By Christopher R. Stone Assistant General Counsel, The Metropolitan District.
Connecticut’s flagship University is blessed with a top-notch faculty, cutting edge research facilities, stand-out sports, dedicated administrative staff, and an intelligent, enthusiastic student population; but it needs sustained, reliable public utilities to sustain itself. It needs water.
That’s why the plan to have the Metropolitan District (MDC) provide much needed water to the University of Connecticut in Storrs is a win-win. Despite UConn’s effective conservation efforts in recent years, its water supply cannot meet either its present or future needs.
Fortunately, the MDC has both quality and quantity of water to offer. Serving the communities of the Greater Hartford region – 400,000 people in 11 towns - with abundant, clean and reliable drinking water, the MDC is perfectly-suited to respond to the diminishing supply and dire need of the University and the Town of Mansfield.
Water is surely a scarce and precious resource across the country. But in this region, geography, technology and foresight has placed the MDC in an enviable position. The numbers tell the story.
Total water consumption by MDC customers has gone from approximately 66 million gallons per day in 1988 to just under 49 million gallons per day now. Water-efficient washing machines use only 10 gallons of water per load as opposed to the 40 gallons used by older models. Shower heads have decreased flows. Toilets use less water. Industrial facilities are using recycled water for manufacturing purposes.
The bottom line - the MDC has more than 12 million gallons of drinking water per day within its existing reservoir system available to meet the current and future needs of its existing customer base and other areas of the State where water supply is scarce. Why not step up to help?
As the owner, and arguably trustee, of the state’s largest reservoir system, the MDC was obliged to respond to the request to submit a proposal to share a small portion of this valuable natural resource while preserving the treasured Farmington River. The MDC option to respond to our state’s flagship university balances this commitment with the desire to stabilize water rates by expanding the customer base. Unfortunately, the common sense facts have not detracted our critics from casting doubts on an otherwise solid plan.
The MDC has developed two alternative plans to bring up to 5 million gallons per day of water to Storrs and Mansfield from the terminus of the distribution system in East Hartford. With either plan, there will be absolutely no detrimental effect on the Farmington River (West or East Branch) or the Farmington River Watershed Basin.
Also eclipsed in the unnecessary acrimony is the fact that this is not the first time the MDC has sought to expand its client base by selling excess capacity. Just over a decade ago, there was an MDC proposal to sell water to Portland. Initially, vocal critics stepped forward. Ultimately, however, cooler heads prevailed, the critics withdrew their opposition, and Portland became an MDC customer.
Some individuals have suggested that rather than share its designated drinking water resources with a state institution and fellow municipality in need, the MDC should simply dump any excess drinking water into the Farmington River. Practically, dumping five million gallons of water a day into a river with flows of between 400 and 1200 million gallons of water per day is inconsequential. From a public policy standpoint, why lose perfectly good drinking water when there are communities in need?
