Derby Residents Want Water Tank Proposal Rejected

The Derby Planning and Zoning Commission did not rule Tuesday on a controversial proposal to blast rock and then build a 2 million water storage tank atop ​“Telescope Mountain.”

The public hearing on the application from the South Central Regional Water Authority was continued until March 26. 

Company officials said they want to build the storage tank off Summit Street and Mountain Road to provide better water service and fire protection for Derby’s west side. Water service in west Derby trickles to next to nothing when the city’s old water mains fail. It’s a dangerous problem for Griffin Hospital, the institution’s chief executive officer said last month.

Regional Water has an option to buy 2.7 acres of undeveloped land from Shelton-based Summit Hill LLC, also known as the John J. Brennan Construction Company.

The project involves blasting into the mountain’s rock outcroppings and removing some 13,000 cubic yards of rock — 6,000 cubic yards of which would be processed on site with rock crushers and used in the construction of the tank.

Removing the rock will involve dynamite blasting for an estimated three to four weeks and at least 750 truck trips to cart rock from the site.

The proposal has riled Derby public officials, who are urging the water company to look at other places to put the tank. The first public hearing was held in January. Click here to read about it.

Mayor Anthony Staffieri spoke Tuesday and again urged the company to go somewhere else.

“The quality of life (of neighbors) will be severely impacted there, especially while this work is being done,” Staffieri said. ​“The houses there are old. The foundations are old. The cement is basically turning into sand. The strong vibrations that are going to happen, whether it’s going to happen from the trucks, the heavy machinery working or the blasting — it’s going to happen,” he said.

The mayor also wondered who will pay for the damage if the trucks damage the utilities under Derby’s roads.

Derby City Treasurer Keith McLiverty said the water company needs more regulatory oversight from the state. He said the water company owns land nearby that could be more suitable — land that Derby was not allowed to use when it was figuring out how to provide water service to the city’s new middle school.

The treasurer said he found it ​“curious and suspicious” that Regional Water wasn’t using that land for the water tank.

But McLiverty’s and the mayor’s annoyance levels were nothing compared to the residents who live in the heavily populated Derby neighborhoods under Telescope Mountain.

They wanted the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission to simply reject the application outright and call it a day.

Tuesday’s public hearing was dominated by Derby senior citizens who have lived in the neighborhoods surrounding Telescope Mountain for decades.

“We’ve kind of become used to sitting back and letting things happen,” Evelyn Road resident Jim Benanto said.

Not this time.

Derby Water Tank Map

Neighbors complained that steep and narrow Summit Street can barely handle two cars passing each other in opposite directions, let alone trucks filled with rock doing so 750 times. The blasting operation, they argued, amounts to allowing an industrial use smack dab in the middle of a densely populated residential area. What about the dust from the blasting and rock crushing that could coat the nearby Derby High and Middle schools? And what about air quality for the residents who live there?

“No matter what anybody says, the quality of life in that area is going to be affected,” Benanto said.

Indian Hill Road resident Joseph Stobierski lives in a house built in 1955. He said his house is about 150 feet away from where Regional Water wants to blast rocks away to make room for their water tank.

“I’m afraid a big rock is going to fall down on top of my house and crush it,” Stobierski said. ​“I implore that you do not let them blast that close to our homes.”

David Manley lives on Cherry Street at its intersection with the bottom of Summit Street. He said an oil delivery truck already grazed his home once when its brakes failed coming down the steep hill. 

Allowing 750 truck trips up and down Summit Street — a road obviously not designed for that type of traffic — could result in a truck barreling through his home.

“My house is loaded with grandchildren seven days a week,” Manley said. ​“I don’t want a truck coming through my window.”

Even if a truck manages to make it down Summit Street, Manley questioned how it would be able to make the turn onto Cherry Street. Every Monday morning garbage trucks have to throw it into reverse, then forward, then reverse, then forward, just to be able to make the turn from Summit, he said.

Carole Madgic, of Emmett Avenue, said she is recovering from two surgeries. She’s worried about dust and what it will do to her lungs.

“I’d like to go out in my yard,” Madgic said. ​“They can’t tell me the dust isn’t going to come down.”

Finally, an Ansonia resident sent a letter to the Planning and Zoning Commission that was read into the record at the start of the meeting. Its author, Michael Smerznak, pointed out the water tank is being built next to St. Peter and Paul Cemetery. 

Smerznak said the vibrations from the blasting and construction could damage old vaults and markers inside the cemetery. 

Representatives from Regional Water did not make statements during Tuesday’s public hearing. Click here for a previous story and videos in which they talked at length about their proposal.

The water company could provide answers to questions raised by residents and officials at the March 26 Derby Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.

The video below provides a description of the project by Brian Robillard, Regional Water’s project manager. It was recorded in January.

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