Ansonia wants to share its new waste water treatment plant with Derby.
“We’re in preliminary talks with Derby to talk about regionalization of our waste water treatment plant,” Mayor James Della Volpe told the Board of Aldermen Tuesday (Oct. 11).
Derby’s treatment plant is getting old, Della Volpe said.
“Their plant is deteriorated,” said Board of Aldermen President Stephen Blume. “They haven’t been mandated to build a new plant yet, but it’s just around the corner.”
Meanwhile, Ansonia is starting to pay off its new plant — which it was required to upgrade because the plant no longer complied with updated environmental standards.
Ansonia is paying $2 million a year on its debt for the plant. That money is coming from sewer users, in an extra $285-a-year fee, on top of their regular sewer payments.
“It’s $285 for a single family. It’s more for a multi-family, and for a commercial, and so forth,” Alderman Eugene Sharkey said. “We are looking to reduce that rate. So this is why we’re doing this. Looking to add to taxpayer savings.”
So the city offered to cut a deal with Derby leaders, Blume said:
- Derby would pay $1 million a year — or half the debt that Ansonia owes on its new plan — to buy into the system
- Ansonia offered to hire all of Derby’s WPCA employees and put them on Ansonia’s payroll
- Derby sewer users would pay fees to Ansonia — and would possibly see no increase in the bill
The Board of Aldermen Tuesday approved a resolution to allow Della Volpe to continue talks with Derby about the proposal.
Rick Dunne, the executive director for the Valley Council of Governments, said he’s working with Della Volpe and Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri to apply for a state Regional Performance Incentive Program grant.
The grant, if received, could help pay for a design plan and governance study, to determine the best way for the two cities to move forward with the plan, Dunne said.
“We’re at the very early stage,” Dunne said. “We haven’t scoped out the project formally yet.”
Dunne said projects like this make sense because they can save the state money in loans it gives out for cities to build new plants.
“The more global issue here is Connecticut is considered an expensive state and a high tax state,” Dunne said. “The main reason Connecticut is in that position is because it probably is the most inefficient state in the country in terms of delivery services.”
