Water Is Life: Citizen Opposition Nixes Another Threat to Wetlands and Watershed

Withdrawn Plan for Truck Stop Near Batterson Pond Echoes Past Fights Over New Britain Watershed

by John McNamara http://nbpoliticus.com

Residents of Farmington and New Britain rose up as one voice in recent weeks to oppose the plan of Noble Gas Real Estate Holdings to build a diesel-gas refueling facility and warehouse on about six acres on an 86-acres Hartford-owned wetlands parcel.

The Town Council lowered the boom on the project June 9th sending a negative recommendation to the Plan and Zoning Commission that was to hold a public hearing on the application in July. On June 10th Noble’s attorney withdrew the application that involved a zoning change and an exception to Farmington’s Plan of Conservation and Development.

The intervention of Attorney Stephanie Roman, the owner of a Slater Road residence abutting the project site, was a catalyst for the opposition before the Conservation and Wetlands Commission through three public hearings. Noble Gas’ plan, according to Roman, threatened the wetlands and would lead to the further deterioration of water quality and environmental degradation at Batterson Pond. Although the cost may be prohibitive and the timeline long to make Batterson Pond swimmable again it remains a goal for optimistic advocates of bringing the park back.

Development for housing or a related use is still possible on the six acres that Noble wanted to use for its “travel center” since it is technically in a “residential” zone. Legislators from Farmington, Hartford and New Britain, however, informed the Conservation and Wetlands Commission this month that they favor giving the entire 86 acres of wetlands the protected status it once had. Through the decades the City of Hartford sold off hundreds of wetlands acres near the pond for impervious developments. Protected park status would put an end to incursions and begin to reverse the damage done to water quality on the pond. Meanwhile, a restored Batterson Park managed by Riverfront Recapture, will open to passive recreation uses in July without diesel-gas refueling center and warehouse next door.

The five-month-old dispute over the Noble Gas’ project before Farmington’s commissions parallels earlier attempts to turn over a portion of New Britain’s coveted watershed to allow Tilcon, Inc. to strip mine trap rock on the New Britain-Plainville line.

In the face of overwhelming public opposition, former Republican Mayor Erin Stewart withdrew her Administration’s plan to allow strip-mining on New Britain’s protected drinking watershed land in 2018. The withdrawal came two days before the state Water Planning Council was expected to object to the watershed mining scheme.

The trade-off involved a revenue-producing, multi-million dollar lease of watershed to Tilcon, Inc. and a company promise to replace watershed with a new reservoir 40 years down the road. It was a trade off the community would not tolerate.

From New Britain Progressive (August 2018)

“Comments from the public were nearly all in opposition to the mining plan at the June 26th public hearing on the proposal, which was held in front of the City Council and the Board of Water Commissioners. “I would like to thank the public for speaking out against this proposal,” said the City Council President, Ald. Eva Magnuszewski (D-AL). “Protecting our natural resources, especially water is of utmost importance.” The mining proposal was to have involved removing a large section of a hill at an upstream part the watershed of New Britain’s primary drinking water reservoir, the Shuttle Meadow Reservoir. Stewart has been pressing forward with the watershed mining plan since at least February of 2016, spending approximately $350,000 of taxpayer funds to advance the proposal.”

The fierce and pervasive public opposition to the recent truck stop plan for wetlands on the Farmington-New Britain line and the Tilcon schemes for mining watershed in years past should serve as a warning to future developers of building anything on wetlands or watershed that has even a hint of environmental risk.

That age-old adage “water is life” invoked by indigenous people to protect tribal and sacred lands and more broadly by environmentalists around the world applies in central Connecticut too.

John McNamara is a Ward 4 Alderman and Majority Leader of the New Britain Common Council