City of Derby Photo
The Derby water pollution control facility.
DERBY — The city is exploring whether it makes financial sense to privatize the operations of the Derby Water Pollution Control Authority.
There’s already a comprehensive study underway at the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments to figure out whether it makes financial sense to regionalize the Naugatuck Valley’s WPCAs in some manner.
The city at this point has no definite plan, but is merely exploring options.
At a meeting May 13, the Derby Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen unanimously voted to issue a request for qualifications. The city will be collecting resumes from companies in the sewer system business. Seymour, for example, uses a private company to manage its sewer operations.
Members of water pollution control authorities are volunteers who are appointed by local legislators to oversee the operations of the city’s sewer system and employees.
The sewer system in Derby has been costly in recent years.
In 2014, voters approved spending $31.2 million for an array of improvements to the system, including replacing aging pump stations. That added an annual capital fee of $257 on every bill for single-family homeowners.
But the outdated treatment plant on Caroline Street — the heart of the system — still needs millions of dollars in work.
Derby’s main plant needs some $70 million in capital costs and operating expenses over the next 20 years, according to a report on NVCOG’s website.
That is something the city probably can’t afford on its own, Walsh said.
A regional system is an option, but it would also come with a price tag, Walsh said.
“We’ve done a lot of work, as much as we can. But the key part still isn’t done, and that’s the main plant,” said Jack Walsh, the chairman of the city’s WPCA. “My hope is that maybe there is some federal money coming out of all these infrastructure dollars that might make the regional plan — that is still quite a ways away — viable. But if it’s not, we have an obligation to the taxpayers of the City of Derby to see if there is another alternative that we might be able to afford.”
Walsh said he isn’t for or against unloading the WPCA operations to a qualified, private firm.
“My position is we need to explore every option that is available for the city that might save us some money,” Walsh said. “That’s all we are doing right now.”
Dennis Kokenos, a lawyer with Marino, Zabel & Schellenberg (the city’s corporation counsel), has been assisting Walsh and the WPCA. He also said the WPCA is merely exploring options.
“The overall issue from the legal perspective is the board has a fiduciary responsibility to try to vet out all options,” Kokenos said, adding the move is appropriate for the WPCA given all the problems it is facing.
Walsh pointed out there is about $17 million left from the $31.2 million approved by voters in 2014.
“That will not cover the costs of fixing the plant,” Walsh said. “I don’t see us going back to the taxpayers for another bond issue, so, again, we need to explore every option.”
