Some good news from your sewers, Derby — replacing the Roosevelt Drive pump station is now expected to cost $2 million less than the initial estimate.
The pump station is across from Cemetery Avenue. It handles half the waste produced in Derby as the stuff makes its way to the city’s sewage treatment plant through the sewer pipes.
The pump station replacement was one of a bunch of improvement projects approved by Derby voters in a $31.2 million referendum in November 2014.
Originally, the plan was to replace the Roosevelt Drive pump station by purchasing private land across the street and building a new pump station there.
Right now the pump station overlooks the Housatonic River. It has polluted the river many times.
Derby Mayor Anita Dugatto hosted a “Conversations with the Mayor” video on her Facebook page Monday with Jack Walsh, the new Water Pollution Control Authority chairman (an appointed, volunteer position), and Lindsay King, the WPCA superintendent (city professional staff).
The complete video is embedded below. The article continues after the video.
In the video, Dugatto says the city and the WPCA have been working with state environmental officials to see if the pump station could be built on the same side of Roosevelt as it currently is — while, of course, creating a pump station that won’t upchuck into the river.
The WPCA had two engineering firms research the issue, and each came up with ways to keep the pump station where it is. State environmental officials endorsed the new location last week, the mayor said in the video.
While the location of a sewage pump station won’t cause CNN to interrupt its regularly scheduled programs for an announcement, it’s big news in Derby because it could save $2 million in construction costs.
That brings the Roosevelt Drive pump station to $5 million, down from the initial $7 million projection.
“It’s potentially the best news we’ve had a long time,” Walsh said in the video.
Meanwhile, the construction of two other new pump stations on Burtville Avenue and South Division Street are underway. They’re replacing old, unreliable pump stations.
The $31.2 million referendum approved by voters is expected to cost single-family home owners in Derby $257 per year for many years to come.
The officials said in the video the yearly pound of flesh could be lowered thanks to the potential $2 million in savings, but no new numbers are floated.
There is still no word on when Derby residents will receive that first, supplemental bill.
The mayor says “soon” in the video.
Click the video above for much more information.
