertean
2.soo
gallons per
day
per .person. 1
This ts noi all the American citizen d
nds of water each day.
Pour g llons of water a~e needed for each flush of the tof.let; a shower
uses five gallons a mf.nute. 2 A bath takes over 30 gallons.
automatic washer requires from 20 to 50 gallons or
The modern
re for a single load
of clothes. A 1,000•ton air conditioner u es euougb wate~ to supply the
daily needs of more than Jo.ooo people. 3
Nan has to be clothed and hwsed as well as. fed, the materials for
which all demand water for growth or processing.
Lawns are watered&
cars
are wa•hed.
The major water uees in the Untted States fall into three main
categories:
municlpa1• irrigation, and lndustrlal (se Table 2).
In 1950
the J?restdent's Materials Policy Conm.sslon i-eported that by 1975 the United
State • use of water would total 350 billion gallons pel' day.
However.. by
late 196S, the nation had already passed this censumptta ftgure •. 4
ln 1966,
1R:t.kola1eff. op. cit., P• 15.
21enueth Anderson. ''rhe Coming Struggle for Clean Water•"
Health, XXXIX (August• 1961). P• 70,
Ss.ewts Berber• cr&sls tn
hentice•Ba11, inc •• 1965), p. 92.
/+aa1 cy• opt
eit •.•
P• 19.
29r
'lodax' s
Clttea (Bnglewoed Cliffs, I. J.:
11
consumption neared 400 billion gallons. 1 The pr sent demand exceeds the
pnsent dependable freah water supply.
Beuse is the answer.
Already about
forty per cent of the people in America are reusing water at least once. 2
The percentage '7f.ll have to be increased.
By 1980 1 the demaud for water
wf.11 exceed supply by 8S billion gallons. at least. The Public Health Ser•
vice predicts that by the year 2000. the daily use of water will be well
over 1.000 billion gallons.
Industry. by that time. will command 80 per
cent of the total. 3
TABLB 2
PUSH WAtn USBS JOB.
».Al
PUIPOSIS
1900•1980
(In
Bf.lU.one of Gallons per Day)
\,
.I
Year
Municipal
Industrlal
Irrigation
Total
3.0
16.6
22.0
27.0
37.2
15.0
79.6
22.0
88.8
141.0
165.9
16S.7
40.0
18S.O
322.9
411.2
597.1
~
190()8.
~
1950b
1960c
1970°
1gsoc
l.
I
159.9
218.3
394.2
. ~ Sources of data for tabulatlonz
(a) Lewis Herber, Crisis
lo Our Cities (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1965),
p. 93.. (b) 1). S. Balacy, The 1(ater Crtals (New York: I. P. Dlitton
Co •• Inc., 1966). P• 19. (c) u. s. Department of llaalth 1 Bducation
and Welfare. lndustrl 1 Incentives fo~ Water Pollution Abatement
(Washington: Public Health ·Service, 1965,) p. 8.
1"0ur Air and Water Can be 11ac1e Clean," Life, LU (August 12, 1966) •
p. 4.
2Harold M. Schmeck, "U.S. ln Peril of Losing Fight on Water Pollu-
tion, " Jew York Jlmes, February 28, 1963• p.
s.
3u. s.
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Industrial
lpceut1ves for Water Pollution Abatement, op, cit •• p. 8.
IESlERN CONNEC1l~UT S"iATE UNIV. LIB.
-
12
100
90
80
:
~ : 0- 0
ici pal
lnduatrlal
Irrigatioa
70
60
50
40
-
-
;II
,,
0
/
,,
/
() 0
c)
<:I c:, 0
,.,,,
-
C,
<:> 0 0
•
0
0
a
0
0
30
•
C)
0
0
20
•
10
-
0
...8
rt r• 2 • P8rceataa•• of total dally water conumptf.on by Jor u r• £-r
1900 to 1980 1 baa d on ;.;;.,"N:n
and projected ft.sure• ae abon in Table 2, PA&• 11.
'1'he population oft
U1lttecl Stat a baa l
d froa 76 ad.1lt.on
r
ta 1900 to ov.r 200 llillioa in 1968 and will poa ibly oubl by 2000.
11 eonU:n
p atest lncreaae ba• been.
I
1900• a little
By 1960,
to be • urban in charact r .
t of th . population U.wd in urban area•.
• tban 39 per c
the figure bad wt.an to alao t 70 per c nt .
Deapite the rapidly tncr
al
the amictpal ahare of the daily wate
ehanpd fl'
1900 1 vh
.1
I'
(
• 13.)
population Md urban devel
con uaptloa total haa r
nt,
iucl little
it vu 7. S per cat, to 1960, when i t • • 7 per ceat .
'th• proJ ctton for 1980 ahon that th l'U1'iclpal c
creaae to
The
•
ton of
tar
c nt.
dafintt• per capita con.lll:DD'tl
inc-re
ill
13
in the municipal category fr
100 gallons per day per person in 1900,
to 130 gallens per day ,er person. ift 1968. 1
People have to have water for drinking, cooking., bathing, and cleaning.
Increased per capita consumption of wate-r does indicate the inereaslng
standards of hygiene and sanitation.
What this consumption does not so
clearly indicate is the waste of water.
Water is consUUled by the evapora•
ti.OD from reservoirs and by leakage from water maias and dripping faucets.
Too many gallons go down the drain while the faucet is left running to get
water that is bot enough or cold enough.
to flush away a single cigarette.
Four gallons of water are used
Bighty per cent of America's domestic
water supply is ~eturned to rivers and lakes as sewage aad wastes. 2 Sew•
age alone is 99.9 per cent water. 3
Until the 1950s irrigation made the greatest demands upon the
water supply.
It will continue to increase its daily eoQS~tion for some
years, but it will lo e percentage-wise rapidly from now on.
Unlike
municipal and industrial water, not toCi> much irrigation water is used more
than once before it is lost in evaporation, transpiriition,
through the soil.
or percolation
Much of what does find its way back to th• rivers too
often carries increasing amounts of salt or s11t or both.
Industry is now the greatest user of water in the United States.
Since the turn of the centuryt the population has increased less than three
1All figures for tot 1 population nd urban population have been
taken frGm The Histo~tcal Abstracts of the United States, Co!onial Times to
1957 and from The St tesman's Yearbook, 1962-1968. Percentages and per
capita approximations have been catculated by the writer of ,this paper.
2ctadwin Hill, ''Scientists Seek to Perfect Separation of Sewage
and Watel', 0 New York Times. March 1, 1965, p. 30.
3Stewart, 02. cit., p. 42.
14
times.
Industrial production has increased about ten times in the same
period, and it will continue its sharp upward trend.
Early industry sought the watercourses for the power of the mill
•heel.
Today, industry still tends to locate on river or lake, but not
for the power.
Modern industry needs great quantities of water as a raw
IQ&terial or. more important, as a productive agent.
Watercourses have
always been excellent and inexpensive systems of transportation, as well
as for depositories of waste.
Industry has been no more efficient in the past (nor is it now) in
its use of water than have municipal and agricultural users.
Within any
given industry, there is a lack of consistency in the quantities of water
utilized to turn out the same product (see Table 3).
TABLE 3
INDUSTRIAL USES OF WATER
Variables per Unit (In Gallons)
Product
1
1
1
1
1
1
l
Kilowatt thermal electricity
gallon crude oil • • • •
ton steel • • • •
pound soap • • • • • .
pound carbon black ••
.
pound natural rubber • • • • • •
pound synthetic rubber • • • • •
1 pound aluminum • • • • • • • • •
..
Minimum
Maximum
1.32
170.00
44.00
65.000.00
7.50
14.00
6.00
600.00
36.33
1.73
1,400.00
1.57
.25
2.54
13.00
1.24
Source of data for tabulation: John Lear, "The Crisis in Water:
What Brought It 0n 1 11 Saturday Review, XLVIII (October 23, 1965), p. 23.
15
The Problem of Pollution
The Great Lakes form the greatest reservoir in the world• holding
twenty per cent of the world's fresh water and supplying millions of Amer•
icans aad Canadians with drinking water. 1
"The Detroit River flows into Lake Erie with 1.6 billion gallons of
industrial and municipal wastes each day, including seven billion pounds of
alien ehemicals." 2 Detroit, the worst municipal offender, will not have
facilities built before 1970 to stop ita flow of raw sewage to Lake Brie.
Even if Detroit and the other numerous polluters of the lake were to cease
such practices ialDedtately. it would be at least ten years before nature
could cleanse Brie.3
Lake Brie ia the smallest
sidered by many as nearly dead.
nd the foulest of the Great Lakes, con-
Safe swf.111ning is possible only twenty
miles out from sbore, 4 and even there, huge blooms of algae can be found.
Lakes Michigan and Ontario are headed for the same dirty death if pollution
is not controlled now.
In the aU111Der of 1964, eight children rescued a watermelon from
the Hudson and ate it.
Within a week, all eight were down with typhoid
fever: two died. 5 At Troy, the river once waa filled with base; now there
laladwin Hill, ''The Great and Dirty Lakes," S turday Jleview 1 JI.VIII,
(October 23, 1966), p. 32.
2Henry Still, The Dirty Ani . 1 (New York:
1967), p. 62.
Hawthorn Books, Inc . ,
3aichard Woodbury 1 ''The Blighted Great Lakes," Life, LIV (August 23 1
1968), p. 38a.
4carr, Death of th
5''Hudaon, An Open, Running Sewer," Newsweek, op. cit., p. SO.
16
are only eels which can feed on human aewage. 1 Soon it will be only blood
worms.
In 1963, a pharmaceutical company discharged into the Miaaiasippl,
along with ita other ewage, large amounts of a by-product, orthonitro•
chlorob nzene.
Thia compound is realatant to water tr at nt and ts
poisonous in relatively high amounts.
from St. Louis to
New
It began to show up in tap w ter
Orleans. 2
Endrin is one of the moat toxic of the pesticides called chlorinated hydrocarbons.
In the Lower Misaisaippi and in the Atchafalaya Baain,
to the weat of the Kf.aatsaippi, milllona of fish have been killed by waters
contaiaiag • much as 200 parts per trillion of endrin. 3 This area once
supported a fairly large commercial fishing industry.
drastically after aeveral years of pe tlcide pollution.
Income baa decreased
Some c
rcial
operators were discovered •elllng dying fish to markets and canneries.
Bndrin can have a cumulative effect on humans. 4 Meanwhile, farmers in the
area continued heavy, indiscriminate spraying with pesticides.
Until the late 1950s, certain waters off the ehorea of Southern
C.llforni contained extensive undersea forests of giant kelp which pro•
vided rich breeding and feeding grounds for numerous and varied marine life.
In addition to this important purpose, k lp la the source of the compound
from which the extract, algin, ls tak n.
Algin "suspends, atabiliaea,
2scluaeck, op. cit., p. 5.
30Death in Parts Per Trillion," Scientific American, CCX (May, 1964),
P• 64.
4
James Ridgeway, ''Death on the Atchafalaya," New Re19bl1c, CL
(April 25, 1964), P• 14.
17
gel-produces, and emulsifies laxatives, penicillin, candy, babies' rubber
pants, and some three hundred other products. 111
However, the kelp forests
have been threatened by the number of coastal atomic power plants, through
the discharge of water that is used to cool the reactors. 2
Numerous sew-
age outfalls from the harbors and coastal areas are also a threat of a
different sort.
Sewage particles provide good food for sea urchins.
Increasing quantities of sewage, more than a billion gallons a day, triggered an urchin population explosion.
The urchins desc nded on the kelp
like a plague of locusts on a wheat field, with the same disastrous
results. 3
Riverside, California, takes most of its water supply from thirty
deep wells which have been in use since the late 1800s.
Early in the
summer of 1965, an epidemic of gastroenteritis affected 18,000 people of
Riverside, causing a few deaths.
Rarely is the causative bacterium,
Salmonella typhimurium, waterborne.
It generally shows up in cases of food
In Riverside, it was discovered in the drinking water from the
poisoning.
city wells.
4
In the late winter of 1963, a broken pipe poured one million
gallons of fuel oil into the frozen Minnesota River.
A burst storage tank
added another 1.5 million gallons of soybean oil.
The combined mess was
released when the ice broke up in April and May.
From eight to ten thou-
sand ducks died as a result.
Oil soaked their feathers and natural buoyancy
1wesley Marx, The Prail Ocean, (New York:
1967), p. 46.
Coward-McCann, Inc.,
2!J?!!. , p. 53.
3!J?!!., pp. 49-50.
4"Salmonella in the Water," Newsweek, LXVI (July 12, 1965), p. 56.
18
was lost.
They could neither fly nor stay afloat.
About one thousand
had been caught and cleaned up, but half of these died because the oil had
impaired their digestion. 1
A few years ago, eighteen coDDDUnities were dumping raw sewage into
the Potoniac above Washington.
Sewag
sludge deposits in some stretches of
the river were ten feet deep. 2
When the Potomac reach s the Washington 11Stropolitan area, its
sped is slowed by the tide• and winds from th• Atlantic Ocean. The
water begins to move lanquidly to and fro, circling between the banks
like a lake. The Public Health Service found that 'in effect, sewage
from • • • the area is discharged into a sluggish pond.' Since it
take about forty days during the suumer months for this water to
move fifteen miles • • • 'the s wage remains in the metropolitan area
for •ny daya.'3
Pollution is no respecter of international boundaries either.
A
small river. rising south of Fort Fairfield, Maine, flows across the border
into New Brunswick to join the St. John River.
Appalled by the •tench of rotting fish in a polluted river from
Maine, Canadian villagers threw up a dam ••• to block the flow
near the international boundary ••• The resultant lake should back
up into Maine • • • ''nle water is so bad we couldn't use it for fire
fighting' • • • 'It would fout our pumps. ' • • • Fumes from decomposing organic -tter were causing paint on houses to turn black
and peel • •• Most of the pollution
from the combined out•
flow of two food processing plants.
zmnas
These are isolated incidents. but they can be 1111ltiplied one
hundredfold all over the United States.
Every major river and a good
1Auatin Wehreven, "Duck Slauahter in Minnesota Spur
Water Pollution." New York Ttmee· (Aprii 28, 1963) • p. 64.
2
.
Fight on
.
Herber• op •. cit. • p. 82.
3Paul D. Kilburn, "Contaaination of the Environment,"Vital
Speeches, XXIX (May 15, 19,3) p. 476.
4"eanadians Dam River to Block Pollution from St. John River,"
Waterbury American, July 10~ 1968.
19
share of the minor rivera and streams, are polluted in some way.
The
Cache la Poudre River, at an elevation up to 9500 feet, in an isolated
area of Colorado that sees only a few campers, hunters, and sheepherders,
nonetheless, carries pathogenic bacteria.
Thia river serves aa the water
supply for a awaber of down tr aa cODQUnlties. 1
America has been polluting her lakes, rivers, and coastal regions
almost systematically for a good many generations, but it haa been less
than two decades that Americans have been equally systematically alerted to
and educated about the seriousness of the situation.
Pollution costs the nation billions of dollars annually.
fish a1\cl wildlife and robs them of breeding grounds.
It kills
It makes once lovely
waterbodiea repulsive to sight and smell, and deprives people of leisure•
time, water-oriented recreation.
It poses a threat to the nation's health,
and now it comes as an even greater threat to the nation's source& of
decent, potable water.
The entire country is traveling in a vicious circle. The more
a river bank is crowded with industries and homes. raising local
demands for water, the greater are the waste loada dumpef into
the river. reducing the existing potential water supply.
Americans have been concerned about a source of safe drinking
water much longer than they have been concerned about safe methods for the
disposal of their waste water.
Once the knowledge that such diseases aa
typhoid, cholera, and dysentery were caused by waterborne bacteria emanating
from the discharges of carriers or sick per ons, care was taken to find
1J. r. Fair ands. M. Morrison, "Recovery of Bacterial Pathogens
from High Quality Surface Water," Water lteaources Research, III, (Third
Quarter, 1967), pp. 799-801.
2Herber,
op. cit., p. 96.
20
water from safe aourcea or to render the water safe by settling and by
disinfection with c·hlorlne.
Before such measures were adopted, the normal
occurrence of typhoid in most areas was SO to 80 ca es in 100,000 popula•
tion.
This did not include the periodic epidemics that would involve many
hundreds of people.
Today, a high rate would be two in 100,000. Many
localitiea go several years without reporting a single case. 1
"Water pollution c
s from many causes, produces complex changes
in the receiving waters and aff cts water uses ln numerous, subtle and
obvious ways. 112
The moat widespread. but not the major source of modern pollution,
is dome tic sewage--the sanitary w ates-•the di charges of kitchen, laundry,
11 enough to nter the dr ins. 3
and bathroom, and ev rything else s
Around 1900, two million people obtained drinking water from atre
while 24 111111011 dumped s wage back into the same stre ms.
Today, one hun-
dred million people withdraw water from a source that 120 million dtacharge
a wage into.
By 1980, it is e ti
ted that 165 18illion will use the streams
for water supply, while 200 million will use the a
streams for their
sewage dlaposal. 4
Natural waterbodiea support processes by which they can purify the•selves of organic, biodegradable substances.
Man
baa leaned heavily upon
thla self•purificatioa principle.
1v1ctor M. lhlers and Ernest W. Steele, Municipal and Rural Sanitation (Hew York: McGr -Hill Book Company, Inc., 1958). p. 7.
2A11en v. Kneeee , Economics of Regional Water Quality Manage
as quoted in Nikolaleff, op. cit . , p. 64.
3tbid. , p. 66.
4.lnderaoa, op. cit. , p. 64.
t.
21
"Th
sure of organic pollution load is bioch mtcal oxygen
demand (BOD) which indicates the rate at which dis•olved oxygen ia drawn
upon in a str am. 111
Thia is accomplished primarily by innumerable bacteria break•
1ng down and reducing the organic waste to their component part••
which are largely simple innocuous gases. These bacteri are of
two general typee, those requiring a considerable supply of oxygen
for their exist nee and sot rmed aerobic, and those arowing nd
•ltiplying in the absence of oxygen and called anaerobic. The
work of the a robic bacteria (decomposition) is mst cemplete
and ia not mark•dly evi..nt to the aenae of siaht . and· ... 11~ sine•
g sea produced are not oltjec_tinabl . The work of the anaerobic
b cteria is called putrefaction; it is leaa compl•te and is g ner41i!o
ally accompanied by the evolution of foul smelling gases·and.discoloration of the water. When the flow of the stream ts large,
naturally the supply of oxygen is grater, and the oxidizing of the
organic
tter progresses without producing the offensive conditions;
where the flow is s 11 or for any reason th supply of oxygen is
cut off. th organij
tter is not completely oxidized, and nui•
aancea are created .
The rate at which a given quantity and type of organic waste
exerta oxygen de•nd is a function of a variety of factors among
the most important of which are the ch mical char cteriatics and
the temperatur of the receiving water. Toxins, for example,
y
appreciably reduce the rate of BOD by inhibiting bacterial action.
In e•tre• lutanc•• Qf toxic pollution, a body of water may become
'dea•.• At higher-teaperatures bacterial action is accelerated ,
wastes are deataded •r• rapidly and dissolved oxygen in the water
is dt wn upon mor h avily. Since the oxygens turation level of
warm water ts lower than that of cooler ter, higher temperatures
tend to aqueeze dissolved ozyg n levels in w ste•recelving waters,
and septic (anaerobic) conditions
y result. It is for this reason
as w 11 a typic lly low stream flowa 1 that a
r i usually th
critical period for oraan.ie pollution.
Conaiderattoii of vaate dlJposal problems on a regional b••i•
requires a •thocl of ef feet a of • tes on long stretchea of atr••·
Where wastes enter atre.- t ~losely spaced waat• outfalls, the
level of dissolved oxygen at any given point will be a function of
the rate of reaeratlon and the exertion of BOD from numerous
different sources , At a downstream point the BOD from the more
distant sources may be almo t exhausted while that from nearer
sources will still be exerted at a high rate.
1Kneeae. as quoted in Nikolaieff, op. cit . , p. 68.
2state of Connecticut. R port on the Investigation of the Pollution
of Streams . A Report by Board of Health for the General Assembly of
1915, P• 6.
22
Among the complexities that beset the calculation of oxygen
levels, especially for long stretches of treams, la the fact that
BOD proc eds in tvo stages. When an untreated waste is put in a
clean stream a first, and major, draft upon di solved oxygen occurs
as the putreacible wa tea are degraded by bacterial action. Thereafter the dissolved ozygen level tends to recover. Further down•
stream, roughly five to seven days travel time, a 'second stage'
BOD occurs as the nitrogen embodied in the organic waste is converted to nitrite and then to nitrate by aerobic nitrifylng bacteria.
The econd state BOD is more diffuse and does not by itself tend to
carry DO (dissolved oxygen) to as low a level as does the first
st ge BOD.1
It is at this point that modern America tm.tSt give up the age•old
belief that running vat r cleans it elf.
As one community
rges into
another and as single factory sites evolve loto industrial parks, the con•
cept that man borrows a little water for a while from nature'• cycle, then
returns it to be cleaned up to be borrowed again, must be discarded in the
f ce of reality. 2
Too often the waters receiving organic wastes simply cannot com•
plete one phase of the p~oce s before receiving another heavy dosage of
wastes.
The points of discharge are too many, too close together, and
carrying far greater quantities than ever before .
In 1900, the population equivalent3 of raw sewage discharged into
the nation's waterways was about 24 million.
today, it is about 85 million.
By 1960, it was 7S million;
If the construction of n wand upgraded
facilities for waste treatment is not accelerated, by 1980, the waters of
1x.neeae, as quoted in Hikolaieff, op. cit., pp. 68•69.
2Gladwin Bill, "Nation's Shortages Bringing the Concept of C011111Unity
Water Management," Ney York Times, December 22, 1965, P• 20.
391Tbese population equivalents are obtained by dividing the total
daily oxygen requirement of the waste unc1 r consideration by the daily per
capita oxygen demand of the domastic sewage. On the basts of a 5-day bio•
ehmalcal oxygen demand, this amounts to 0.167 pound• of oxygen. Total
oxygen requirements are also evaluated to show population equivalents per
unit of raw material or finiahed product." Hopkins, op. cit., p. 193.
23
the United States will be choked with the population equivalent in raw
sewage of 114 million people. 1
More than half of the United States cities of 2500 or more
people do not have good sewage systems. Present systems generally
were devised for condition• that existed 40 ye rs ago ••• To meet
demands for sewage treatment plants in tha United States in the
next six ye rs will require $20 billion. 2
Americans have the technology to do the job; they have not been
able or willing to pay the bill.
Unfortun tely, population grows each
year; each year construction costs go up; taxpayers are less able or less
willing to pay the bill.
A major cause of pollution is that which is broadly tenaed as
"natural" pollution since it involves pollutants which are carried into
the waterbodies by falling rain and melting ice and snow.
Tons of silt
and salts, great q ntities of chemical fertilizers, tars, de-icing chemicals, all can be swept into a stream in one rainstora.
Six hundred
million pounds of pesticides are carried into the rivers a11i lake• annually.
Pest control cannot stop.
The damage done by peats to c~opa and
the threat they carry of disease has become too serious.
Until some other
ans than pesticides are developed, spraying can be more carefully done.
The organic waste load from industry is even greater than that of
municipal
nd natural sources.
In 1960, the Public Health Service found
that industrial plants were discharging organic pollutants at a rate
equivalent to the sewage from 160 million people.
By 1980, these waste
1Herber, op. cit., p. 92.
21 'Dirty Water, Dirty Air, New Pacts on Pollution, " U. S. News and
World Report, LXI (November 14, 1966) , p. 24.
3Anderson, op. cit., p. 70.
24
will be equivalent to the sewage from 210 million people, the population
of the entire nation.l
ror years, textile factorie, pulp and paper mills, food-processing plants, slaughter houses, tanneries, and
ny other dispensers of
organic wastes have poured tons of these wastes into the waterways.
Industry has long t ken the stand that the "as i ilation of w•stes ia
unavoidably one of the multi-purpose uses that water 1111st • erve. 112
In addition to these biodegradable wastes, there are large
quantities of metals soing out in the wash water.
To serve its own pro•
ceseea and those of its customers, industry has already developed over one-
half million synthetic and natural chemicals and continues introducing ne,
ones at the rate of 10,000 a year.
Many of these compounds are inorganic
and cannot be broken down by b cterial action.
difficult to treat in the ordi
Rot only are these wastes
ry treatment facilities, but scientists
still have not been able to determine the affects of the majority of these
new compounds on the h
n body. 3 There is ample evidence that some of
theee compounds are lethal to fish.
One of the most troublesome products put on the market after World
War II was the synthetic detergent.
It took months to break down.
Septic
tanks and treatment facilities could not handle the sud, and these suds
began to bubble up in drinking water.
New 'soft' detergents were developed,
the old bard ones were taken from the domestic markets as of 1965.
However,
111Btllions to Clean Up the Rivers.'' Newsweek (April 24, 196S),
p. 54.
2
"Chamber Opposes United States on Pollution," New York Times,
Decelllber 10 1 1965, p. 25.
3Anderson, 2D• cit., p. 64.
25
many factories are still using the hard detergents for their cleaning.
With the establishment of the Federal Water Quality Act in 196S,
industry felt the weight not only of increasing public pressure against some
of their pollution habits, but also that of the Federal Government.
One
business leader comnented that the new law was jut one more that would not
work.
The most conmonly expressed objection was that many in business
could not afford to put great sums into pollution abatement and re
business.
in in
"Industry should propose a crash progr m to get rid of the
visible pollution since that is what the public nottces--otherwise it's a
waste of money," one industrialist suggested. 1
Other critic
of the federal legislation, however, felt the law was
not strong enough, and that industry had actually won a victory by having
the states set their own water quality st ndards. 2 For too long, said the
critics, the states have been only too well aware of the pollution condi•
tlons within their borders and have done little if anything about them.
This ia true, but in 1110st c sea, not because of the sloth or indifference of state and local officials.
In the past , it was difficult to
tell a large industry, "Clean up your mess or go out of business." That
particular industry might employ hundreds of people, and pay out millions
of dollar
in payrolls and taxes.
Once industry held a club over the state,
by threatening to move to a state that preferr d income to clean •ater.
This
pres ure by industry, hopefully, has been removed by the Water Quality Act.
Now the states can and 111.1at do something about cleaning up their waters.
10tndustry Attacks Water Pollution•" New York Times , October 14,
1965, p. 19.
2"conferees Approve Anti•Pollution Bill," New York Times. September 15,
1965, p. 34.
CHAPTER II
THE WATERS OF CONNECTICUT
.The Sources of Water
For its physical Eize,Connecticut has an abundant supply of
water, but Connecticut is small aa statPs go, only about 5,009 square
miles in area, with a rapidly groulng population and an equally growing
demaQd for
ater.
Connecticut receives an average annual precipitation of about 48
inches, with a range from the high of 57 ~ 18 inches at Wolcott to a low of
42.67 inches at Falls Village. 1 The annual run-off rate is a,out 25.3
inches. 2
The State receives well above the average precipitation for the
United States as a whole.
In addition, the loss in evaporation and trAn-
spiration is only about 50 per cent, as compared to the national average of
72 pur cent.
One further advantaae lies in the uniform distribution of pre-
cipitation throughout the year in all parts of the State.
Therefore 1 water is
seemingly plentiful throughout the State, in lakes, ponds, streams, rivers,
marshes 1 aquifers and alona the 253 linear miles of shoreline. 3
1connecticut Interregional Planning Program, W ter A Resource
1
Inventory, oe. cit., p. 5.
2connecticut Industrial Development Council, The Advant ges of a
Connecticut Location for the Chemical IndustrI• A Report Prepared by the
Connecticut Development Connission (Hartford, 1965), ~. 36.
3connec ticut Interregional Planning Program, Water A Resource
1
Inventory, op. c it., p. 15.
26
26
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27
TABLE 4
SUB.FACE WATEllS
or
CONNECTICUT
Square Miles
of Water Area
Percentage of
Total Area of State
Approx. Percentage
of Total Water Area
Lakes. Ponds
92
1.8
38
Rivers, Streams
58
1.1
23
...2t
Li
..l!.
246
4.8
100
Type
Wetlands
Total
Source of data for tabulation: Connecticut Interregional Planning
Program, Water, A Resource Inventorv. Technical lleport 124 Prepared by the
Connecticut Development Commission (Hartford, 1963), p. lS.
There are some s.998 inland waterbodies, ranging in size from ponds
a fraction of an acre to Lake Candlewood, S,420 acres.
Figure 5 shows only
the 1 rgest of these, and they represent a very small percentage of the
total.
Many of these lakes and ponds are reservoirs and old mill ponds.
Presently, public and private
w
ter companies use 191 of these reservoirs,
with a total capacity of 118 billion gallons, for water supply. 1
Connecticut contains 61,000 acres of wetlands scattered over the
entire State.
Areas defined
s wetlands are of three types:
swamps or wet
woodlands; marshes or wet grasslands; and coastal or salt marshes.
Although
not used as sources of water supply to any appreci ble extent, wetlands do
serve for flood protection, -intenance of groundwater levels, wildlife
refuge and breeding 1rounds~ and for recreation.
1connecticut Interregional Planning Program, Water, A Resource
Inventory. op. cit., p. 15.
' ''
,, .... -"
rl'
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Source: GIPP, Water, A rtesource
Inventory, p. D.
FI ClJlili 4
IBGUNDWAT~R AVAILABILITY
Promising Areas of Groundwater
,:_- - ~ Watersheds
- _,,,
- - - Rivers
\
· 1
(
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29
Connecticut does have considerable amounts of gr oundwater (see
Figure 4).
The most
xt enaive , be t•yielding area• are found along the
major w tercouraea and the Long Island lowlands.
Where thaae deposits are of coarse~grained sand and gravel,
wells may yield mote than 1,000, 000 gallons per day; from finer
grained sand, the yields are less. Generally. individu 1 water
company wells in these promising areas yield from 150,000 to
750, 000 gallons per day. Recent test wells driven in the Middletown area capable of yielding eight million g llons per day, and
similar wells in Bridgeport yielding twelve million gallons per
day , are specific examples of water potentials from this source. 1
In the central are
of the State , from New H ven to Granby and
Somers in the nor~h, the wells aver ge less than 450 feet in depth and yield
up to 72,000 gallons per day.
private
These
ells are the large wells managed by
nd public water companies and some industries .
the 75,000 private, individual home
Not included are
ells, many yielding 1 , 000 gallons
per day. 2
The present withdr als of groundwater ln Connecticut
par with the national average of 20 per cent.
comes more intportant a
Connecticut'
fortunately, some potential
reas
a
re about on a
This groundwater potential be-
demands for clean water increase.
Un-
well as some already in use, are close
enough to shore areas to face possibles lt-water intrusion if withdrawals
are too heavy.
some of the
Also some of the best potential areas lie in the valleys of
orst polluted river
of the state.
Connecticut is amply endowed with streatDS and river
Some are sos
11
s to bear no name .
from north to south.
(see Figure S).
Most of the rivers generally flow
A number have their origins in several otb r states.
1connecticut Industrial Development Council, The Advantages of a
. Connecticut Location for the Chemical Industry, op . cit . , p. 38.
2connecticut Interregional Planning Program, Wt r, A Resource
Inventory , op . cit., p. 24.
·•
v.>
0
FIGURE 5
THE RIWRS AND STilliAMS uF CvNNECTICUT
31
There are five major drainage basins.
Of these, the Connecticut
River la by far the largest and the most important in the state.
Three
other Rew England states share this river,. which rt.sea near the canadian
border, flows south to form the boundary of V rmotlt and Bew Hampshire,
croaae Haaaachusetts, and for ita last 70 miles, divides Connecticut nearly
tn half on its way south to empty into Long Island Sound at Saybrook.
The entire drainage basin of the Connecticut covers about 11,085
square
ilea, of which about 1.s25 square miles ~re in Connecticut.
From
the Maaaachua tts line to Hartford• the river falls only six-tenths of a
foot to the mile.
Below Hartford, there ts practically no fall. 1 The river
The original Indian name, Quinnehtukqut, mean• long
estuary or long tidal river. 2
ts tidal to Hartford.
The major tributary is the Farmington liver. with a drainage area
of 609 square ilea, 483 in Connecticut, the remainder in Massachusetts. 3
Other important tributaries of the Connecticut are the Scantic, the
Park, the Hockanum, the Mattabasaett, and the S lmon.
The Thames River and its tributari s drain eastern Connecticut.
The
drainage area cover• 1,474 square miles, 1,162 in Connecticut. 4 The Thames
itself is formed by the Shetucket and Yantic B.ivera at Norwich.
Other
tributarl a are the Quinebaug, French, Nachaug and the WUU.mantic.
The
1state of Connecticut, Report on the Inveatlgatioa of the Pollution of
Streams, 1915, op. cit., p. 10.
2Bllaworth s. Grant, "Main Stream of Hew Bngland••The Connecticut
River," American Heritage, XVIII (April• 1967), p. SO.
3connect lcut Int rregional Planning Progr•, Water A lleaource
I
Iuveatory. op. cit., p. 19.
4state of Connecticut, Reeort 09 th Inveatigatton of the Pollution
of Streams, op, cit., p. 41.
32
Thames is tidal to Norwich, about 15 miles.
There 11 a 600-foot fall from
the northern tributariea to Long Island Sound. 1
The Bouaatonic 1• the major river system in Western Comt ctlcut.
It baa a drainage area of 1,950 aquare mi.lea, 1,232 in Connecticut, aome ln
Hew
York, the rest tn Maasachusetts. 2 The river is 130 llliles long and ia
tidal from its mouth at Stratford on the Sound to Derby, a distance of
eight milea. 3 The Houa•tonic baa the greatest fall of the major rivers
of Connecticut, hence its abort tidal reach.
Prom the Massachusetts line
to Palla Village it has a drop of nine feet to the mile; from Palla Village
to Comwall Bridge, about 19 feet; f-rom Cornwall Bridge to the Sbepaug River.
ten feet; and from the Shepaug to the Sound, 3. S feet. 4
The Naugatuck !liver, the principal tributary of the Housatonic, with
a drainage area of 312 square miles entirely in Connecticut, ts also a
rapidly fallins river. 5 Other tributaries of the Housatonic are the Blackberry, the Still, the Shepaug 1 the Pomperaug 1 the Bight Nile and the Ten
Mile lllvera.
The Quinnlpiac liver is Connecticut's only major river with its
entire drainage basin within the State, rising near Bew Britain and flowing
south 36 a11ea to empty into New Haven Harbor.
lte drainage area 1 only
1state of Com:a.ecticut Report of the Investigation
1
of Streams, op. cit., p. 49.
of
the Pollution
2connecticut Interregional Planning Program, Water A Resource
I
Inventon. op, cit •• p. 19.
3state of Connecticut, Report of the Investlsatlon of the Polluttgn
of Streams, op, cit., p. 77.
4.IJll!i.
Slbid., P• 81.
33
about 155 square allea.
With a fall of only five feet to the ml.le, it ta
tidal for over 10 mile• to Just south of Walltngford. 1
The coastal rivers draining into Long Island Sound are numerous in
Connecticut.
The river basina are amall 1 consisting of only one or two
atreams, moat of which are ten to fifteen mt.lea in length. 2 The largest,
the Pawcatuck River, draina areas of aoutheaat Connecticut and southwest
Rhode Ialancl.
Its drainage area la about 303 aquare mt.lea, only S7 of which
are in Connecticut. 3 0th r eoaatal river• are the Niantic, the Mystic, the
llalllaonaaaett, the Branford• the Weat, the Saugatuck, the Norwalk. the Nianus,
the Horotoa, the Mill, the l'ive Mile, and the
Byr
Rivers.
At the present, there is no precise knowledge available•• to th
total quantity of surface water.
B.eservof.r capacity is knowa and stream
flow can be ••sured, as the following figure
billton gallons per -th, mi1'1-- fl•:
indicate, expressed in
4
·C ouectlc:ut at llartford
Quinniplac at Wallingford
Thaaaa at Norwich
Housatonic at Shelton
65.00 BGM
1.00 BGM
4.75 BGH
6.75 BGM
The gauging stations at which these nows were recorded are above
the tidal reaches.
With 2S3 linear miles of coaetU.ne and numerous tidal
rivers, Connecticut bas virtually unlimited auppliea of brackish water.
Such water can be used by many industries for cooling purposes or for other
use where good quality water ta not essential.
1J.W.., p. 105.
2connecticut Interregional Planning Program, Water, A Resource
Inventory. op. cit., P• 19.
3Il,id.
4l!!.li,., p. 12.
34
the Uses of Connecticut Water
Of the 169 mnictpallties in Connecticut, 130 are served by 167
vater companies.
These companies in 1960 served 2,121,758 people, or 84
per cent of the total 2,535,234 population.
The remaining 413,476 people
withdrew water supplies &om 75,000 home wells. 1
The Water Resource• Coamiaaion reported in 1960 that Connecticut
had a safe yield of 320.4 mllion gallons per clay from surfac
and 47.4 million gallons per day from groundwater.
supplies
In 1960, the water
coarpaniea supplied their customer• with 277.5 million gallon• per day, of
which 249.1 million gallon were from surface supplies and 28.4 m:1.lU.on
gall-. from groundwater, giving what seemed
comfortable
rgtn of aupply
over d aand. 2
Water CODSUDll'tion in Connecticut increased 101 per cent from 1940
to 1960. 3 The per capita daily consumption in 1960 was 131 gallon•. By 1967,
the population of Connecticut reached 2,929,000,4 very close to the three
1Dillion that had been predicted for 1970.
Connecticut le an urban atate, the fastest growing la New England.
Prom 19S0 to 1965, it ranked third in per capita income in the nation. 5 In 1965
and 1966, it lad ln per capita income. The national average 1n 1966 vaa $2.940.
In Connecticut, the per capita income
was $3,968.
As the state becomes
1Ibid., p. 24.
2tbid.
3l!w!·
4state of Connecticut, ptyst of Cgppectteut; AshalpJacratlye IIWCI
to the Governor, COnnectlcut Development Coaniasion, p. 201.
5connecticut Industrial Development Council, The Advantages of!
Connecticut Location for the Chemic 1 Industry, op. cit., p. 3.
35
more urbanized, and as its people enjoy more income, it ia expected that
they will increase their coneumptlon of water. 1 'l'he projected per capita
consumption for 1970 baa been set at 170 gallons per day. 2 If the population increase ia three years ahead of the projections; it is reasonable to
assume that th consumption of wat r has been equally accelerated.
The supply of water has not increased proportionately.
In those
areas of Connecticut with the heaviest population concentration and a high
rate of growth, the water auppl) is be..condng a problem.
Even though th• number of public water supplies continues to
increase and additional aources are being added to existing aupplie,
some supplies are not expanding fast enough to meet demands. At
present, 25 systema do not have reserves sufficient to meet the projected demands ten year ahead. Eighteen of these have plans to meet
the demands, but have not impleuanted them. l'ive of these plan to
use a presently polluted stream. Seven supplies bav! not offered any
plan for meeting the anticipated 10-year coaaitment.
A few years ago, one wat r company raised a storm of protest when
it expressed its interest in utilizing Lake Quassapaug as a source of
supply, thereby closing off for recreation one of the loveliest and most
popular waterbodies in that section of the State.
As is true for the rest of the nation. industry is the greatest
user of water in Connecticut.
An indication of this use is the following
excerpt fr0111 Waste Water Disposal by Connecticut Industries as of January
of 1961, a report prepared by the United States Division of Water Supply
and Pollution Control:
1state of Connecticut Digest, Connecticut Development Commtesloa,
op, cit., p. 201.
2Connecticut Interregional Planning Program, Commity Services.
Technical Report 150 Prepared by Connecticut Development C01111lisaion
(Hartford, 1963) p. 15.
3state of Connecticut Digest, Department of Health, op. cit., p. 224.
)6
Of the 366 ld.11 toa gallorua of water uHd by iaduatry each
day. 108 llllllon gallons or 29 per cent were ohtalA-4 froa aanlclpal
facllltl••• Of the re11al11f.q 258 llilltoa gallon, vhlch tnduatry
aupplled tteelf. 200 11UU.oa c._ fr• aurface aourcu only, 77 pet" cent.
twenty-elgbt m.lltoa fr• around source• only, 11 per cent; aad 30 aUU.on
fr• both
and ground, 1% pe-r •nt.
u alght be apected, the luger user• rely aore osa their own
•ourcea of supply, tba1I 4o the ...11er ueara. To esaatne thta, the
total water uaed la each lnduatry poup was dlvtded by the mamber
of plate tn the seoup to a•t a aver-ae. tn general, du,.• loduatry aroupa with• ave~q• datly u•• of under 70,000 aallona put"cha••
11110re thu 40 per cent of the tr vate,: from muntci-paU.U.ea. The aajor
••fac•
exception to thi• •t•t-nt i• the AppaNl group whleh ha• 63 pl•nu.
Thia lffllP U9ee •• avei-ag• of 67,00014110111 per day lJut buya Ollly
tw11ty per cent of
water. Abo, 111 geural • thoH gnu,- aver•
aslaa IIOl"e than 70,000 gallou purchaaed 1••• than 40 per cent. There
an tvo •xc•ptloaa of groupa vbtch uae relatively laTg• aaouat• of
wter when the percent purchued t• aleo high. 'fhe 65 plot• 111
Trauportatton lqut.paut averag• 296.ooo sallon.1 per da1 of whlch
•lxty-etght pel'Cnt t.• purchased. 'Ebe 11 plants in OrdU11Ce ad
Acce••orl•• averaa• 520,000 gallon• per day. of which 96i to pur•
cueed.
t•
TABLE A. GI.OSS USE or WA'fBR. BY
COIIIBCTICUT IRDUSTRIBS
pee
!:I!
Sant.tar, Vaate
Watte
Product Uee
6
Proceae
132
Boller
12
210
Beed
Cooliag W..t:er
Other UNa
Total
3
fercnt
1.7
36.1
.a
3
3.3
57.3
.8
366
100.0
-
0a • county but•• 47 per c:e11t of tbl• water•• uff<l f.111ft Ravea
OD a ataor drainage b..ta but•• S2 ,er cent vaa uaed lra the
HOUNtonie liver 'basin. On a tacluatry group b..u. the Priauy
Couaty.
Hatala iaduatry used the tara••t daily volum-•78.S • tlllon
plloaa ta 141 plant•. Of tht.• aiaunt, SS.1 aillion gallou.
OI"
70
purpo•••. The next lars••t group of
ua•r• vae Mtacellaaeou Maaufactunre with 40.2 at.111• aallou of
per enc• wl'e UNd for cooU.na
1
which 75 per cent • • for oooU.ag. The tbf:rd laraeat UMr group vu
11ectrlc-Gaa•Sbt.tat1on Sentcet vltb 38.'3,.,~ lltoe ga.llou• 8DCI, aa
Iii.pt be expected. thia • • 96.7 -per oeat cooling water.
The V01WN of •uU•n: rue, ¥Ater~&.;.~~ f.11 proporttOR to the
D.Uaber of eaployNt; th• av•••• va• about 15 galloes 1-•:t peraon
per day. V•• by l.nduaC1"J aroupa ranptl 1eaera11, between cea
aad
37
nineteen gallons per person per day. One exception on the high
side was Rall Transportation. Here a value of 300 gallons per
ployee per day is explained by the amounts used by customers for
sanitary waste di charge rather than the amounts used by employees
only.
The la-rgest discharge of PFOCeas waste was 21.2 million gallons
per day from 4S Paper and Allied Products Industries, closely
followed by 19.2 million gallons from the 141 Primary Metal Industries. Next was 13.8 million gallons from 341 Fabric.ated Metal
Products factories. Six induatry groups discharging more than
ten lllift 1allons of process waste per day, from one-third of the
planu, account for two•thirds of the process waste.
· Total ceollgg water use was at the rate of 209.9 million gallons
per day. Plve industry groups wlth 18 per cent of the industries,
acc•nted for 88 per cent of the total.
Alatat 12 million gallons of water per day are u1ed for boiler
!!.!!• Ch.teals, Pri•ry Metals and Textile MiU. Product• uae ovel:'
half of this amount.
By number, 6S per cent of the 2,133 induat~ie• u•• leis than
10,000 gallons of water per day each, and 81 per cent uae less thaQ
50,000 gallons. These 1,.737 companies use leas than 3 per cent of
the water. At the other end of the scale, 11 companies use 43 per
cent of the total amount, 132.1 million gallon or 83 per cent is
cooling water.
Althougb a uumber of companies have gone out of bus·ineas or have
left the state since tki• report was prepared. the trend baa been one of
decided increase in •nufacturing growth.
The Com,.ecti-cut Development
Commission Administrative Report stated that during 1966 there were 204
new mauufacturiDg operation• atatt,ci in the State, and that 28 Connecticut
fil'JIIS expanded facilities in addition that same year.
The Business and
Industrial Division of the Comniseton, in their survey, Major Industrial
Conatgact:lon for 1967 1 reported that during the year, 280 n w plants had
been completed and an additional 124 were then under construction.
Water
consmaption figures for industry for 1967 are not available, but it seems
logical that they will far surpass the 366 million gallons per day consumed
in 1961. A number of industries are already responding to the need for more
water by usiftS brackish water, particularly for cooling purposes, and by
cleaning and recycling •~lating aupplies as much as possible.
38
The uae of water for irrigation in Connecticut cannot be compared
in measurable degree with that of industrial consumption.
"In less than
forty years, land in farms has decreased by more than 50 per cent •• • Agriculture has been utilising a constantly decreasing proportion of the State's
labor force and land area."1
However, by annual value of production. agriculture is still
important.
Conne~tlcu~ faraara are tumiog to specialisation to the extent
that i t s • - le•e farming and 11Qre crop management.
The major products
of such , ., eciali·zati011 are. for the 1110st part, in direct response to an
increasingly local urban market••datry products, poultry, fruits and
vegetables, and nursery plants.
Tobacco i
since the prohibition of Cuban imports, it i
a more universal product, and
once mor
an important crop
to the state.
Speciali
d f rming in an urban state such aa Connecticut demands
intensive methods and excellent yield
per acre.
Such inten&iv methods
• , • cannot be dependent on the uncertainties of rainfall.
Connecticut growers of tobacco, potatoes and truck garden produce
have found that the right amount of water at
right time brings
more and better crops . This ans irrigation.
tle
In addition, Connecticut cows consume millions of gallons of fresh
water each year.
Two million acres of the total 3.205,760 acres in Connecticut are
forested.
Yet forest industries contribute vlry little to the econmy of
1connectlcut Interregional Planning Program, Resource Industries.
Technical l.eport 141 Prepar d by the Connecticut Development C011111liasion
(Hartford, 1963), p. 11.
2state of Connecticut, Connecticut's Water•-Wealth or Waste? A
Report Prepared by the Connecticut Water Commission and Depart nt of
Health (Bartford 1 1953), p. 2.
39
the State.
value.
it
The fore ts are of c
rcial use, but not of major commercial
"The pulp industry will not likely be important any time
...
causes offensive pollution in rivers which can no longer be tolerated
and the State lacks the vast waHr supply needed by the industry. 111
With an expanding population requiring ever-increasing amounts
of water, forested watersh ds are becoming more and more important
to the welf re of the people of the State. Most of Connecticut's
water supply Cellll!S fr- b~~,oJ<s, riJers, ponds nd reservoirs kept
clean and full by foreated slope, .
There is another view to be taken of so much forest in the State.
Trees use up considerable quantities of water from the
much water from percolating down to the aquifers.
oil, preventing
Also , the presence of
so many trees increases the percentage of loss through transpiration.
This is the aubject of a study now being conducted by the Connecticut
Agricultural Experiment Station.
The countless microscopic valves that control this evapotranspiration are the stemata of leaves. If these stomata could be
regulated so· s to restrict the·outflow of water without seriously
affecting plaat grevth, then more water should re in in the soil
and ulti-tely in our reservoir• and wells.
Ta· fir t year of a forest experiment to test thia hypothesis
g ve promising results. Treatment of a red pine stand in Voluntewn
shtNed that chemically induced shrinkage of atemates in the needle•
gave a saving equivalent to eight-tenth of an inch of rain in 1t,6 .
Growth of the pine needles was unaffected, but the expansion of the
tree trunks was iecreased by about one-sixth a comp red with
untreated trees.
Commercial fishing in Connecticut has been steadily declining since
the turn of the century and will likely continue this trend.
With the
op. cit. 1
1connecticut Interregional Planning Program, Resources Industries ,
p. 35.
tries C
2connecticut Forest Facts (Washington:
itte • 1963), p. 11.
Connecticut Porests Indua-
3state of Connecticut Dig st. Department of Agriculture, op. cit.,
P• 195.
40
increase of industrial and service occupations, much of the labor force bas
withdrawn from the less profitable jobs in commercial fishing .
(This par•
ticular aspect of Connecticut's economic use of water will be discussed in
greater detail in the following sections . )
Sports fishing. as with all phases of water-oriented recreation.
h s been experiencing a great increase.
For the last several years,
nearly 125,000 fishing licenses have been issu d annually. 1 This does not
include children under 16 and those who fish ·from their own property.
is a license necessary for sport fishing in marine waters.
Boating is
yearly winning thousands of new enthusiasts, and new bot owners .
of thousand
Nor
of people flock to the beaches in the sunaertime.
Hundreds
Parks and
roadside rest areas near rivers and lakes attract picnics.
No matter the use in a prosperous state, the demand for water grows.
Supply is not keeping pace.
for quality.
Connecticut can no longer substitute quantity
The more its citizens have used the water, the more they have
abused it.
lState of Connecticut Digest, Board of Fisheries and Game, op. cit.,
p. 177 and Clean Water for Connecticut , op, cit., p. 17 .
CBAPl'ER III
WATER POLLUTION IN CONNECTICUT
The Background
Adrian Bloch, one of thee rly Dutch explorers, crossed the bar
at the mouth of the Connecticut River in 1614 and explored upstream to the
area of present-day Hartford.
There, to his disappointment, the tidal
reach ended and he found fresh water .
His name for the river. Versche,
meant fresh water. 1
Before 1635, when Th011l8s Hooker and one hundred Puritan settlers
arrived eventually to found the river towns, Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, several Dutch and English posts were alre dy established to trade in
furs with the Indians.
In a very short time . settlements grew up along the
shoreline at Greenwich, Stratford , Milford, New Haven, and Saybrook.
When English settlers arrived, they found its waters and rivers
teeming with life , an attraction that had long since drawn the
attention of the Algonquin Indians . Shallow tidal stretches of the
shore were covered with delectable shellfish ••• oysters were most
common, although clams and acallops were also found. Every year
large runs of fish up tidal rivers occurred. In particular, shad up
the Connecticut River wa a ujor attraction. Atlantic salmon and
alewives also made these runs. The nearly landlocked Long Island
Sound protected from rough Atlantic storms were rich in salt-water
fi h. 2
1Bernard J . Malahan , ''Tracing the History of the Connecticut River,"
New York Times, May 3, 1964, p. X-9.
2connecticut Interregional Planning Program, Resources Industries ,
op. cit., p. 44.
41
42
the early aettlera were subsistence farmers, and they found an
abundance of rich flat land in the Counecticut Valley.
The fish and shell-
fish provided them a fine and easily obtained source of food; later a valuable sourc of trad
in fish developed.
"Salmon were so plentiful in colonial days that it was prohibited
to feed the
to bond servants more than three ti•s weekly.
brook's South Cove. 2,700 salmon were taken in one haul ... l
In Old Say•
Herring, striped
base, and shad were so plentiful and so cheap that they were considered food
for the lower classes only.
The Indians had long used shad for fertilizer.
Later the colonists salted down shad and used them for a profitable trade
with Portugal.
The principal pursuits of early Connecticut were, then the resource
industries•-farming, fishing, forestry, fur trading and trapping••to provide
the basic needs of the settlers and dependent upon or adjacent to the
watercourses.
The first grist mill was built on the Connecticut River in
1737 at Wethersfield.
Other mills soon followed, all located at streams
from which wat r power for their operationa was derived. 2
It was not long before the aettlera found it neceaaary to produc
clothing and houaehold furniahioga, and well into the eighteenth century,
this form of •nufacturlng continued to be solely or principally for the
purpoae of family uae. 3
1
Grant, op. cit •• p. S3.
2Merwin Kupfer, "Porty Years of Water Pollution Control in Connecticut," A Paper Presented at the 81st Annual Meeting, Connecticut Socl ty
of Civil Bnglne rs, Inc., Cheshire, April 22, 196S, p. 2.
3comaecticut Interregional Planning Program, Manufacturing lnduatrlea. Technical B.eport 143 Prepared by the Connecticut Development
Commission (Hartford. 1963), p. 8.
43
It was not long, however, before saw and flour mills. tanneries and
distilleries, and the surplus products of field, forest, and stream gave
rise to several types of manufacturing, mostly of the hand and cottage type,
but in sufficient quantity to sell some abroad. 1 As trade increased , goods
began to move out around the world in Connecticut-built ships.
shipbuilding center of considerable fame
nd importance. 2
River was the main commercial artery of the area .
Essex was a
The Connecticut
Middletown was a thriving
port, a reminder of which can still be seen in numerous commercial banking
houses.
By 1716, nails from imported iron were made and exported.
Iron ore
was discovered in northwestern Connecticut and the first forge ~as con-
structed at Simsbury.
For nearly a century, until the ores were finally
exhausted, eight hand-blasted furnaces produced pig iron.
John Allyn began
the first brass works in 1749 in Waterbury, turning out buttons, kettles ,
and wire. 3 Metallic wastes were introduced to the rivers and streams.
Tinware factories were am<>ngst Connecticut's earliest industries,
and articles from these factories bee._ the major wares of many of the
Yankee pedlars traveling throughout the thirteen colonies . 4
The first white men in Connecticut had come to trade in furs , and
throughout the seventeenth century, this trade continued .
Later furs were
brought in from the wilderness areas to the north and ~rest of the colony.
The production of hats began early and continued, despite the 1732 law and
l.!!?!!!.•
2Malahan ,
(Hartford:
trtes ,
op. cit. P• X-9 .
3connecticut Development Cormnission, Introduction to Resources
Connecticut Development Conmission, 1966), p. 1.
4connecticut Interregional Planning Program, Manufacturing Indus•
PP, cit., PP• 8-9.
44
other similar laws passed by Parliament at the time to discourage such
manufactures.
By 1732, the culture of mulberry trees and the production of native
raw silk began at Mansfield.
The first silk mill was set up in 1758, and
when the native silk culture was abandoned, silk mills supplied with raw
silk from China, continued to grow in Eastern Connecticut.
In the same
area of the colony, Norwich was the first town to have a paper mill, in 1768
using old linen rage as the basic raw 11Aterial. l
Something new once again
was finding its way into Connecticut rivers.
On
the eve of the Revolution, Connecticut's industry and trade was
still largely resource-oriented, however, and amounted to about 5.8 per cent
of the total for all thirteen colonies.
Most of this trade w s export.
Connecticut was one of the most self-sufficient of the colonies.
2
New England's first woolen mill had been established at Hartford
in 1788.
Hat makina had long been primarily a hand trade until the fir t
true hat factory open•d in 1780 at lanbury.
Around 1800, Eli Whitney
started the State's firearms industry at New Haven, and major brass works
were in operation in Waterbury.
Seth Thomas was running a clock factory in
Thomaston by 1808. 3
By 1810, the year the first partial census of manufactures in the
United States, there existed tn Connecticut 24 linseed-oil mills 1 560
distilleries. 184 machine wool carding shops, 214 cloth fulling mills,
fifteen woolen mills, 14 cotton mills, 5 silk mills, 19 ropewalks, 19
paper mills, 408 tanneries, 12 potterief, 8 iron blast furnaces , S
clock factories, and 7 gunpowder mills.
1
t bid .
-
2 tbid .
3tbid . , p. 10.
4 tbid .
45
All of this early industry was limited in location to riversides.
The necessary power was provided by water-driven mill wheels.
of the streams began with the first factory.
Pollution
The mill pond created by
damming the stream for power became the repository of the wastes and dirty
water.
One
dvantage , for the health of the receiving waters, of such an
immobile source of pwer lay in the fact that it limited the number of
factories that could operate in one location and tended , therefore, to keep
the mill towns low in population c~centrations and somewhat scattered.
The great majority of the factories into the first half of the nine-
teenth century depended largely upon raw materials of an organic nature-textiles. food processing , slaughterhouses, tanneries, hat factories, paper
mills, distilleries.
Whil whale were still being caught in Long Island
Sound , the carcasses would be dragged ashore for processing; the remnants
would becast back into harbor waters, hopefully, for the tide to wash away.
Because of lack of factory concentration along riverbanks , the
natural capacity of streams to handle the biodegradable organic wastes was
not too overburdened.
The numerous mill ponds served as sedimentation
basins, and the falling water aided aeration.
Some streams occasionally,
during low-flow , high-temperature seasons, would display accumulations of
debris visible to nose as well as eye .
This nuisance generally disappeared
during the next heavy rain.
By the middle of the century, and particularly with the demands of
the Civil War, an increased need· for aetter means of power arose.
With the
introduction of steam, ..re mobility was given to the siting of new and
expanding industries.
As late as 1870, however, only one-third of Connec-
ticut's factories were using steam.
Even as steam power increased in use,
46
water remained one of the essential factors .
Greater amounts were needed
for new industrial processes, for cooling, and for carryin1 ·away the waates.
Factories, no longer limited by the single fixed power source, tended
to cluster together.
Mill towns grew in size and population.
More water
was needed for human consumption; more streams were needed for waste disposal.
Connecticut industry did not
xpand as much as industry did else-
where in the East during the last of the nineteenth. century when e-,hasis
concentrated greatly on steel.
it had been changing character.
forest, and stream.
But for some time it had been ar.wing, and
No longer waa i t based chiefly upon field,
The metals and metal products industries had been
gaining in number.
In 1841 automatic pin-making machines were used for the first time
in Waterbury and Danbury. During that decade, Elias Howe, Jr . invented
his sewing chine and started a factory in Bridgeport, followed in
1850 by Allen B. Wilson's sewing machine factory, first in Watertown
and then 1 ter in Brid1eport. The rubber industry in Coanecticut
received its 11&jor impe.t us by the discovery of vulc.a nizina lty Charles
Goodyear of Naua tuck in 1144, arul the addition of._iJjulfur by N thniel
Hayward of Colchester in 1850. In 1846 the Roaers brothers perfected
the process of silver plating and found a factory in Hartford which
was moved first to Waterbury and then to Meriden where it has since
continued.
Metallic wastes such as copper , lead, and silver were discharged with
th waste waters,
s were increasing loads of acids, soaps, cleaning fluids ,
coal oil and tars.
The rivers were handy receptacles; they were outside the
back door, and they were free .
Little regard was given to the needs of the
next town, of the next factory, or of the farmer through whose pastures the
befouled streams ran.
Use of th waters was no better by the growing population centers
where "sewage w s disposed of by privies, vaults, street collection of night
l Ibid. , p. 15.
47
soil, dumping of excrement into street gutters or unlawful us
of storm
drains, which led to serious nuisance conditions in surface waters. 1
The use of storm drains for sewage disposal was legalized very early and
did alleviate some of the more objectionable conditions, particularly after
they were covered from sight, if not from smell.
The first drainage pipes
were of wood and inclined to be somewhat leaky.
A common sight in the latter part of the nineteenth century was the
privy, its backside
upported by legs, propped up over the river.
Th city
dweller could not go on digging new hole• forever in his very limited back•
yard,
nd there was the rum,.ing river so near to hand.
Garbage disposers
also resorted to the river, or at least to the river banks.
Street aweep-
in.gs--ashes, dust, manure. whatever-•were carted off daily to the river .
The nuisance conditions of the rivers was readily apparent to all
long before the la•t of th• nineteenth century saw a wide acceptance of the
important bacterlolqtcal and eptdemlological discoveries that proved that
typhoid, dystentery, a~ cholera were translllitted in the sewage-laden waters,
those same waters f r • vhich • - water supplie were being withdrawn.
Concern over the Connecticut River, which was reaching the State
already fouled by Vermont, Hew Ham.pshir, and Massachusetts before
Connecticut users added more, was expressed in 1884 by J . B. Olcott
of South Manchester, who wrote: 'A land with its rivers running filth
instead of pure water is like a body with lta veins running filth inatead
of pure blood--Bartford sits nervously in the lap of what was once one
of the fatiest and ~weeteat and is now one of the filthieat valleys in
the world.
Between 1884 and 1881 1 the first reports were prepared on the pollution
of rivers ln the state which left no doubt that the situation was becoming
1charles A. Jaworski. "Sewage Disposal in Coanecticut," Conne5ticut
Health Bulletin, LXXX (March, 1966), p. 1.
2
Grant, op. cit., p. 104.
48
serious.
Byrum
Rivers such as the Naugatuck , the Still, the Hockanum, and the
had lost their natural cleansing ability, so overburdened had they
become with domestic sewage and indu trial wastes . 1 Dr.
illiston, in the
1884 study, reported that one large Port Cheater (New York) manufacturer of
stove and plumbers materials dumped refuse on the mud flats on the
Connecticut side, seriously daucing the oyster beds there .
In addition,
the outfalls for the proposed Port Chester sewerage system were to be
located directly across the river in the same area.
Dr. Williston found
that the Naugatuck was so bad that raw sewage discharged into the river at
Torrington was still virtually raw sewage as the river reached Waterbury.
There was little sign of fish life left in some of the lower stretches of
the river.
It was fortunate, he felt, that some of the industrial wastes
were of such character as to discourage certain pathogenic bacteria .
The first recorded pollution control action was taken by the
General ssembly in 1886 when it passed a special act prohibitina
the City of Meriden from carrying out its plan to discharge raw sewage into the Quinnipiac River. This move led to the construction of
the first sewage treatment plant in the State in the year 1891. The
type of treatment employed was 'land filtration,' natural sand filters
with no underdrains.
Superior Court Judge G. W. Wheeler . in 1895, rendered an historic
decision in the case of Morgan vs. City of Danbury when he established
the rights of riparian owners to the waters of a stream with respect
to its use for aewage disposal by a city. This decision stated:
'That the sewers were built by the defendant for a public purpose
under authority of law and in the exerciae by it of a governmental
duty is of no importance. Its use of the stream (to the material
injury of the pl intiff) under its charge wit hout obtaining the right
to the use of the strea by grant or prescription and without compensation is n illegal use.'
. . ... . ...
... . .. .. ... .. ... .. .. . ... ..
'The right under the law of a riparian proprietor (as is this
plaintiff) in the waters of a running stream • • . the common interest
requires that the rights should be exercised and enjoyed by each in such
1s. W. Williston, Report of Rivers Poll ution.
for the Connecticut Board of Health (Hartford, 1884) .
A Report Prepared
49
a reasonable manner as not to injure unnecessarily the rights of any
other owner above or below.'
The General Assembly at the 1897 regular session authorized the
formation of a sewer study CODlllittee to 'investigate the subject of
sewage disposal of the cities. boroughs and towns of Connecticut.'
The report of this coumission to the 1899 session of the General
Assembly stated in part: •0ur cities re growing all the time, the
quantity of sewage discharged into streams is thereby increased, and
the practice which 20 years ago may have been objectionable has in
many c see become unbearable.'
'The Courts have found for the plaintiffs in every case that has
come to our knowledge, and have rend red decisions strongly upholding
the rights of a single riparian owner- as a1ain t the convenience and
financial interests of a large connunity. Th disposal of se~age
without nuisance is a duty which each cormnunity owes to the public.
The State is new at the .parting of the ways. It may leave the whole
matter drift as it will. Our streams will then become more and more
polluted • • • as is going on in this State today or the State may
take up the • ;tt~r. and seek • • • to stop further pollution
This course, we believe. the State should adopt . • 1
At the direction of the Gen ral Assembly, the State Board of
Health in 1913-1914, prepared still another investigation, but one of the
most comprehensive
urveys of stre m pollution in Connecticut.
The Board
found that practically all factories at riverside locations discharged not
only untreated industrial waste, but also the raw sewage of their workers.
The practice of riverside privies was nearly as much in evidence as it had
been thirty years earlier, particularly along the Naugatuck. 2
Decomposing
sludge was visible all along the banks from industrial wastes, and most
particularly from the raw sewage of Ansonia, Naugatuck, and Waterbury. 3
The Still River was badly polluted below Danbury by factory wastes. 4
The Quinnipiac received raw sewage from all the towns from Wallingford to
1Hupfer, op. cit., pp. 3-4.
2state of Connecticut, Report on the Investigation of the Pollution
of Streams. A Report Prepared by the Board of Health for the General
Assembly of 1915. p. 81.
3!!!!!•
4!!!!!•, p. 94.
50
New Haven.
Practically no fish life remained and private oyster beds in
New Rav n Harbor had to be abandoned . 1 The Pequonnock River entering
Brldg port Harbor received raw sewage from 23 outfalls in a di tance of
one and one-half mile • 2 The analysis of the Thames revealed that the
amount of oxygen present after const nt and heavy discharges of textile and
pulp and paper effluents and of r w sewage was not sufficient to aupport
filh life. 3 The Pequabuck at Bristol had very heavy ccumul tions of sludge
all along the bank •4 A newspaper article • written at the time this report
was presented, described the Pequabuck after
heavy rainstorm. following a
period of very low flow:
Bristol's main sewer
good flushing yesterday.
lesaening of flow through
almost a menace to health
trunk line. the Pequabuck River , got a
By evening it w • back to normal . The
the ravine h s caused §ha river to be
in the past few years .
The Board of H alth concluded th ir 1913-1914 report:
Connecticut i$ 1 raely a Mnufacturing state ••• These industries are of 1reat value to the state and no action restricting
them in the lealtimate use of the streams to dispos of their wastes
should be considered •• •
When, how ver, their u of the stream is such as to menace
public health or offend decency, there should be no hesitation in
stopping it . • • •
The mistaken idea that the interests of public health and manufacturing indu tries are di
trically opposed should be dismissed.
It baa been one of the greate t obstacles in preventing the correction
of pollution in our streams.
l!ll!!. • P•
2
!ll!!· .
10S.
p. 11S.
3 Ibid. , p. 49.
4 tbid. , p. 31.
50Pequabuck Get
p. 18.
a Flushing , " The Hartford Courant, January 8, 1915,
51
The problem of who was most responsible for fouling the waters
of the State--municipaltty or industry--was already being argued in 1915.
The State Shellfish Conmission at that time took a very definite stand in
their Biennial Report:
The most reprehensible and at the same time the most difficult sort of pollution to fight is that by the public or municipal
corporations in the shape of sewage. It would almost seem that
nothing short of a public calamity in the form of pestilence or
otherwise will bring the people of some localities to see the
menace to which they are subjected from this source • • • but there
is grave danger from bathing , from noxious odors and in many other
ways that will readily suggest themselves and the public will
never ba safe until the practice of pouring raw sewage into pub•
lic waters . tidal and non-tidal is done away with. Then and not:
until then , will it be feasible to move against private factories
and thus make the waters pure anf suitable for every kind of life
which originally inhabited them.
The General Assembly eet up another investigation board in 1917,
thi• one specifically to study pollution caused by factory waates .
A good
shar e of thi a report was devoted to condit ions on the Naugatuck from
Tor rington to its mouth.
The Naugatuck is utilized extensively for industrial purposes
and for the disposal of sewage for the entire valley. No disposal plants have yet been lnatalled . Some of the larger industries are only partially removing wastea ••• The river is rarely
uaed for boating or bathing, and flab are extinct . 2
It ta interesting to note that this Board was most optimistic,
having found that "improved methods recently adopted have reduced the amount
of material reaching the stream and these will probably entirely eliminate
this form of pollution . 113
1
''Damages to Property Rights Caused by Pollution," Hartford Courant,
January 6, 1915 , p. 12.
2
state of Connecticut, First and Second Reports of the Industrial
Wastes Board , 1918-1919. A Repo~t Prepared by the Connecticut Department of
Health (Hartford• 1921), p. 33 .
3.ll,!!. • p . 34.
52
Thi• report recOtllllended an extensive pollution abatement study be
made of Lydall Brook at Manchester, which presented various phases and types
of pollution.
One thousand dollar• was voted for this purpose by the Gen-
eral Assembly. 1
The Board found that 75 per cent of the industry along the banks of the
Hockanua River produced paper and textile products.
The water was al100at
black with apent dye• and contained a great deal of paper pulp. 2 The
Industrie.1 Waates Beard concluded:
The economical value of a stream is greatly reduced or
de troyed by gross pollution • • •· that dilutions sufficient
to insure iatisfactory conditions cannot be secured in the
streams studied by regulation of stream flow.
The Board went on to recommend:
that the problem of diminishing the pollution of treams in
Connecticut should be approached in a sy tematic manner. guarding
tho e streams which are not as yet seriously affected and, at
the same time, eliminating instances of gross pollution as fast
as possible.
Still another commie ion vas set up by the General Assembly
in 1921.
This one, however, was not so much to investigate pollution as
to investigate the elimination of pollution.
This cOlllJli&aion reported:
"There is little to be found in the reports examined by us which gives
evidence of accomplishment of practical results and some of the remedial
work actually undertaken seems to have lapsed for variou reasons. 113
This study also reported that larger and larger populations were
discharging sewage into rivers. many of which were totally fouled years
1 tbid. • p. 19.
2
!!:!.li,. , P• 38.
Streams.
3state of Connecticut , Comnisaion to Investigate the Pollution of
A Rep<>Tt to the General Assembly of 1923.
53
before.
rectory -c ate
lncreaetng.
ver
the result• of auch pollution
could be• n in boilers being c.orrod d; ft.ab .. bird. and •rlne life being
; recre tton belag mov d :way from•
destroy
rt
r idea. 1
The r port concluded that 'tt i• the duty of th St t e to nact
law which will d velop a ccnpreheut
program of U.ad.tatloa aad
r gulation in a conatructive and equitable meumer of the amount of
pollution or lcapurlty la the waters of th Stat which will et
specific conditt.oaa.
ins tb standard on th rea onabl
ecoaoalc
de
•'1
of 1ucb waters wltb tbe regard to public health.
Thu ..An Act Coacerntoa the Polluttml of Wat r aud Creat tng a
Stat• Water Collad.aaton" •• paeeed 1n 1925. The State Water Coalllaaioa.
with three __,.re, vaa • t up to work with the State Depart•nt of Health
to be la the chore of cleanlag up the Com\eettcut water•.
the tblrd •tate ln the nation to adopt an entt•pollutloo
Connecticut waa
1•.
alcally the 1925 law consist d of thr e aapecta of the pollution
probl
t.he C
t aau
In the case of exieting pollution t tbe t i • the act w spa aed,
•
t• ion held a ahow•c
a a
t
h arlng; if pollution wer
nt ord r "provided t
oper tton, thereof, ahall not be unr
coat of t.natnllation,
or means,
ucb h 11
lnt naac:e and
oaable or itteqult ble." la addition,
· the order ..•hall apectfy the particular eyat
provld d, tf there be aor
proved it could
o r - • to be used or oper t ct,
thn ou auch practicable and reasonable ayate•
iv the right to chooa which •hell be ua d or operated'••
If no •thod were tmown at tbe ti•, the pollution could 1 s Uy conttm.se
until the St te Colllld.••lon devtaed or found a •tbod.
In th c .. of• new eource of pollution coming into existence
fter 1925, • pemtt had to be obtained front tbe Co.deaf.on, which could
11!!!:!•
2Hupfer , op. cit . , pp. 5-6.
54
The third phase of pollution control
ohibited the dumping of
refuse within SO feet of the high water mark on any waterbody, or the dump•
ing of such wastes from boats.
Connecticut is to be conmended that i
was one of the first states
to recognize the necessity of legislation to ke,p ita waters clean.
The
fact that the waters did not get too much ·:·~leaning in forty years, while
deplorable, is still understandable to some ext~nt.
Years of bickering often followed a Conaiasion order.
Design-
ing a system that the firm or municipality could and must comply
with took another few years. All this was made more time consuming
because the legislature held the Commission to the same small staff
for 30 years and its pay scale was too low to attract good new recruits.
A third shortcoming in the ••• law according to experts, is that
the Conmisfion could order only individual towns and firms to halt
pollution.
The first legislation and the new Water Co
underway when the Great Depression hit.
isaion were scarcely
It was not reasonable to expect
too much in the way of new treatment plant construction.
A great deal of
industrial pollution stopped-•the plants were closed down .
The state waa recovering when World War II turned attention to more
critical matters.
Labor and materials for the construction of pollution
abatement facilities were short.
Meanwhile. Industry, geared to the War,
was booming, and population was concentrating in ares with
lready over-
burdened sewage systems.
Yet the law was on the books and the officials responsible were
trying to get their job done.
was the qualifying statement
Probably the most burdensome responsibility
0
that which beats rvea the public interest."
1David Rhinelander, "230 Million Plan Needed to Clean State's
Waters 1
11
The Hartford Courant 1 May 15, 1966.
5S
The first attempt• to control the major pollution offenders
brought the CO!llllieaion into conflict with both tnduatry and the
nicl•
palitf.e• because it appeared that other• of the same nature were not being
subjected to the aame control.
It wa necessary for the Comiesion to
attack the problem of control on an induetry~wtde and river-baain baala.
The
Coaaiaaioa under the 1925 atatute had to work chiefly through
the power of perauaaion.
to
It was 1931 before it iaaued its firet order,
Watertown textile aill .
The mill ignored the order and the next year,
waa ordered by the Superior Court to comply.
Pr
1925 to 196S, the Coaniaaion issued 36 ordera, thirty-one to
mnicipalitie•• five to industry.
order•.
'?Vo
Nineteen hearings did not reault in
of these incluatriea on order appealed to the Superior Court.
The ff.rat, in 1943, was denied; the other which had been ordered in 1946,
went out of buaineH in 1952 before •tudiea of the case were c-,leted. 1
The ftrat 111.nlf.cipality to appeal a Commlaaien order was the
City of Horwich in 1951. In 1956, the citie• •f .lnaonia, ..rby,
and Sh lton alao appealed ordera. The Superior Court, and on
further appeal , the Supreae Court and. on further a,peal, the
Supreme Court of Errors found in favor of the COlllllieeion on all
inetance• and the four municipalities were directed by court order
to conatruct the aeceaaary collection and treatment facilities.
Norwich constructed only thr e of seven stages of ita project and
Ansonia. Derby. and Shelton did nothing. In 1964, all four
c011111Unitie1 vere laaued contempt citations , were found in contempt
of the Superior Court and are now proceeding Jith th ir projects
under new time •ch dulea issued by the Court.
Connecticut Joined two of the earliest regional groups in the
pollution abatement field._•the Inter tate Sanitation Coant• ion with New
York and Rew Jeraey in 1941; and the New England Interatate Water Pollution
1Rupfer, op. cit., p. 14.
2 IJ,id.
S6
Control Commlaaion with the other Rev England state• and Rew York in 1947.
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 19S6 offered grant• up
to one•thlrd of the construction co•t• (or $S00,000, whichever were smaller)
to aid in the conatruction of new treat
nt f cilitf.ea.
Such grants made
to Connecticut under thia law were comparatively small because of the
State'• high per capita income, yet localities in the atate did benefit
&ma th
grants. 1
In 1957, the State Water Coanlaaton, the State Flood Board and
Water Policy Coaniaaion, and the State Board of Supervision were combined
into the aeven•me
r Water Reaourcea Commiaaion.
The drought which blanketed Hew England in th
1960• and threatened
ny areaa vlth vat r ahortagea, ••rved to focua attention of more people
than ever on the problem of water pollution.
In 1966, Governor Dempaey'• Clean Water Taak Poree reported back
with a broad rang
of ftncH.nga and recommendatf.ona.
Act Concerning th
Blimf.oation of Pollution of the Watera of the State"
was paaeed by the General Aaaembly in 1967.
Public Act 57 • ''An
(See Appendix A for the analyais
of Public Act 57.)
According to thi• act, and to the Federal Water Quality Act of 1965,
th Water Reaourcea CODlld.aalon va• to hold public hearings prior to drawing
up the Water Quality Standards for Connecticut to be aubmltted to the Secretary of the Interior for approval.
The heariqa were held in June, 1967. 2
llthtnelanc:ler, op, cit., p. 1.
2The Standard• which appear in Appendix B were mostly approved aa of
June, 1968. Thoae portion• not acceptable then were deacrtbed during a per•
aonal interview at the Water Resource • CODlld.aalon ae minor, but the exact
portion• were not •pect.fled, and any coaaenta 1n thla paper on what they
were would only be auppoaition.
57
The Preaent Situation
Although mot'e than 90 per cent of the efiluent from munlcipallties
and incluatrial operation, receive treatment of ,oma kind. only about
one•half of the municipal sewage and on •quarter of th industrial
effluent la adequately treated.
The t:oadequately treated municipal waste diacharg d into Connec•
ticut watenraya i• the equivalent of 100 illlon gallon• per day of
raw aevage . The induttrial waete• diacharged into our river and
atream1 I.a the equivalent of ayother 100 million gallona per day of
untreated induatrtal effluent.
Ccmnectlcut had,•• of October, 1965, eeventy-one municipally owned
aevage
treat•nt planta, at.xteen privately owned which also served aome
1111aicipalitlea, twenty-one atat
plants, and four Fed ral plant•.
Of the
eattmated 1965 state population of 2,835.000 persona, about 1.683,000 or
fifty-nine percent were served by public aevera; 1,613,000 or 96 per cent
vhtch provided soma degree of treat nt to the aewage
before final diacharge. 2
were served by ayat
Some of this treatment could, however. be aa almple as the acre nlng
of raw aewage to reawe the larger solids which ha• been the practice at
Stafford.
At thi• moment, almoat all of Northeastern Connecticut can be
conaid rad to be dlachargtng nearly rav aewage. 3
Th• Vat r baourcea Coaalaaion acted promptly under the terma of
th new act to isaue or•era to polluters.
By far the greate-s·t part of the Coam.aaloa effort waa expended
on the enforc••ut ,art of the Aet. Orders have been i aued to all
polluters known to have exiated at the paaaage of the Act. There
vere 110 Order• to 11lU1licipalitiee and 611 to private polluters.
721 Orders provide a firm acbedule for the accompllahment
of· iOlO step• which will lead to th correction of all of th•••
Th•••
1state of Connecticut , Clean Wat r for Connecticut, op.
ctt.,
p. viii.
2Jaworekl, op. cit., P• 13.
3Peraonal interview at the State Department of Health, Hartford,
Auguat 27 , 1968.
58
•ourcee . Bearing• were requeated on only 99 of thi• total number
of ordera. The Colllld.aaion baa •d• eve-ry effort to elear the docket
of the legal etepa required by tbeee requests for hearings. The
Coaalaaion action has been ea1entlally completed on 70 of these 99
requests. On tho,e that have passed the time limit for court appeal,
only aix ctions have been instituted, one of which waa subsequently
withcb~awn. Of the re ining five, two are individual houaehold
discharges.
The proce•• of t.eaulng Order• ha• already provided concrete
re1ult1. 'lhirty•four private and three nam.t clpal polluter• have
already fully complied with the requirements of their Orders. Theae
action• alone aecount for the accomplishment of 123 of the Ord•r
atepa . In all
total
275 out of the 2010 •te;a have already been
taken by the polluter,.
On the third pha••• :the progr811111ins of fl-net.al •••t•tace , the
COllllli•aton baa alre..y. agreed upon and 11 king regular paymenu on
$4,273.000 worth of retrQ•active granta. It u· advanced $225,000 for
preparation of plane and apectficationa. Th• COIIDlaalon l• now pro•
ceaalng 17 atate COl\Struction grant• and ten advance• on federal grant•
a, well•• one grant for performing th separation of storm and aani•
tary drainage. 2
yf
Several citiel have received two or aore ordera 1 to add new treat•
ment facilities to cover growing • r - or to upgrade old facllltie• that
are overtaxed or providing only partial treat•nt.
wt.th lnduatrlal po11utera .
induatrial effluent•, the
The ea
A number of companies ha'¥
HCOnd
situation exi•t•
two order•, om for
for aan.ita~ aewage.
Connecticut ha• aoma 8,400 tin.ear lid.lea of rivers and atreama.
Of
thla total, 7.818 mile• (93.1 per cent) are virtually uapolluted (•e• Pigu,:e 6).
The croaahatched areas of thia •P indicate water•heda tributary to water
aupply reaervolra.
The1e ar •• are watched over very carefully by the State
Health Depart nt and the own•r• of th• water eomparalea.
'l'be atreama in
1The atepa Mr. Curry refers to a-re: A • Bqineerlng Report• ,
B - Construction Plan • C - Arrangement of Plnanclng, D - Acceptance of
Grant•• B - Advertising for Bide, P - Start of Conatructlon, and C • Placed
in Operation.
2if.morand to the COIIIDlasionera , Connecticut Water lleaourc •
Commleeion, from Mr. John J. Curry, Director, Hartford. May 6. 1968.
'uupfer, op. cit., p. 15.
3
'W
~
✓
., / '
_/'
~
,,,.
/
VI
'°
'
i
,
~
FIGURE 6
CLEAN WATERSHEDS AND POLLUTED RIVERS
Source: Merwin Hupfer~ Forty Years
of Water Pollution Control in Connecticut,
p. 15.
~
....
Watershed Areas
Most Significantly Polluted
· Rivers
60
these areas are of Class A quality (see Appendix B) .
No direct discharges
1
of wastes of any description are permitted into these waters.
Streams in the uncolored areas of Figure 6 are also excellent to
good quality, either Class A or B.
w
Any pollution discharged into these
ters is minor and easily assimilated by the stre
•
However, if industry
and population expaad at the present rates in the future, these streall8 must
be carefully guarded to inaure they are not degrad d.
and housing projects are JmtV,in& into the
Th
Already new industrial
reas of these streams.
question of protecting thes Cl ss A and B str ams from pollu-
tion was rais d at each
standards fpr. the state.
of
the public hearings concerning the proposed water
This in turn raised the question of how and when
sampling would be conducted to check the introduction of pollution intQ
uncontaminated waters.
The Water R sources c-ission, at the pres nt t i • , plans to
tart
a sampling program•• April 2,, 1968 and carry through four complete cycles
of sampling before Nove• -.er, 19i9.
There are 95 s-pliq stations spread
out over the waters of tae atate.
At the present , it is not poseible for
the Commission to do more than the four samplings a year, hampered as they
are by lack of funds, trained personnel, and th ir
The·ahaded areas on Figur
and rivers of the state.
own
laboratory facilities.
6 represent the most polluted streams
Three per cent, or 32 miles , of rivers are Class E
quality, fit for no purpose whatsoever, sob dly polluted th t they are considered to conatitute nuiaances.
These stretches of totally fouled water
are located on five rivers (see Appendix C):
Massachusetts line ,te Grosvenorclale; the
1!!?14.
Moo
The Fr nch River from the
up downstream. from Almyville;
61
the Patchaug from A1hland Pond to the Qutnbaugi the Pequabuck from Platn•
ville to the Farmington River; and the Naugatuck &om betow Vaterbury to
the Houeatonic at Derby.
(See Figure 7.)
The largest single stretch of Class E vater is the Naugatuck.
As
the river reaches Waterbury, its appearance 1• good, in that the water 1•
clear enough to see the thick slime growth on the bottom and the refuae that
is still being thrown in.
At Freight Street a 1torm drain emptiea an oily
substance into the river.
At Naugatuck, another drain adda atilt another
substance from one of the larger tndu• triea that causes a noticeable ateaatna
of the water.
At Seymour. at a bend in the river that should be attractive
•• the river falls over great rocks, the water, instead, baa be<:omo di1c::olored
and filled with thick globs of sudsy material.
At An.aoata, the w•ter ia a
thick, murky green; the banks are heavily stained with oil restd,aP.s.
At Ansonia. there la• streaa joining the Naugatuck which runs for
eoane distance under a group of plants and emerges froa beneath the Farrell
Corporation factory.
Just above the outfall of thi• atr~, on the side of
their building. the Farrell Corporation baa posted tb1• alp:
Thie underground raceway ayetena ia fed from a number of source•
throughout tts course. Under the Farrell Co~poratton•s Program
to Eliminate Water Pollution no contaminating •t•rial ta discharged into this w.ter as it passes through the Company property.
This sign l• indicative of one COl'llpany's concern and cognizance of
,ublic disapproval, for at certain times, the volume of this stream increases
and the water being discharged ts black with oil and thick with amall pieces
of debris.
The Naugatuck Rlver as it jotns the Housatontc at I>e~by ta a com•
pletely opotled river, filled with sllt. che10icale. metallic waatee. raw
sewage, and garbage.
People tn the Water Resources Conmiasion have little
hope that this river can aver be saved, at least not for many year• to come.
0--.
l\)
FIGURE 7
THE MAJOR
RIVERS OF
CONNECTICUT
63
The Naugatuck River is another example where heavy industrial
wastes have eliminated all the food that can be found in the stream
in the form of fish, reptiles and amphibians and as a result, our
furbearers sucy as raccoon, mink and muskrat no longer inhabit this
stream valley.
The people of Waterbury, however, are optimistic about their river.
Placing their faith in the current plans to abate and control pollution by
the year 1974, they envision a Naugatuck River with grassy, tree-lined banks
for parklets and playgrounds.
There would be boating in the summer and ice•
skating in the winter--all this in downtown Waterbury.
2
The misuse of this river for so many years is now showing up in
another and equally frightening way--contamination of the groundwater.
A pollutant becomes completely uncontrollable when it filters
downward to· the groundwater of an area. Once it is blotted up by
the soil, it disappears from the eyes, nose and chemical accessories of man. If it enters the underworld of the water table, the
pollutant participates in an obscure, often unpredictable system
of water dynamics. Groundwater is not stationary. It moves--and
its speed varies in different districts often droppin& to a flow
of only one or two feet a day. This slow pace constitutes a particularly insidious feature· of groundwater contamination. Heavily
polluted groundwater may not appear in a well or aquifer the months
or even years after the water has bec~me irremedialiy contaminated.
In the meantima ,· if· the source of the pollution remains unchecked
like a cancer that is silently spreadin& deadly cells to·
vital organs of the body without causing discomfort or pain. The
first evidence of damage may appear only after it can no longer ·be
ar~ested•-in the case of groundwater pollution, years later. By
that time, the high quality of the original water may be totally
bey·ond recovery. 3
Early this year, a University of Connecticut research team found
evidence that the groundwater of the Naugatuck Valley was contaminated by
sulfate, silver, co~per, and chromate, substances that haVE: long been a part
1Letter from Mr. Arroll L. Lamson, Chief, Game Division, Connecticut Board of Fisheries and Game, Hartford, June 26, 1968.
2
Ruth Parsons, "Naugatuck River Beautification 'Pipe Dream' May
Become Reality," Waterbury American, August 8, 1968.
3Herber, op. cit., pp. 88-89.
64
of the industrial waatea dumped into the rlver.
While bacteria are filtered
out of the river water as tt seeps through the ground to replace the well
water• bctng withdrawn, certain chemical contents are not. 1 Virwae• such
as hepatitis are not filtered out either.
They pass through some modern
treatment plattts, and they move all too easily through soil from eeptie tftnlt
to water wetls . 2
This polluted groundwater can return once again to feed the river
and to once again pollute it, even after the surface pollution has been put
3
under controt.
Figure 4, page 28, reveals that the largest groundwater
supplies in the •tate of Connecticut are adjacent to rivers. such as the
Naugatuck, that are badly polluted and have been so for a good many years.
This cycle of infection might very well f.>e the aajor water problem of the
future.
A 11,1uufacturer in Bristol still dtschargea several thousand gallons
of untreated wastes CQl'ltalntng metal• and cyanide into a cesspool every day.
Perhaps tht• also will in ttma show up ln a nearby aqutfer. 4
Along with others, there are some Bri•tol manufactu~er vb~ are di••
cha.!ging untreated wastes into the Pequabuck River, consiattng of oils, •ul•
furic a~id, cyanide• copper, and ztnc in volUJDBs up to 300,000 gallons per
clay, a, well as their untreated sewage.
5
By the time the Pequabuck pae•••
l
''Contamlution Slgn• Revealed tu laugatuck liver Teating, 0 Water•
tun Aaerlcag. February 12. 1968.
2
..Publla Health District Urged After Outbreak of Hepatitis,"
Waterbu;r:x American, July 26, 1968.
3
Hel!'bel' • op, c 1t.
4
5
FrOlll
l!!!t·
tbe fil•• of the Water R.eeourcee eo.d.Hion, Hartford.
65
the discharge point of the Plainville sewage plant, it becomes a Class E
river.
One good example where the Pequabuck River runs through our
Shade Swamp Sanctuary just north of Route 6 in Farmington. This
area is now relatively devoid of waterfowl usage because the
industrial sewerage from Plainville and Bristol is so heavy that
as it flows through this valuable wetl and area, it has destroyed
1
much valuable food plants and cover for waterfowl and furbearers.
Similar conditions exist in the Class E stretches of the French,
the Moosup, and the P~tchaug Rivers.
In these areas, the industrial wastes
are more apt to be from paper and textile mills, and more sewage effluent
is discharged without adequate treatment, if any.
Not much better in condition, but far more prevalent are the 226
miles (2.7 per cent) of the rivers classified as D waters,
2
suitable only
for navigation, certain industrial processes and cooling, and the migration
of some fish--providing they can survive the barrier created by such poor
water (see Appendix B).
No major river in Connecticut is free of these
badly contaminated stretches.
The Connecticut River is Class D fr0tn the Massachusetts line to
below Hartford.
As the river enters Connecticut from Massachusetts "the
waters are so foul that a single drop has a bacteria count 315 times greater
than standards used by Connecticut for swimming waters." 3
Connecticut will complete this suaner facilities for chlorination of
all sewage effluent being discharged into the Connecticut River.
4
Massa-
1t.etter from Mr. namson, op. cit.
2
Hupfer, op. cit.
3
"Connecticut River Is Found Polluted,'' New York Times, December 3,
1963, p. 45.
4
While some states chlorinate sewage effluent all year, Connecticut
has a chlorination season, May to September, the months with swimming.
66
chusetts has agreed that the tOWllS along her portion of the river would l•o
install such treatment for sewage effluent.
yet fulfilled the agreement.
To date• Massachusetts has not
1
The Bousatonic. the cleane t of the major rivers of the St te, bas
three-mile stretch of Clas D water bel"" New Milford. chiefly due to
sewage dlaebarges.
is a qutet backwater of the river at New
J)ne ... e,cample
Milford, thick and •U.my with algae and other 4quatlc gr<Ntb.
thiR cove ls a housing development.
leach fields of this
Water escaping th
developnent flow into this part of the :river.
Juat above
Ott a wam auuner day 1 the
smell of aewa8e ia unmtstakable.
The presence of lai-ge~ algae 0 tntestat1onsn tn Connecticut waters is
cauatna
jor coneeai.
Even the effluent from exc llent treatment plant• ts
rich ia nitrates and phosphates.
These are also the chief ing~edients of
chemical fertilize~s used in large quanti~iea by Comaecticut f$-rmera.
Heavy
alg e _growtb has not poven harmful to man but wate,:bodiea -such as Lake Zoar
on th Bou attonic suffer considerably from loss of aesthetic and wecreatlonal
value.
One ·cove. with several lovely auaner homes on the ·sho~e•~ ts so thick
1
with algae that it is impossible to tell that the oove h$s water in it except
on close inspection.
The value of theee &unmet' homaa decir,..es with such
inf stations.
This year, the lake, fed by the seven milU.c:m. gallons of treated
effluent from the t>anbury sewage trea_,_at . facilities, o.eeded 16,000 pounds
of copper sulfate tto cleaw the algae bl.ooma.
Now fear · artses that increasiag amounts of copper sulfate will prove
to
: .·. .
be harmful to £isb life, as
I
,
i
ti-- is toxic to fish.
The decomposition of such
67
a large amount of al1ae at one time, brought about by the copper sulfate
treatment, can danserously lower the dissolved oxygen content of the water,
posing another threat to fish life.
Also, such decomposition adds more
nutrients to the water, encouraging still more algae growth. 1
One expert, Dr . Richard Benoit, Chief Engineer for the Electric Boat
Division of General Dynamics,.retained by the state for research, reported
, •• tertiary treatment of sewqe•-instead of the presently
required secondary treatment~-is now developed to the point where
it is economically feasible. Such treat•nt couid eliminate over
ninety per cent~:of the algae-causing phosphates.
Bantam Lake, the stree 1 s·1argast natural lake, has an even more
severe algae problem than does Lake Zoar.
Here, however, the experts say
that the promlem is the result of natural conditions.
The muds of the lake
bottom, resulting from washing from the watersheds, are naturally rich in
algae-supporting nutrients.
Even if t he watershed source of phosphates is cut off from the
lake, it is questionable whether the phosphorous nutrients in the
muds would not sustain themselves indefinitely, producing a rich
crop of blue-green algae year after year.3
Bantam Lake, in addition, has a man-made pollution problem caused
almost entirely by the contamination of both treated and untreated sewage.
The pollution of the Still River near Danbury is chiefly industrial
in nature.
In one crowded area, for example, a riverside factory discharges
directly into the river by an open ditch.
A short distance above this ditch,
an outfall pipe adds wastes collected from other sources nearby.
Numerous
1
George Krimsky, "Battle to Keep Lakes Algae-Free Never Ends,"
Waterbury Republican, July 28, 1968. See also, "Volunteers Give Lake Treatment for Algae, 0 Waterbury American, July26, 1968.
21bid.
3n14.
68
•mall pelt• are acattered along the hank.a.
Gr•••• and hair have collected
at place• along the aurface of the think•lookt.ng gray water .
The Qulnalpiae River for almott all it• length la a Cl••• Driver.
One induatrial vaate that baa shown up repeatedly in numerou• flab kills
la cyanide. 1
In March of thla year, International Silver at Meriden fou.nd that
silver products were being badly tarniab d by the water uaed for proceaslng,
•klng lt necessary to in:tall purifying and aoftentng ·equipment.
2
Community Lake formed by the d4Dlling of the Quinnlplac at Walling•
ford "la ao bad that on occasalon when the air baa not be n stirred by a
breeze, oaramen of the Choate School are uuaeated by the•
11 of aevage. 3
The Mill River along with the Qulmaipiac and the Weat River flowa
into Rew Haven Harbor.
pollution problem.
aight and amell.
"The Hill River ta the claaaic example of our 1tream
lta putrid gray-green water• can only be appreciated by
Pulp plant• are the •Jor contributors ••• ,.4
At either end of the atate, Connecticut receives Claaa Driver•,
badly polluted already, but baa done little to leaaen the loada.
western border. c
ing from Bew York, la the Byram.
Along the
Long a aouree of
serious pollution baa been the Rev York town of Port Cheater, now under
court order and the watchful eye of the Iateretat• Sanitation C011111laaion to
1rrom the files of the Pi•h Divlalon, Board of Piaherie• and
Hartford.
a-,
2"tnteroationa1 Silver Tanlahed by Ba4 Water," Connecticut lndue•
try. XLVI (March• 1968), p. 3.
3.reatimony from the Public Hearing Concerning Propoaed Water Quality
Standard• for the Coastal and Narine Water• of Conneeticut, Ntt Raven, June, 1967.
4
Clean Water for Connecticut. op.
cit., P• 25.
69
upgrade ita
•ewas• treatment
faciU.ttea.
A
tal product• company draina
their pickling bathe through a atorm drain into the river at Greeawich.1
Boat• anchored in the river oon wear a thick brcwn coat of greaae at the
water llne. 2 A felt manufacturer diacharg • large amount• of untreated
effiu nt eontaiaillg hair, dyeatuffa, greaae, and sulfur compounds into the
Greenwich tnat1181\t facilities, cauaing aerloua operational difflcultiea. 3
Part• of Stamfom Barbor ar• SD Cl••• (aee Appendix B) and the
harbor baa aoma of ta dlrtf.i at be cit • 111 ltev Bngland.
At the •••ten border. Connecticut •hare• the
Cl••• D Pawcatuck
with Rhode Ia laud., heavily ·polluted by both atatea with both lnduetrlal
wa•t•• and domeatlc a8'iage.
The remaining 324 mile• of rivers (3. 9 per cent) are of Claaa C,
suitable for boating, wildlife and flab habitat, and certain industrial
proceaaea and cooling.
Thi• ta one of the more debatable categori a of water quality.
It
was the aim of the state. that by 1974. no waterway in Connecticut ahould
be leaa than C
qualit:,.
A number ·o f indu•trl•• •••f•r tht quality water (or even Claas D)
aince it permit• a lower dlaaolved oxygen content which i• lea• cerroalve.
However• it fail• to lbd.t coliform counte4 except that it be "none in auch
1reatimony from Public Hearing at Rev Haven. op. cf.t.
2 tbid.
-
3tbtd.
4 ''Becauae of the many and varied type• of pathogenic organt.1111 which
y enter water and other 80U1"cea of intake by man, teat• for the•• apeclflc
organl•• are not feaaible, aacl f.11 some
tmpoaalble. A.a indicator
group. the coliform g~oup. la utilt• ed to provide an indication of aewage in
water. Thia group 1• uaed becauae they originate .,.tly ta the lnteatlul
ca••••
10
quantity that would impair any uaagea apectflcally a lgned to thia Clas,."
Over half of the Connecticut River is aow claaaified •• Cl•••
c.,
but the Conn ctlcut baa not been ueed for water auppli • since the 1930•
when it wa diacovered to be a carrier of typhoid.
Even if people are not
tempt d to awtm in auch vat r1, boating accident• do happen.
Aleo, ac~ordlng to the clua description, thie quality water la
sood for ilah habitat.
A r•eeat ••t-y showed that it le possible for fieh
exposed to conta111nat'4 ater to bee._ infected with human pathogens.
The
reaearchera concluded th•lr fi..iaaa:
Our detection la fish of antibodle1 to the bacteria that cause
human bacillary dyaen~ery, p$eudo•tuberculoaia 1 paratyphoid fever,
and a variety of chronic infections is especially omlaoua aiac• the
fiah were caught in w ters moat likely to be contand.natec! by such
bact ria. It 1• possible that the antlbodle1 were produced tn
reaponae to lnfectiona with bacteria other than thoae teated, but
the close antigenic relationabip •tth human pathogeu in queation
•ke it likely that the organiama reaponaible were potentially clan•
gerw• to un. In any caae, the poaeibllity that fiah •1 become
vector• of human dtaea••• •• a r ault of their infection vtth
pathogenic b ct!ria in contaminated water deaerv•• much more atten•
tf.on and atudy.
Loads of raw sewage, untreated bulutrlal waatea, peattclclea,
fert111aera, oil leakage and •pillage, all fcmu of refuae from ahore and
boata, anc1 hot water fr-om llUDlllrou• therm.l electric planta are carried by
this one river. th• Connecticut, daily from Rev Ranapahtre to Lona Ialancl
Sound.
If it were not for ite volU111B, it• claaalficatlona •f.sht be even
lower than tha preaent C and D cl••••• in thia atate. How Boaton want• to
tract. are excreted in large number• (billioaa per peraon per day), are
easily detected and re•pond to sewage and water treatment in a manner
similar to pathogenic organt.•11&." Charle• Jawora1d • Sewage Diapoaal in
Connecticut, op. cit., p. S.
1w. A. Janaaen and c. D. Meyera, "Ft.sh: Serologlc Bvt.d nee of
Infection with H n Pathogen.a." Science, CLIX (February 2, 1968), pp. 547·
548.
71
draw 30 billion gallons of water annually from the Connecticut River at
Rorthfield, Maaaachuaetta. 1
The Mattabassett River adds its own form of pollution to the Connecticut River near Middletown.
This la silt, carried largely from the site
of the conetruction for 1•84 Highway near Rew Britain.
Silt pollution 1• perhaps the olde t and one of the most effective
ways ln which man destroys a waterway.
Pollution from industrial and
sanitary wa•tea can be stopped at the source and in time, the damages
wrought can be reversed.
Thia ia not true of the damage done to river,
lake or reservoir by silting.
The only remedy ts dredging and the coat
of dredging is very high. 2 Dredging alao presents serious problems of
disruption of bottom life and disposal of the •terial.
Construction of housing projects aad large shopping centers push
thouaands of tons of soil into nearby waterways and expose the barren sur•
face to erosion for eeveral years before paving and landscaping are completed.
The nation l• crisacroased with highways, now, but the demand
grows, particularly for the huge interstate superhighway systems.
Thousands
of acres of vegetation are stripped away, exposing thousands of acres of
denuded topsoil.
For aa much aa five years, this soil ls at the mercy of
every rain storm.
Silt is a pollutant becauae lt interfere• wi~h the natural food
chain of the receiving waters.
In waters made thick and murky with
excessive loads bf ailt, aunlight cannot penetrate deep enouah for algae
1"Haetlng Planned with Boaton MDC," The Hartford Courant, May 17,
1966, p. 5.
2Rlchard Starnes, "Its Name Is Mud," Field and Strea11, LXXI,
(April, 1967), p. 18.
72
to carry on the procea• of photoeyntheaia. With the death of the algae,
a food aource for fish is removed.
gen 1• curtailed.
Bqually important, the aupply of oxy-
Aerobic baete~ia that feed upon the organic pollutant
cannot function in the absence of oxygen and auerobic bacteria take over.
Thia ia putrefaction and the river 81118111.
Silt cloga the gill• of ftah and
smother• the entire flora and fauna of the river bottom and along the banks.
Hartford, like •oy of the older cities of Connecticut with sewer-
age systems predating the 1930•• baa a combined sewage and storm drain
When it rains the nm-off from streets, sidewalk•• roofs• and
other impervious aurfacea 1 flows rapidly into the combined sewer, the oversystem.
flow devic a begin to operat, and cOllbined sewage la diecharged to the
nearest river, by•paasing the treat nt plaat. 2 Storm water, by itself,
should be treated.
In the first ten minute• of flow it ta as bad aa raw
aevage. 3 Combined with rav sewag • and by•pasaiq treat•nt facilities,
the run-off enter• a river with what can b an almost lethal load.
In 1965, this happened at Hartford.
Such a load entered the river
at Wetbersfi ld Cove during a sudden heavy raiutorm.
The result was the
death of two to four million alewives and glut herring. 4
The Connecticut. and other Claea C rivers and streama, often experience fish kills, generally from a combination of low flow, low content of
lutn a typical urban area, 37 per cent of the land surface ia impervious." Gladwin Bill, "Study Finds Rain Abets Pollution," New York Times,
April 18. 196S, p. 34.
2Jaworski, op. cit., p. 6.
3Peraonal Interview at the Department of Health, op. cit.
4rrom the file• of the Ptah Division, op. cit.
73
of diaaolved oxygen and high temperatures.
Perhaps one of the most highly debated tasues in pollution i• the
question of thermal pollution••the release of waters back to rivers after
they h ve b en used for cooling pu~poses.
This ta the single largest indua~
trial use of water in Connecticut (see page 36).
Connecticut Water Quality St ndards for Classes B, c, and D set
temperature allowance in no case to exceed 85° For 1• aay case rats• the
normal temperature of the r•eelvf.:111 water more than 4°
r.
Thls .one cti-
teri probably has be•n th• mat objectionable to industry in the stat•.
Some rivers such as the Connecticut will register a nonial s..-ri:l•
temper•ture of 87°
r.
a natural temperature already two degrees above the
allowable temperature.
The question of thermal pollution, and not radioactivity, was the
•jor concern of many of those who fought the installation of the Connec•
tlcut Yankee Power Plant at Haddam Reck. 1 With 21 to 24 1111on gallons of
hot water an hour being discharged into the area of Salmon River Cove,
opponents of the atomic power plant claim that all fish would be killed or
•imecl.
2
There is no actual proof yet of how much damage, if any. that
thermal pollution does.
Connecticut Yankee and ether industrial concern•
are presently engaged 1n a three-year study of the probl m.
Higher temperatures do lower the cont nt of dissolved oxygen :l.n
water.
Tb.ls ts known.
Alao, certain algae could multiply more rapidly
1There has been leaa objection voiced to the atomic power inatalla•
tion now being constructed at Montville• in the Thames River Baain.
211 Plans for Nuclear Generator in Connecticut Valley Assailed.''
Hew
York Timas, April 30, 1964, P• 17.
74
than others in higher temperatures, thereby upsetting a balance by crowd•
1ng out other types.
When ff.ah coma up river to apawn, they are already
1n a very weakened condition.
Additional aluqiabnees cau1ed by sudden
exposure to lacnaaed temperatures could only aerve to deteriorate their
condition further.
However, those who do not see the poaet.bt.llty of ao much harm in
increased temperature•• do envision aome definite advantages.
'10\lld mean year-round fiahf.ng in the rivers.
Warmer water
Warmer coastal waters could
accelerate growth in oyster seed beds.
The Vermont Water lleaources Coaa1,1ton, which baa aet a maxi1'IUIR
temperature allowance of 75°
r.
baa alr ady ordered Vermont Yankee Atomic
Power Plant to build cooling tower•• 1 Connecticut Yankee, awaiting the
result-a of the current etudy,
us
prolld.aed slm:ller construction if the
atucly proves the need for it.
Many of thoae who fought the huge thermal plant• at both Middletown
aacl Haclclam H ck fear that the Connecticut Valley below Middletown will be
turned into a giant industrial-urban complex baaed on the large auppU.ea of
low-coat
pover. 2
Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, after a trip along
the Connecticut River. commented: 'Scenically, its lower stretch
froa Hartford to the aea, is aurprt.a:tngly unspoiled. Ita salt
marshes, coves. and creeks Dl8ke it one of the Baat'• moat attrac•
tive riverscapea. But its appeal atops at the river*s edge. One
nauseated native receJtly called it the world's moat beautifully
landscaped c aspool.'
June 16 1
J!eY
1"vermnt Power Plant Under Tight Control," WaterbpY Repgblicap.
1968.
2John C. Devlin, "I11d~11try Called Threat to Connecticut River,"
York Tlme1, Pebl'Uary 26, 1965, p. 31.
3•'Bndtng the Water Crista," Saturday Review, XLVIII (October 23,
1965), p. 46.
75
The state baa set the proposed standard for thi• river aa Clase SB,
which means the lower Connecticut River will be suitable for all human
purpoaes. including drinking water with proper treatment.
of the area have the landscape; they want the c1ean river.
Th• residents
They feel they
will not get it if this area attracts too much induatrial ancl population
growth.
Much of the Qulnebaug•Tbames Rivers, with theb: feeder streams, are
Clua COT lower.
'rhere are numerous paper m:llla in tbia area.
Ona mill
has been in operation alnce 18JO and ia atilt clumping waatea into the same
stream. Aaother is utlllalag a tream between two ponds on the Oxoboxo
as ita "treatant" facUf.ty. 1
Evidence of Cobalt-60 radioactivity has been dlacovered in the
harbor aedblanta at Groton•New London.
'.rhe Navy
bas hastened to aaaure the
public that the quantity is too low to present a health hazard.
2
In the Groton area. a cbemf.cal company's waste water contaminated
the wells in a new houstna development with cyanide.
buy up the property involved. 3
The company had to
1state of Coanecticut. Water Resource• Coat••loa. Minutes of
Public Hearing Concerning Propoaed Water Quality Standard• for the
Waterahed• Willimantic, June 6, 1967.
!ha••
21dward rattau, ''Nuclear-Ship Harbors Show Radioactivity, 11 Waterbuq Republican, March 30, 1968.
3Pet'sona1 lntervtev at Departaeat of Health, !P• cit.
76
The Coraaequences of Pollut~on
Thie ls but one •mall example of the costs of pollution.
are many.
There
Silver and textiles are stained in the process of production
and muat be d:l.scardecl.
purification ayatema.
nuisance to sight and a
Money and time ua:aat be expended to install water
Real estate value• fall when the river becomes a
11 1 and the water ta not aafe even for boating.
lleaort owners and others vho depend on the tourist trade lose business when
a beach f.s fouled with oil or the water hows such COt\tamf.natf.on that an
area muat be closed to swianing.
Boilers and machinery are corroded and
must be conat ntly cleaned and replaced.
boat bottoms n ed constant attention.
Docks and bridge piling• and
thousands of fiah and waterfowl
are killed by oil, pesticides, and other chelld.cal compounds.
Parmers 11U8t
often purchase water treated to its highest pui-poae-•human consumption.
Thia ia extreaaly expenaive water when used to irrigate vegetables that
will be eaten raw, but it muat be done if other water available is too
filthy.
Cows cannot and will not drink heavily polluted water.
of a valuable dairy aaiul is not too uncommon fr
The lo••
•ueh causes.
The following excerpt h'om a report prepared for the latest hearing on pollution in the State gives a very clear picture of aoma of the
cousequences of pollution:
Our shellfishery is the history of pollution la Connecticut and
an excellent example of the price that baa been paid for the abuse
of our water resources. Today, the interest in clean water almost
implies that pollution is a recent happening and yet, we were losing
ground over a bUlldred years ago. In the early l860s 1 the Byram l.iver
shellfiabery was destroyed by iron oxides from foundries built along
the river for Civil War production. tn the 1880a the Thame• •hell•
flab ry waa lost with a pulp plant at Greeneville. Th••• bits of
history merely demonatrate the ti element in our ability to cope with
pollution or even benefit by the experience.
Connecticut wae gifted with a Ullique •rtne environment that pro•
vided suitable temperature and salinity, good bottom and clean water.
Thia combination vaa ln ti• developed into one of the moat prolific
77
coaaarcial shellfiaherlea ln the world. From 188S through 1910, the
average yield was over 3 million bushels of oyster• per year. In thia
e-ra, the Coxmect:l.cut oy ter ••• prised for the half-•be11 trade aad our
exports to Bnaland lone were•• high aa 100 1 000 barrels a year. If
tbia production had been sustained, we would now have 60 mtllioa.•
dollar-a-year lnduatry.
The continued urbanization of Comtecticut from the turn of
the centu'ty increaaed the discharge of polluted water into Long talad
Souud with a corresponding decline in our marine environment. The
period from 1910 can be 1U11111arized in the reversion of over 40,000
acre of state shell.fish ground and the loaa of preduction to zero
in 1965. Thia waa our ,-at of dieaeter when, for the ftrat time in
our hiatory, C~cticut .did not have an oyster set. At th• lew
point of our iliduetry, a projection of loaaea in the proceediq 55
years, aasumt.q paat yield and current prices,. would W well ..,.r two
bllU.on dollars.
·
·
The lmplicatlQna of 1965 prompted Federal •s•i•tane• in a rellabilitatlon program with the objective of iacreaaing the probability of an
oyster set within our available environment. P'or two out of three ·
years, the program has been a success and our induatry baa tecov•ted
with the beat stock of oysters on the grounda in recent yeara. While
we have demoutrated the potential of our ahellfiahery under even
adverse conditlona, the key 1• water quality and, regrettably, the area
where we have the least aasurance of a future.
Today, the Cormect1cut ahellfishery conaiata of approximat ly
sixty-four thousand ac~es; 46,000 under State jurisdiction and 18,000
acres as town grounds. Moat of the industry is located from Greenwich
to Branford and t• the problem ar•• in both pollution .... the lo••· of
productive ground,.. Pr• .lranford, easterly to Stonlnaton, la prtaarlly
sports ahellfiahery with a aliall cmmercial operat_i•n in a nueNr of
towns. Of th r•-t.itng active around• over 20,000 acres are c•rrently
restricted by the State Health Department because •f poor water 41U&llty.
Shellf:lah requite a high standard of water quality not ouly for propa•
gation but more importantly, for the protection of the co11auaar. In
g neral • sewage c rrf..ea various dtaeases that can be transmitted to
humans; damages bottom.with depoaita of sludge; i-emovea diaaolved oxygen, which la easential to the aourcea of food aa well as to the life
cycle of ahellfish. Considering the Mture and extent of our polluted
waters, it can be assumed that our •Jor eatuarlea aucb as the Thames
River, Conneetlcut River, Qulmdptac liver and Houaatonie River will
never be restored to their former productivity. The 20,000 acres of
coastal grounds now restricted will continue unavailable for direct
market shellfish. The remaining clean waters of Connecticut are a
valued aaset and the objective of state and federal programs should be
to pr vat further loaeea as well as imprcwe otMr areaa to the highest
possible standards.
Our ahellfiahery has been the long aufferiq victia of pollution
and we have no llluaiona about pollution abate•nt.. Coaecti·cut • •
program for clean water 1•• at best, a mtatmal progr• .rut even at this
arty atage,
credibility gap has developed. A recent front page
article in the Bridgeeort Poet, as a pre•• releaae from our represen•
78
tative in Wuhf.ngton, indicated that Bridgeport Harbor bad gone from
Claas C to Band was now good fo-r ahellfiahing. An error ln interpre•
tatlon of the new atandarda was obvious to us but not to the general
public. Bridgeport Harbor haa not improved aad remains closed by our
St te Health Department. The upgrading from C to B was under the new
claselflcation which apparently allowa the image of lmprovement with•
out accomplishment. 1
"Pollution has reduced the sport harveet of our ahellfi•h as bonie
out by a Health Depart•nt release which revealed that 22 of our 24 bore
towna were closed in total_ •r-ln ,.rt to the taking of shellfish for domes2
tic use." The ehe1tftah t•ke• •lens the shores of Connecticut were di covered, several years ago to _be· carriers of hepatlti and other diseases
such as typhoid, gaatroenteritle, and dysent ry. 3 The cost factor becomes
iunenaely complicated when it ia measured in terms of human health and life.
Cmraunitlea which have depended on ground water for domestic
euprllea are finding these supplies contaminated to the extent that new
sources must be found.
AQ•onia has considered a pipeU.ne across to tap
the waters of the Hou.aatonic lmpounde• by Stevenson Daa. 4
Ansonia, Derby, and lfauaatu.ck represent another element of the
consequences of pollution.
When the•• three town• were first put on order
in 1946, the State Water C<Xlld.sa:ion recODQended a tri•clty treatment
facility at an approximate total coat of $360,000.
By 1948, the coat had
lg• J. Bontya, Statement Presented at the Public Bearing on lstuarlne
Studies of the Federal Water Pollution Control Aclmiui tratloa.. Hartford,
August 19, 1968.
2t..tter f1tom Mr. Theodore B. Bamptoa, Dlrectcn:, COll1lecticut Board
of Plaheries and Game, Hartford, July 9, 1968.
3 °CODllect1cut Curbs Shellfish Digging," Rew York Ttmea, November 22,
1964, p. 49.
4semtnar on Water Pollution.
Litcbfi ld, April 25, 1968.
Lecture Presented
by
Dr. George Gunther•
79
By the tt
gone up to $460.000.
the Court exerted pressure in 19S6, the
price waa $920t000, and by 196S, when they still had not done anything,
the figure had reached $1 1 500,000.
How each town ts building its own treat-
ment facility and the total costs will be one million more than the coat of
a trl•city ! ctlity.
l
Each year of delay adds to expenaes of pollution
ab tement just in constYuction and operatiooal costs.
It will cost $200 million for municipalities to abate and COl\tro1
pollution; industry will need another $30 million.
The State and Federal
Governments will aid municipalities with construction costs on
bast•.
30-30-40
Industries have been provided wt.th tax incentives.
The Water Quality Standards have been set for alt the waters of the
state.
Some manufacturers have felt they are too atr:lng nt.
Conservatton-
iets feel that nothing less than Clas B waters should be acceptabl.
The Federal Government has permitted a break in progress by failing
to
ke the full appropriation for fiscal 1968.
In June of 1 t yeai-, it was made clear that now ters of Connec•
ticut would be less than Clase C quality after 1974.
Class D quality water has been recognized.
New,_ hnever, the
D Stre._ will be assign d only
where higher use class cannot be attained••after all appropriate waste treat•
ment
thods are used.
Does this men that the program to clean up thew ters of the state
ta weakening, or is it simply a f cing of reality••aome streams are so
nearly dead they cannot be revived?
It 11 too early to aaaeaa the success
or even the prob bility of aueceaa for the program.
1Rhlnelander, op, cit., P• 5.
APPENDIX A
SUMMllY OP PUBLIC ACT 57
SECTION ONE i
a statement of purpose
hich proclai• the public
interest in the control of water pollution and the right of the 1 gislature
to authorize tax exemptions and the use of public funds for thi
purpose.
SECTION TWO contains definitions of terms used in the act.
Of
special interest is the definition of pollution which is de cribed as the
"contamination or rendering unclean or impure" of State water.
It is
important to note that it does not contain a provision that it nust affect
the waters into which it i
released in any way in order to be legally
termed pollution with one exception a -- "harmful thermal effect must
affect the use of water adversely to be con idered pollution."
SECTION THltEB delineate
the powers and duties of the Water
Resources Conni sion which are broad and cOl'llprehensive in keeping with
the scope of ~ollution problems.
SECTION FOUR authorizes the C0111Dission to require proper recordkeeping in the area of pollution control and provides for access to such
records.
It also protects the integrity of secret processes discovered
in the course of Commission activities.
SECTION FIVE authorizes the Commission to adopt water quality
standards in conformance with federal requirements.
Such standards are for
the purpose of providing clear and objective ~olicy statements and not ln
81
82
the1118elves a means of abatement enforcement .
Enforcement of the provi-
sions of the act relating to the abatement of pollution as defined in
the law is the best means of achieving water quality which equals the
standards set by the Connission,
SECTION SIX regulates and controls pollution or discharges into
State waters in violation of the act ,
SECTION SEVEN provides for the issuance of orders by the Coanission
to one or more municipalities found to be singly or jointly responsible for
causing water pollution.
An important part of this section requires
establishment of a time schedule for action by each co11111Unity which
schedule is divided into steps .
This provision will enable the Conaission
for the first time to take action against non-compliance with any of the
steps involved in an order.
Under the former law. the Couaission had to
wait until the date for completion of the entire project had passed before
it could begin enforcement procedures.
SECTION EIGHT empowers the Commission to regulate existing
pollution from private sources which began prior to the effective date of
the act.
Orders for abatement of such pollution will also include sched-
ules for action in a series of steps in order to expedite enforcement as
discussed in section seven.
SECTION NINE prohibits new discharges into the waters of the
State after the effective date of the act without a permit of five years'
duration , and renewable thereafter, issued by the Commission.
Thus all
further discharges, whether they cause pollution or not . are brought under
the jurisdiction of the Conaission thus providing more comprehensive and
83
effective control .
The COIIIDiaeton would taeue the permits ln question
only vh n the diacharge doea not cause pollution or after it has received
the beat practical tr
troent available.
Thia section lso provides the right of appeal to applicant• to
whom a permit bas be n denied and it authorizes the Commission to aeek
enjoinment of unauthorized discharges.
SBCTI
TEN
provides for a periodic r view by the Coaaission of
sources of discharge to determine if any of thee have deteriorated from
a previously acceptable condition for which a permit
waa
granted.
Without
thia clauae 1Uny source• of pollution could develop with the passage of
time and could become difficult to uncover and to correct.
SECTION ELEVEN authorizes the Commission to take ction to presctibe corrective measures for potential aourc
a
of pollution before they
actually become detrimental to the quality of our waters.
Prevention of
possible source• which are likely to cause pollution under certain circumatancea, auch •• equi
pollution control .
t failure, la one of the moat difficult type• of
And, yet, it ta of vital importance for the health and
safety of our citizens and for the protection of induatrial water uaera.
SECTION 'l'WBLVE allowa the Wat
r B.eaourcea C
sion to join the
owner and tenant of land from which pollution emanate• in an order, thus
elillinating the need for thta adainiatrative agency to attempt to make•
legal determination aa to whtch party i• reaponaible for cauaing the pollution.
Both parti a would be entitled to all uotic••• right• of partici•
pation in and appeal fr
the bearing• of the Coaai• aion.
SECTION THinlBN authorizes the Coaaiaaiou to fil
pollution
abateaent orders affecting certain parcel• of real property on the land
84
r cords of th
notlc
town in ~hich it is located for th
and warning to would-be purcha
purpo e of providing
rs of any int rest in the land in
qu stt.on.
SBCTION IOURTBBN enables th
l alon to seek quick injunctive
r lief against
rsons or municipalitie which f 11 to comply with a
pollution abate
nt order or with ny part of th t order .
SBCTtOll PIPTBD
Jr
fr
to the mechanics of issuing abat ment
orders , provides for h arings for those who object to such orders ,
p lls out the choice
ing .
for action by the C
nd it
s ion following such bear•
Th Connie ion ts allowed to consid r t chnological f
sibility
rings which will tend tor duce th number of hearings to
in it
practic 1 lev 1.
SBCTION SIXTBEH provides for appeal from COl11Di aion order
a he ring a
pre ented in section fift en.
prior to th
taking of an appe 1 to the Superior Court for Hartford County.
Thia court would r vl w the
Such
after
inistrativ decision.
not constitute a "de novo" court proc eding .
for a
peedy
ppe 1 to the
hearing must be h ld
upr
SECTION SEVENTEEN set
The
Th hearing would
ection also provid a
Court on qu stiona of law.
a uximum penalty of one thousand dollars
per day for knowingly viol ting ny provision of th act .
court can at the penalty at a le
th
off n
r amount in keeping with the
cope of
and other rel vat circ
SECTION BIGHT
provid
_for grant
of thirty percent to aunici•
palitl • for asalatance in constructing pollution bate
and
Of course , the
stablishes conditions under which such
nt facilities
id shall be given.
It should
85
be carefully noted that faciliti s eligible for grant
the treat
nt pl nt and attend nt facil_ities and
ssistance include
quipment • outf 11 lines
and interceptor sewerage pipes but does not include 1 ter 1 lines and
ource connectors,_
SEatION NINETEEN llows the C
ssion to make grants of thirty
percent of the cost to co111DUnities for separation of storm drains and
sanitary sewers if in the judgment of the Co
ission this
ill help to
eliminate a substantial source of pollution.
___,,__::::..-;,:__TWE
___NTY:.::- authorizes the State to adv nee an amo~nt equal to
expected feder 1 grants when fed r l appropri tions
fµnd such grants .
re not sufficient to
The municipality must agree to reimburse advances made
under this section from federal grants when these ar
received .
SECTION TWENTY-ONE provides for advancement of severt percent of
estimated construction costs for the purpose of prep ring contract plans
and specifications
hich are in confor
a pre-report conference .
nee with an engin ering report and
Adv nces made under this section will be consi-
dered part of the thirty percent State grant .
SECTION TWENTY-TWO permits the State to advance funds for engineering reports in the exception 1 case where
nicipal ch rter provisions
would hamper prompt funding for this purpose .
SECTION TWENTY-THREE designates the Commissioner of Agriculture
and Natural Resources as Administrative Officer for all funds to be expended in connection with the act.
SECTION TWENTY-FOUR authorizes the Water Re ources Conmi
accept funds fro
and to contract with the federal government , other
ion to
tates,
86
municipalities, state agencies and persons to carry out the provisions of
this act .
SECTION TWENTY-FIVE provides for the issuance of $150 million in
State bonds to finance the Grant-In-Aid Program to aid mnicipalities with
construction of pollution abatement facilities .
It permits use of one-half
of one percent of the total or $750 thousand for administrative expenses
incurred in carrying out the provisions of the act .
This includes such
items as engineering consultant services .
SECTION '.l'WENTY•SIX enables municipalities to set up special taxing districts for sewerage construction.
This authorization is intended
to be used primarily in those cases where a problem involving the need
for sewerage construction involves sectors of more than one cOillll'Unity.
SECTION TWENTY-SEVEN eliminates local property taxes on industrial
waste treatment facilities.
It also defines "industrial waste" for the
purpose of this section.
SECTION TWENTY-EIGHT exempts personal property used in the treatment of industrial wastes from the State sales and use tax.
SECTIONS TWENTY-NINE AND THIRTY permit a one-year write off
of the cost of approved pollution abatement facilities for corporations in
the computation of business taxes .
SECTIONS THIRTY-ONE AND THIRTY•TWO provide similar benefits for
unincorporated business and public utilities respectively.
SECTION THIRTY-THRBE changes the·mnner in which the Water Resources Coamission may hold public hearings to allow hearings' examiners
to undertake this responsibility, thus allowing the Comnisston to spend
87
more time on matters of policy.
SBCTIOH THillTY•FOUR. continues in existence all orders of the
Water a source
Conmiaaton which were in effect when Public Act 57 w a
enacted into law.
Thia provision eliminates th problems which would
result if all exiting order were nullified by the new legislation.
SECTION THIRTY-FIVE provides for asai tance to municipalities
which have constructed pollution abate nt facilities pr vioue to passage
of the act by granting thirty percent of the annual cot of principal
payments on outstanding obli
at facilities .
This i
tions
de for constructing pollution abate-
the so-called "retroactive" provision.
SECTION THIRTY-SIX r peals appropriate sections of the present
law.
SECTIOH THIRTY•SBVIH e tablishe
a
the dat
the
ffective date of th
act
of pas age .
This res
ts not int nded to sub titute for th act its lf
and ref renc
should be
d to the act for more detail d and accurate
information.
The purpo
of the summary is to provide a sketch of the
highlight• of the proposal and to ind.teat
the
everal areas which are
covered thereby.
Prepar d by The Clean Water Task Poree·
APPEND
Jt!ATER
B
QUALITY CRITERIA
GENERAL
POLICY
1.
Water qualify t ndards adopted on the basis of thea criteria are in
accord with all the requir nta of Section 5 of Public Act No. 57 of
the 1967 Session of the G neral Assembly.
2.
In the discharge of wast treatment plant effl ent end cooling waters
to the receiving water , cognisance hall be giv n both in ti
and
dl•tance to allow for mixing of effluent and stream. Such distances
requir d for complete mixing shall not affect the water ueag Cl aa
adopted but shall bed fined and controlled by the Coamission •
. 3.
4.
l.ec01111118ndatlon.s on oth r wast par ters will con titute a portion
of the continuing effort of the Co ssion in further d fining
inter tate and intra t te water quality tandarde . The Conni aion
r serves the right to
nd or xtend th following crit ria ao
improved standard thod are developed or r vision consi tent with
th enhancement of w ter quality re ju tified.
Coastal and
and fall of t
rlne vat
tide.
re those gener lly subject to the rise
88
IRLAND
WATERS
9¥:SS A
Suitable for w ter supply aad all other water uses; character uniformly
excellent . _ (See not 9)
1.
Dia olved oxygen
751 aturation, 16 hours/day; 5 mg/1
at any time
2.
Sludge deposit • S(!lld r fu e floating olids, oil, and gr ase scum
Hon
3.
Color and turbidity
Hone other than of natural origin
4.
Coliform bact ria per 100 ml
Not to exceed median of 100 nor
more than 500 in r than 10%. of
sampies coliect d
s.
Taste and odor
None other than o·f natural origin
6.
pH
As naturally occur
7.
A1lowabl
a.
Ch mical constitu nts
temper tur
allow ble
None oth
:i.ttcrease
(
CLASS
r than
of natural origin
Note 4)
B
Suitable for bathing; oth r recreational purpos s, gricultur 1 uses, certain
industrial processes and cooling, excell nt ff.sh and wtld lif habitat; good
aesthetic valu; acceptable for public water supply with appropriat tr atment .
1.
Dissolved oxygen
75~ saturation, 16 hours/clay; S mg/1
at any time
2.
Sludge deposits• olid refuse•
floating solids, oils, and grease~
scum
Rone (Se Rote 6)
3.
Color and turbidity
on in such concentr tlon that wouid
impair any usages specifically as igned
to this Cla a
4.
Colifo
5.
Tate and odor
Rot to exceed a median of 1000 nor
more than 2400 in more than 20'l of
samples collected
Non in such cone ntr tion that vould
i
ir any usages specifically signed
to this Cl ss nor cause taste and odor
bacteria per 100 1111
in
89
dible fish
CLASS B • continued
6.
pH
6. 5 - 8 . 0
7.
Allowable temperature incr aae
Hone except where the incr ase will
not xc d the r commended limit on
the moat sensitive r ceivlng water
use and in no case exc d 85° r or
in any c
r i
th no 1
te peratur of the receiving water
mor than 4° r
8.
Ch mic 1 con tituent
(Se
ot
4)
CUSS C
Suitabl for fish nd wild1ife habitat . r creational boating . and c rt in
indu trial proces
d cooling; under•
conditions cc ptable for public
water upply with appropriat tre t•nt; good athetic value .
1.
Dissolved oxyg n
S
/ 1, 16 hours / d Yi not 1 ss than
3 m,,/ 1 at any t
• Por cold water
fishery, Cc, not 1 se than S mg/ 1
a t ny ti
2.
Sludge deposit -
olid refuse floating solid , oil • and grease scum
Ron
3.
Color and turbidity
Rone in uch cone ntratlons that
would impair any usages specifically
assigned to this Class
4.
Colifor bact ria per
s.
Taste and odor
None in such concentration that
would impair any usages ~pecific lly
a signed to this Class nor caua
t te and odor in edible fish
6.
pH
6. 0 -
7.
Allowabl
8,
Ch mical constit
loo
(See Rote 6)
one in uch concentrations that
would i pair any usages ap cifically
assigned to this Cla
temperature increase
s.s
None exc pt wh r th lncr
will
not ~ce d the rec
ncled iimit
on th most ensitiv receiving
water use and in no case exceed
as 0 r or in any cas raise the
no 1 t
r ture of th rec iving
water more than 4° P
(Se Rote 4)
nt
90
CLASS D
Suitable for navigation , power , certain induatrial process a and cooling , and
migr tlon of fi h; good aesthetic v lue .
1.
Dissolved oxygen
2.
Sludge deposit - olid refuse floating solids , oils ,
gr as
acum
A mini
of 2
/ 1 at any time
Wone (Se Note 6)
-
3.
Color and turbidity
Hone in such cone ntratlon that
would impair any uaagea specifically
as lgned to thia Cl ss
4.
Coliform bacteria per 100 ra1
None in such cone ntr tion that
would impair any usag a pecifically
ssign d to thia Clas
s.
Taste and odor
Non tn such cone ntration th t
would lalpair any usag s speclfica11y
sstgned to this Cla
6.
pH
6 . 0 • 9.0
7. Allowabl temperatur increase
pt where the incr ase will
not xc d there
nd d 11 it
on the
ts nsitive receiving
wt rue and in no case xce d
as 0 r or in any c se raise the
no
1 temperature of th rec i ving
water more than 4° r
a.
(See Rote 4)
Chemical con titu nta
91
ROT BS
1.
These criteria do not apply to conditions brought about by natural causes .
2. Class D waters will be assigned only where a higher water use Class
cannot be attained after all appropriate waste treatment methods are
utilized .
3.
All sewage treatment plant effluents shall receive disinfection before
discharge to the watercourae. The degree of treat•nt and diainfection
shall be as required by the State.
4. Waters shall be free from chemical constituents in concentrations or
combinations which would be harmful to human, animal , or aquatic life
for the appropriate . most sensitive and governing water claas use .
In areas where fisheries are the governing considerations and approved
limits have not been established. bioassays shall be performed as
required by the appropriate agencies. For public drinking water
supplies the limit• prescribed by the United States Public Health
Service may be uaed where not superseded by lllOre stringent State
requirement,.
5.
Radioactivity limits to be approved by the appropriate State agency
with consideration of poesible adverse effect• in downatreamwatera
from discharge of radioactive wastes; limits in a particular watershed
to be resolved when necessary after consultation between appropriate
State and Pederal agencies. In no case shall the Alpha emitters
exceed a concentration of 3 picocurlea per liter or the Grose Beta
elllitters exceed a concentration of 1000 picocurles per liter.
6.
Sludge deposits . floating solids, oils. grease and scum shall not be
allowed except for such small amounts that •Y result from tbG
discharge of appropriately treated sewage or industrial waste
effluenc-s.
7.
The
minimum average daily flow for seven consecutive days that can
be expected to occur once in ten years shall be the lliniaull flow to
which the standards apply.
8.
Class Band C waters shall be substantially free of pollutants that:
a) unduly affect the composition of bottom fauna; b) unduly affect
the physical or cheat.cal nature of the bottom; c) interfere with the
propagation of fiah.
9.
Class A waters reserved for water supply may be subject to restricted
uee by Federal, State and Local regulation.
92
COlSTAL AND Wt.RINE ~TEllS
CLASS SA
Suitable for all a a wat r us a including shellfish han sting for dlr ct
bu
cons
tion (approv d shellfish ar a), bathing , nd other water contact
sports .
1.
Disaolv d oxygen
Not lea
2.
Sludge depo it - solid refuse floating solids• oils, and gr se -
None allowable
3.
Color and turbidity
None in such cone ntrations th twill
impatr any usag specifically
ssigned to this Clas
4.
Colifo
Not to exc ed a median MPH of 70 and
not more than 1<11. of the s
lee
ehail Ol!'dtnarily exceed n MPH of
230 for a S•tube decimal dilution or
330 for
3-tub d ci l dilution
(See Rote S. S)
S.
Odor
None ailowabl
6.
pH
6. 8 - 8.5
than 6.0 mg/ 1 at any t
cum
bact ria per 100 ml
7. Allow ble t mper ture increase
None except
~re th increase will
not xceed the r c
nd d li it on
the
t sensitive rec iving
ter
use nd in no cas exce d as 0 P or in
ny cs rise the normal t
ratur
of the receiv~ng vat r mor than 4° r
8.
None in concentr t:1.ons or combina•
Ch
ical con tituents
tion which would be harmful to
h
, ni 1, or aquatic ltf or
which would
k thew t r unsafe
or unsuit bl for fish or sh 11ft h
or their propagation, impair the
palatability of sa • or impair th
w tera for any other uses .
9.
Radioactivity
(Se Not
93
s.
6)
CLASS SB
Suitable for bathing, other recreational purposes , industrial cooling and
ehellfish harvesting for human consumption after depuration; excellent fish
and wildlife habitat; good aesthetic value .
1.
Dissolved oxygen
Not less than S. O mal l at any time
2.
Sludge depoeita • solid refuse•
floating solids , oils and grease•
None except that amount that may
result from the discharge &Olll a
waste treatment facility providing
appropriate treatment
8C\llll
3.
Color and turbidity
None in such concentrations that
would impair any usagee specifically
assigned to this Class
4.
Coliform bacteria per 100 ml
Not to exceed a tllBdian value of 700
and not more than 2300 in more than
10'%. of the samples (See Note S. S)
5.
Taste and odor
Rone in such concentrations that
would impair any usages specifically
assipied to this Class and none that
would cause taste and odor in edible
fish or shellfish
6.
pH
6. 8 • 8. 5
7.
Allowable temperature increase
Mone except where the increase will
not exceed the rec01111DBnded limit on
the most sensitive receiving water
use and in no case exceed 85° P or
in any case raise the normal
temperature of the receiving vater
more than 4° P.
8.
Cheaical constituents
Hone in concentrations or combina•
tiona which vould be harmful to
human. animal , or aquatic life or
which would make the waters unaafe
or unsuitable for fiah or ahellfieh
or their propagation, or impair the
water f~ any other usage assigned to
this Class
9.
Radioactivity
(See Rote S. 6)
94
CLASS SC
Suitable fi•h• shellfish and wildlife habitat; suitable for recreatioual
boating and industrial cooling; good aesthetic value.
1.
Dissolved oxygen
S mg/1, 16 hours/day; not less than
3 mg/ 1 at any time . For cold water
fishory, sec, not less than 5 fl1f!,/ 1
at any time
2.
Sludge deposits• solid refuse•
floating solida, oils and grease -
None
acuna
3.
except that amount that may
result from the discharge from a
waste treatment facility providing
appropriate treat•nt
Rone in such concentrations that
would impair any usages specifically
assigned to this Class
Color and turbidity
4. Coliform bacteria
None in such concentrations that
would impair any usages apecifically
assigned to this Class
5.
Taate and odor
Bone in such concentration• that
would impair any uaagea apecifically
assigned to this Class and none that
would cause taste and odor in edible
fish or shellfish
6.
pH
6.5 • 8. S
7.
Allowable temperature increase
Bone except where the increase will
not exceed the rec011111mnded limit on
the most sensitive receiving water
uae and in no caae exceed as° For in
any case raise the normal temperature
of the receiving water more than
40 p
8.
Chemical constituents
None in concentrations or combina•
tions which would be harmful to
human, anlMl, or aquatic life or
which would make the water• unsafe or
unsuitable for fish or shellfish or
their propagation, or impair the
water for any other ueage assigned
to this Class
9.
Radioactivity
(See Rote S. 6)
95
CLASS S1)
Suitable for navigation, power, and certain induatrial cooling vateri
migration of fiah; good aeethetic value.
1.
Dissolved oxygen
2.
Sludge deposit• - solid refuse floating solids, oils and grease
scum
3.
Color and turbidity
Rone in auch concentrations that
would impair any usages specifically
assigned to this Class
4.
Coliform bacteria
None in such concentrations that
would impair any usages specifically
assigned to this Class
s.
Taste and odor
Rone in auch concentrations that
would impair any usages specifically
assigned to this Clas• and none that
would cause taste and odor in edible
fish or shellfish
6.
pH
6. 5 • 8 . 5
Not less than 2 mg/1 at any tf.Ja
· Hone except that amount that may
result from the discharge from a
waste treatment facility providing
appropriate treatment
7. Allowable temperature increase
except where the increase will
not exceed the recommended limit
on the most sensitive receiving
vater use and in no case exceed
85° r or in any case raise the
normal temperature of the receiving
water more than 4° F
8.
Chemical conatituents
None in concentrations or combinations which would be harmful to
human, aniul, or aquatic life or
which would make the waters unsafe
or unsuitable for fish or shellfish
or their propagation, impair the
palatability of same , or impair
the water for any other usage
9.
Radioactivity
(See Note S. 6)
None
96
APPEl~DIX C
DBSCRIP'l'IORS OP APPllOYKD STAHDe\RDS BY WATERSHBDS
Shellfish Closure Lines Referenced in the following
Descriptions are defined in the document entitled
"LIST OF RESTRICTED SHELLFISH AREAS IN CONNECTICUT
WHERE CLOSURE LINES HAVE BEEN DEFINITELY ESTABLISHED
BY THI STA.ft DBPAltTMENT OF HF.AI.TH" dated September,
1966.
97
HOUSATONIC RIVE WATERSHED
(All inter tat
atre
and sections of stre
deign ted by asteri ks)
are
Pr sent
Condition
Adopted
Standard
*Hous tonic River from the Conn. -Haaa . State
Line Down tream to Junction with Blackberry
River
C
B
tonic River from Junction with Blackberry lliv r to Kent
B
B
*Hous tonic B.lver from Kent to Point 1 Mil
below Kent
C
B
"'Hous tonic River from Point 1 Mile below
Kent to Hew Milford
B
*Houaatonlc River from w Milford to Point
3 Mils below Rew Milford
D
B
C
B
iL-Iiousatonic River fro Junction with Sbe,aug
iver to Derby D
B
B
fc11ousatonic River fr
Derby D
(Shellfish Closure Line)
SC
SB
Blackberry lliver from confluenc of Wood
Creek and Spaulding Brook to mouth
B & C
B
S lmon Creek from confluence of
W choca tinook Brook
B
B
B
B
SECIIOR OF STUAM
*Hou
*Hou atonlc River fr
ew
Potnt 3 Miles blow
Milford to Junction with Sbepaug I.iv r
Wachocaatinook Brook fr
Factory Brook to mouth
to Mouth
confluence with
Factory Brook fr
outlet of Wononskip
Lake to confluence with Wachocast inook
Brook
c
B&C
*Indian Lake nd Indian Lake Creek from
Conn. -Rew York State Lin to junct ion of
Beardsley Pond Brook
B
B
Wononpakook Lake , Mudge Pond, Mudge Pond
Brook to Beardsley Pond B~ook
B
B
98
SECTION
or
STREAJI
Beard 1 y Pond
Be
rd ley Pond Brook to
ge Pond Brook
junction of Mudge •
Pond Brook to Conn. -Rew York St t Lin
Pres nt
Condition
dopt d
St nd rd
A
A
B
*Beard ley Pond Brook fr
C
C
-.Web tuck Cr ek within Connecticut
C
C
•111 Brook fr
St t Lin
B
B
Conn. - v· York State
Lin to junction of Housatonlc IU.v r
C
B
Shep ug River fr
A&
A
B & C
B
B
B
A
A
A
A
C&D
C
C&D
C
C
C
c
B
C
B
B
B
sourc
to Conn. -New York
"'T n Mile River fr
sourc
to
nt m River fr conflu nc
Mountain Brook to uth
Fox Brook from ource to
W t Aspetuck fr
at
of Ivy
uth
aourc~ to mouth
petuck fr
Still River fr
uth
uth
ource i:o
uth
Mill Plain Sw
to
Li kiln Brook from ast 9w· p Brook to
th
Sympaug Brook fr
conf1uenc
of Bethel Re rvoir to mouth
Pootatuck
mouth
iver fr
ep Brook fr
De p
1th outl t
Brook to
Pairfield Hills Hospital
to mouth
iver fr
conftu nc with
pee e Riv rand Nonewaug &iver
th
99
HOUSATORIC RIVB WATIRSHED • continued
PreHnt
Condition
SECTION OP STRIAK
Adopted
Standard
Veekeepe•-• l.iver from confluence with
outlet of Long Maadow Pond to mouth
B
B
Long Meadow Pond stream from aource to
aouth
B
B
Tranaylvania Brook from confluence of
Spruce Brook to aouth
B
B
Blghtad.le Brook from source to aouth
A
A
111augatuck River from confluence of Bast
and Vest Branch•• to Plume and Atwood Daul
C
B
Hauaatuck River from Plume and Atwood
Daa to 1110uth
C, D & B
C
Hall Meadow Brooks to
West Branch from confluence of Hart and
110Uth
B&D
B
Hall Meadow Brook from aource to mouth
B
B
East Branch from inlet of Eaat Branch
lleaervoir to mouth
B
B
Hancock Brook from source to mouth
B
B
Steel Brook from source to confluence
with Wattle• Brook
B & C
B
Steel Brook from confluence with Wattle•
Brook to mouth
C&D
C
Mad River from source to Hamilton Street
B
B
Had River from Hamilton Street to mouth
D
C
Hop Brook froa inlet of Hop Brook Reservoir
to !IOUth
C
B
Long Meadow Pond Brook from inlet of Long
Meadow Pond to mouth
B&C
B
Beacon Kill Brook. from confluence with
Marks Brook to mouth
C
B
Bladens River froa aoute 67 to mouth
C
C
100
HOUSATONIC JllVBll WATIRSBEI) - continued
Present
SICTIOII OP Sft.llN
Condition
Adopted
Standard
Little liver from aource to mouth
B
B
Par IUll River from confluence with
Mean• Brook to aouth
B
B
Long Brook from aource to a>uth
C
C
B
B
Beaver Brook froaa Beaver Brook Dam
to mouth
All other atr•... and aectiona of atreama
101
A
CogBCTICUT IVER. WATERS
(All interatate
tre
and ection• of
tr ams are
d siguted by asterisks )
SICTIOR
or
Present
Condition
S'?IIWI
*CoDD cticut I.iv r fr · Coan. -Mas •
Line to Bnfi ld
~onn cticut River fr
~field D
Junction of Farmington lv r
Adopted
Stand rd
tate
D
C
D
Cc
to
*Connecticut Riv r fr
Junction of
Farmington River to Hurd St t Pr
in
Bat llallpton
SD
sec
SC
SB
irComlectlcut Riv r
in
st Hampton to
Clo ure Lin)
*Scantlc River fr
Line to Dam at S
Conn.•Maaa. Stat
ravill
1"Scant1c iver fr
Connecticut Rlv r
at
rsvlll
B
to
C
B
A
A
B
B
Branch Farmington iver from%
Mile North of C nt r o H Hartford
to Junction of East Br nch
c
B
Branch Parmington liver from
Conn. • Stat Line to Sevill Dam
A
A
B
B
WATBRSHED
f&W t Br ncb FarmtngtOll iver fr
Conn. •Ha a . Stat Line to Hogback
irlle t Branch Farmington Riv r fr
Hogback
to\ Mt
of Rev Hart ford
orth of Center
f:W _ t
•~t
*
st Branch •
Sevill D
ngton Riv r fr
to Junction of West Branch
102
COIIICTICUT
atvn WAffl8Hlp
- continued
Preeent
Condition
SBCTION OF STREAM
Adopted
Standard
FARMINGTON lllVlll WATDSHID - continued
*Pal'lllngton atver frODt Junction of last
and West Branches to Connecticut River
C
B
Had River from Source to Water Supply
lli.vereion
A
A
Had atver from Water Supply Diversion
to Meadow Street, Vinated
B
B
Mad liver from Meadow Street, Winsted
to Junction of Still River
C
C
Still River from Source to Junction of
Mad River
B
B
C
C
Still River from Route 20 to Junction of
Sandy Brook
C
B
*Still tiver from Junction of Sandy Brook
to Junction of West Branch Farmington
R.iver
B
B
Still lliver from Junction of Kad lliver
to l\oute 20
1tS&ndy Brook froa Conn. -Maaa. State Line
to Junction of Stilt River
B
Pequabuck !liver from Source to Middle
Pond D•
B
B
Pequabuck River from Middle Pond Dam to
Plainville Sewage Treatment Plant
D
C
Pequabuck lllver from Plainville Sewage
Treatment Plant to Plainvllle•Faralngton
Town Line
I
C
Pequabuck River frora Plainville-Farmington
Town Line to Junction of Pand.qton lliver
D
C
Poland !liver frosa Terryville Water Company
Well Site to Junction ol Pequabuck atver
C
B
103
CON&CTICUT tlIVp. WAm!HJ> • continued
SECTION
or
Pre•ent
Condition
S'l'UAM
Adopted
Standard
PAIMING'rON RlVD. WATERSHED - continued
Horth Creek from Route 6 to Junction of
Pequabuck River
D
Salmon Brook from Source to Junction of
Farmington River
C
B
All ae•iniag Tributaries to Public
Water Suppli•• throughout the
Farmlngton liver Water•h•d
A
A
All other Tributarie• in the Farmington
River Watershed
B
B
and
Park River from confluence of North
South Braachea to aouth
D
C
North Branch Park River from aource to
West Hartford• Hartford Town Line
B
B
North Branch Park River from West Hartford•
Hartford Town Lina to confluence with South
Branch Park River
C
C
South Branch Park River from source to
Newfield Street, Hartford
C
B
South Branch Park River from Hewfield
Street , Hartford to cOl'lfluence with North'
Bran.ch Park River
C
C
Hockanua River from Shenipsit Lake outlet
to Wapping Wood Road
B
B
Hockanum River from Wapping Wood load to
Manchester - East Hartford Town Line
D
Hockanua River from Mancheeter•la•t Hartford
Town Line to mouth
D
B
Taaker'hcosen River from confluence with
Railroad Brook to mouth
B&D
B
Lydall Brook from Vernon Street to mouth
8 & I)
B
104
CODBCTICUT lltVD WATBB.SHBD • continued
Present
Condition
SECTIOM OP StRIAM
Adopted
Standard
Bop Brook from confluence with Birch
Mountain Brook to mouth
D
B
Birch Mountain Brook from Spring Street
to aouth
D
B
Willow Brook aource to mouth
C
C
Raring Brook from Bast Glaatonbury to mouth
C
B
Willow Brook to mouth
D
B
Willow Brook from entrance to WUlow
Brook Part to confluence with
Mattabaaaett River
C
B
Coginchaug lliver from Wallingford lload
Durham to confluence with Nattabasaett
liver
B
B
Salmon River from source to confluence
with Pine Brook
A&B
A
B
B
C
B
B&C
B
Mattabaaaett River from confluence with
SalllOll River froa
Pine Brook to mouth
Pine Brook froia Pocotopaug Creek to IIOUtb
Pocotopaug Creek from Pocotoi,aug Lake to
1110Uth
Moodua aiver from inlet of Moodua Reservoir
to IIIOUth
B
All other stremu and sections of atreams
A
105
TBAKBS llmlt WATDSHID
(All inter•tate streama aftd sections of streall8 are
designated by aeteriaks)
SICTIOlf
or
Pre•ent
Condition
STRJWI
Adopted
Standard
*Quinebaug River from tho Conn. -Maas . State
Line downstream to a point One•Half Mile
downstream from Pall Brook
C&D
Cc
*Quinebaug River from a 'point One-Half
Hile downstream from Fall Brook to the
Junction of Palmer Brook
C
B
*Quinebaug l.iver from the Junction of
Palmr Brook downstream to Jewett City
B
B
-.qutnebaug River from Jewett City downstream
to the Junction of Broad Brook
D
Cc
*Quinebaug lU.ver from the Jmr-tion of
Broad Brook dovnstream to the Junction of
the Quinebaug lU.ver with the Shetucket
lliver
B
*French River from Conn.-Nass. State Line
dOW11Stream to the Viilage of Grosvenordale
B
C
.-Prench River frOl!l the Village of
Grosvenordale downctream to Nechanicsvil le
at the Junction of QUinebaUg liver
D
C
A
A
Little lliver from source to Peake Brook !load
Little liver from Peake Brook Road to
Junction with the Quinebaug River
B
Wappoquia Brook from a point One•Fourth
Mile dovnetream from lloute 97 bridge to a
point Three-Pourths Mtie downstream from
Jloute 97 bridge
D
B
C
B
Wappoquia Brook from a ' point Three-Fourth•
Mile dOWD8tream from Route 97 bridge to a
point One and One•Pourth Niles downstream
from Route 97 bridge
106
nwms
SICTIOI
B.IVIR WA'l'IRSHID - continued
Present
Condition
or STUAII
Wappoquia Brook from a point One and
One-Fourth Nil•• downatream from Route 97
downstream to the I.Y •• R.H. & u.a.a.
bridae
Adopted
Standard
D
B
Wappoquia Brook from the N. Y. , • · K. &
H. ll. R.. bridge downstream to Junction with
Naahamquet Brook
B
B
llaabamoquet Brook from Junction with
Wappoquia Brook downatream to the .Junction
with the Qut.aebaug River
B
8
'IWhetatcme Brook from Conn.-a.t. State
Line (nllingly Pond) to Bast Killingly
B
B
-awhetatone Brook frOlil Baat Killingly to
a point One Mlle dawnatreaa frm Baat
Killingly
C
B
"Whetstone Brook fr0111 a point One Mile
below laat Killingly downstream to a
point Tvo Mile• below Baat Ullingly
D
-whetstone Brook from a point Two Kiles
below But ltillingly dovnatreua to the
junction of nve Mile River
C
B
*Five Mlle River from aource to PiaevUle
8
B
*live Mile River from Pineville downetraua
to the Borough of Danielaon 1 Borth Boundary
B
B
,q1ve Mlle River from the North Boundary of
the Borough of Dantelaon downstream to the
junction of the Qutnebaug River
D
B
B
B
"Mooaup River froa, Conn. •R.. I . State Line
to Oneco
A
A
'lrMooaup River from Oneco downstream to
Sterling
C
B
*lnteratate trlbutarie• &011 Maas.
State Linea to Five Mile liver
&
a.1.
107 ·
Pr ent
Condition
SBCTIOR O'P 8ftBAII
Adopt d
Standard
up River from Sterling downstream to
-Almyvtlle
D
B
'ltllooaup River fromAlmpille dovnatreua to
the junction of Apple Tr
rook
2
B
"Mooaup Riv r fr the Junction of pple
Tree Brook downatream to tbe Junction with
th Qui baug iv r
C
B
Mill Brook up tream from Pl infi lei
A
A
Mill Brook from Plainfield to mouth
C
B
· *Pachaug lliv ·r fr
tl t o
donatn
to junction Creat
C
B
-,achaug Uv•r • Beach Pond
B
B
B
B
C
B
B
B
*Pachaug Rive,:- from Gla o to a point
Mil• downatreaa f~ Gl••ao
D
B
*Pachaug .l .lver froa • potut On Mile
dOWIUltNaa fr
Gla o tot he d of
Ashland Pond
B
B
*Pachaug lllver -
C
B
to the juDCtlon with the
Qulnebaug River
E
B
Shetucket lliv•r frOlll-confluertca of
Willimantic 811d R t~haug Riv ra to
confluence with QU nebaug lliv r
B&C
B
~
*Pachaug River from junction of Great Hudow
Brook dowaatre
to Voluntown
*Pac ug River fr Voluntown downatre
outlet of Doaneville Poad
.-Pachaug River fr
Pond downatr
to
outlet of Doaneville
to Glaago
bland Pond
*Pachaua tver from outl t of .Aahlaad fond
dOllll8tre
108
SBCTIOB
or
ent
Condition
Pr
S'1'll
*Shetucket from confluence vtth Quinebaug
to Creenvllle Dam, Horwich
Adopted
Standard
B &. C
B
SC
SB
Confluence with lload.ng Brook
D
C
Wi11i81811tia River fro
Hop Iltve~
D
B
C
C
B&D
B
Bdeon Brook from aource to 11011th
B
B
l'uruac Brook fr outlet of Stafford•
ville lleaervotr to 1DOUth
B
B
Hop R.iver from eource to mouth
B
B
Little liver from outlet of Hanover
Pond to outlet of Paper Mill Poacl
B
B
Little atver fr
Pond to mouth
D
C
c·
B
d&D
C
D
C
-.sbetucket and ~a.1a
iver
&om Gr enville
Dam, Horwich to mouth (Shellflah Cl•ure
Lin)
WilU.mantlc River from confl
nee of
Middle liver and Furnace Brook to
Willtmanttc
oaring Brook to
iver from Bop liver to mouth
Hicldle River from Bd•on Brook to Mouth
outl t of Veraalll••
Yantic River fr confiu ~• 111th Deep
River to confluence with Bobbin Nill Brook
Yautic River from Bobbin tit11 Brook to
mouth
O.obmco River from out1et of Wheeler Pond
td mouth
Hunte Brook from aoutc
to
A, I
mouth
All other etreama aod • cttona of
tre
109
&
C
A
A
LOlC ISLA.ND SOUND WATBl.lSBED
{All interetate etreama and eectlona of atreama are
deeigaated by aateriaks)
Preeent
Condition
SECTION OP STREAM
Adopted
Standard
*Lons tel.and
Sound outaide Sbellfieh Cloaure
Line• from Conn. -Hw York StAte Line to
eonn.-a.1. State Line
*Eaat Branch Byram River from Conn.-Rev York
State Line to ByrDl IU.ver
B
B
B
B
C
B
D
C
*Byram lliver from Comly Avenue to awt• 1
C
C
"'Byram &iver • lloute l to tidewater
J)
C
Converse Lake, Conver•• Pond Brook and
tributari.. to divereion to Putnam Lake
A
A
Conver•• Pond Brook from diversion to
Bast Branch Byram aiver
B
B
Hor•• Keck Brook from outlet of Putnam
Lake to tid-ater
B
B
*Eaat Branch, Nianua River from Conn. -Nev
York State LiM to lUanua River
A
A
A
A
11rJyr. . lllver from Conn. •New York State Line
to Glenville I.load, Glenville
*Byr• B.iver from Glenville Road, Glenville
to American Pelt Company
"'Byram llf.ver from Aaarican Felt Company to
Coaaly
Avenue
~ u • River frOG Conn.•ltev York State
Line to Miauua Water Filter Plant
...Uanua River from Mtanua Water Filter
Plant to ticlevater
*Looa Ialand Sound and Batuariea iuaide
Greenwich Shellfish Cloaure Lina
110
B
SB
SB
LOOO
ISJ.A!D sgmp WATER.SHED -
continued
Present
Condition
SECTION OF STU.AM
Adopted
Standard
*Upppwam atver from Conn. -New York State
Line to Borth Stamford Jleaenoir
A
A
'IIHtll River from Conn. •Hew York State
Line to Laurel B.eaervoir, Laurel
baervoir and outlet to llf.ppowam lliver
A
A
"IU.11 lliver in l.idgefield from aource
to Conn.-Nev York State Line
A
A
B
B
C
B
~ppowa lliver from North Stamford Reaervoir
to Junction of Ayer Brook
-atppov• liver from junction of A.,.r Brook
to tidevater
*Stamford Harbor inside line extending from
Pack Point to Shippan Point
SC
"'Stamford Harber and adjacent areaa between
line extending from Pack Poi-ut to Shippan
Point and the Stamford-Darien Shellfiab
Closure Line
SC
SB
C
B
A
A
Noroton lliver from aource to tidewater
*Piva Mile River fro::t Conn.-Nev York State
Litte to Mew Canaan aeaervoir
"Five Nile River frOlll Hew Canaan lleaervoir
to Bev Canaan Sewage Treatamnt Plant
&
SD
SC
B
ftfive Nil• River froua New Canaan Sewqe
Treatment Plant to tidewater
C
C
*Pive Nil• River tidal vatero inaide
Shellfiah Cloaura Line
SB
SB
Norwalk River from aource to Glover R.oad
C
B
Norwalk River from Glover Road to Silvermine
liver
C
C
C
C
*NorvAlk B.ivar from Silvermine River to
tidewater
111
SECTI
Pr a at
Condition
O STUAM
dopt d
St n
*Silvermin River fr Conn. -Hew York State
Li to outlet of Crup
ervotr . including
John D. Milne Re ervolr
A
A
rm. River from outl t of Grupe•
rvoir to junction with orwalk lU.ver
B
B
*Sf.lv
Re
*Eat and Wat Branche• Sllv naine River and
Ti;ibutarie • ourc to Conn. •Haw York Stat
Lt
qo alk Harbor i ide line xtendlng from
Ky •r Point to Cal · tur Point
*Norw lk Harbor and
j c nt
• betw
line ext ruling from lteya r Point to
calfpaetur Point
Closure Line
d t
Nc,rw
A
SC
&
SD
SC
n
lk S llfl h
SB
SB
SB
SB
Sherwood Hill Pond tnaide Shellfi h Cloaure
Lin
SB
SB
Mill River , Fai,:ff.eld 1 fr
rvolr to tidw ter
B&C
B
Cloaur Lt
SB
SB
oost r Rivet from Horse Tavern Brook to
tidew ter
B, C&D
B
Hore Tavern Brook from sourc to
B
B
SD
so
inalde Bridgeport Sbeilfi · dloeure Line
SB & SC
SB
Poquonnock lver from Whit y Avenue ,
Trumbull . to tidewater
B
B
-.a uaatuck River tidal
Clo ur Lin
1'Hill River tidal ate
water•
lmil
iaaid Shellfiah
Samp Mortar
Shellflah
th
*A•h Cr elt, Black Reck Barbor and
Bridgeport Harbor
"'Tidal waters outside Ah Creek, Black
Rock Hawbor and Brtd port Barbor aod
112
rd
LmfG
tSIAND SOUND WATERSHED - continued
Present
Condition
SECTION OF STR&\M
Adopted
Standard
Bruce Brook from Bout"ce to tidewater
D
C
Wepavaug River from outlet of Wepawaug
Reaervoir to tidewater
B
B
Indian River from source to tidewater
B&C
B
SB
SB
Wast River frOIII outlot of Lake Dawon to
tidewater
B
B
Wintergreen Brook from outlet of Lake
Wintergreen to confluence with We~t River
B
B
Quinnipiac River from source to tidewater
C&D
B
*Quinnipiac River from tidewater to mouth
SD
SC
BightmUe River from source to inlet of
Plante Pond
B
B
Bigbtmile River from inlet of Plant•
Pond to mouth
C
C
Ten Mile River from confluence with Cuff
Brook to mouth
B
B
Misery Brook from source to mouth
B
B
Barbor Brook from source to aaouth
C & I>
B
Spoon Shop Brook from aource to mouth
B
B
Willow Brook from source to mouth
B
B
Clark Brook from source to mouth
D
B
Sodom Brook from source to mo11th
C
B
B
B
B
B
'ltMilford Harbor, Gulf Pond and The Gulf
inside Milford Shellfish Closure Line
Wharton-Catlin Brook from aource to 111011th
Muddy River from Pine River Reservoir
outlet to mouth
113
LONG ISLAND SOUND WATEllSBEJ> - continued
Present
Condition
SECTION OF STREAM
Mill River from outlet of Lake Whitney
to State Street
"'Hill River from State Street to mouth
Adopted
Standard
C
B
SD
SC
SD
SC
SC
SB
"'New Daven Barbor inside line extending
from Morse Park to Ligbthoo•e Point
'll'New H4ven Harbor between line extending
from Morae Park to Lighthouae Point and
the New Haven Shellfish Closure Line
Farm River from Lake Saltonstall diversion
tunnel to tidewater
B
-.Zaat Haven liver tidal waters in.aide
Shellfish Closure Line
SB
SB
Branford River from Lake Giillard outlet
to tidewater
:a
B
"'Tidal waters inside Thimble I•land• - Stony
Creek, Branford , Shellfi•h Closure Line
SB
SB
*Branford River from tidewater to Branford
Point (Shellfish Closure Lille)
SC
SC
A
A
SB
SB
Falls River from aource to tidewater
B&C
B
Lieutenant River from source to tidewater
B
B
Found.le River aource to Plant' s Dam
A
A
Found.le River from Plant*s Dam t o tidevatar
B
B
.,,..ouraile River tidal waters ~nd adjacent areaa
in•ide Rocky Neck Shellfish Closure Line
SB
SB
*Bride Brook tidal waters inside Bride
Brook Shellfish C1ooure Line
SB
SB
Weit River from Route 80 to tldnat er
1'Clinton Barbor inside Shellfish Closure Line
114
LONG ISL.\ND SOUND tlATERSHED • cont inyed
SECTION
Present
Condition
or STREAM
Adopted
Standard
Pataguanaet River from source to outlet
of Pataguan•et Lake
A
A
Pataguanset River outlet of Pataguanaet
Lake to mouth
B&C
B
Lattimer Brook from outlet of Beckwith
Pond to tidewater
B
B
Lakes Pond Brook from outlet of Lake
Konomoc to tidewater
B
B
*Baker Cove tidal waters inside Groton..New
London Shellfish Cloaure Line
SB
SB
"Mumford Cova tidal water• ittaide Shellfi•h
Closure Line
SB
SB
"Hyatte River tidal water• inside Shellfiab
Closure Line
SC
SB
~idal waters inside St onington Shellfish
Closure Line from Wamphaa1uck Point to
Palmer Neck Road in Barn l•laild Hunti ng Area
SB
SB
Closure Line from Palmer Reck aoad in Barn
Island Hunting Area to line from Pavcatuck
Point to Rhode• Point
SB
SA
*Pavcatuck River from Cdnnecticut•llhode
Isiand State Line to apoint One-Half
Mile dOllllatream. from Aahaway River
D
Cc
•P~catuck River from a point Oae•Half
Mile downatream from Aahaway liver to the
junction of the Tributary Stream jua
Ba•t of Boom Bridge
D
Cc
*Pawcatuck River from a point from the
junction of the Tributary Stream juet
East of Boom Bridge to the junction of
Shannock. River
D
B
it'?idai Water, inside Stonington Shellfish
115
LONG ISLAND SOUND WATDSR!D - continued
Present
Condition
SECTION OF STUAM
Adopte!d
Standard
*Powcatuck River from the junction of
Shannock River to Stillmanville Brldae
C
B
*Pawcatuck River from Stillmanville
Bridge to tidewater
D
Cc
SD
sec
SC
SB
*Pawcatuck River from tidewater to Pawcatuck
B.ock
*Pavcatuck liver from Pawcatuck llock to a
line from Pawcatuck. Point to Rhodes Point
All othDr non-tidal atremna and eectionc
of atreama
A
s - a•
*All othDr tidal eatuariea
adjacent
Long I • lancl
Sound Sta1tdard
116
s
s . 1 All sew e tr at nt plant effl nts shall receive diein ction before
diach rg to coast 1 and rine ater. Th degree of treat nt and
dialnf ction •ha.11
r quired by the Stat .
be••
S. 2 Tbeae crit rla do not apply to condition• brought about by nat~ral
c use .
S.3 Th water hall b subatanti lly fr e of pollutants that will:
) unduly
aff ct the compo ition of bottom fauna; b) unduly affect th phy le 1
or ch mical tur of the bottom; c) interfere with the propa tion
of flab .
S. 4 Tbeae crlteri
hali apply t
11 ti
in coastal and
rine vat ra .
S.5 Sun ya to det -tue colif
concentration ahall include those area•
mot probably expos d to f c 1 cont nation durta.a the mot unf vorab1 ·
hyclrographic and poliutton conditions .
S. 6 The dtaehar
tert 1 · tn concen.tr tlon or combinations
lot aqu tic life hall.not be
tttera xceed a concentration
B t emitter xce d a cone ntra•
117
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