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Community Corner

Residents Vent About Continued Sewage Woes

The town plans to examine sewage backup issues after more backups occurred on Stonegate Road earlier this week.

Homeowners recently plagued with sewage backups at Stonegate Road made a plea to the town Sewer Committee this week, asking for help once again.

Town officials said between four and six households found sewage oozing into their basement drains and utility sinks on Monday, resurrecting scenes that occurred in April of 2010 and 2007, when many neighbors experienced severe sewage backups.

Since then the town has promised to fix the problem, one town officials largely believed to be caused by illegal sump pumps, but no phycial improvements have occurred so far.

The town recently revised a sewer ordinance asking homeowners to allow officials to inspect their sump pumps. Any violators would have one year to connect their pump illegally before fines begin after 12 months.

Stonegate resident Robert Timpe, who has been asking for remedies since the first backup in 2007, gave the committee a synopsis Wednesday of what he and his neighbors go through when it rains heavily.

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"Come this Thursday when the rains are coming, what most of us are going to have to do is when I got to bed, and when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom instead of going up to the comforts of my bed, I have to bring my flashlight into the basement and check to see if there's a leak," Timpe said. "And when we here that dreaded gurgling sound when we flush the toilet, we know it's happening again and we won't be able to use any of our utilities."

Stonegate resident Claudia McKeon told the committee she strongly believes the issue is not residents using illegal sump pumps, but an internal pipe problem - she's noticed eight cracks in one pipe from manhole to manhole.

McKeon said the sump pump ordinance poses no threat to illegal users and believes the town is not handling the issue with urgency.

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"It's not just sump pumps. This happening three times in four years in not a fluke," McKeon said. "There is no urgency here. There should have been urgency in 2007, and there should have been in 2010."

To help hasten the process of fixing the sewage issue, the committee unanimously voted to authorize the Southington Town Council to hire a company to examine the problem surrounding Stonegate.

The town plans to conduct a town-wide study on sewer issues, but officials said it seems necessary to immediately focus on Stonegate.

Committee member Peter Romano questioned whether the Stonegate issue could be caused strictly by sump pumps, but Town Engineer Anthony Tranquillo explained illegal pumps push 50 gallons of water per minute into the system, compared to the eight gallons of water a minute filtering into the system normally.

"So just picture if you take 12 sump pumps at 50 gallons of water, all turning on at the same time when the water level gets high enough, that could do it," Tranquillo said.

The issue is likely to come up on Monday again when the council meets for its March 14 meeting.

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