The New London Day
3/5/2025
Carrie Czerwinski
Ledyard— The superintendent of the Ledyard wastewater treatment facility is pushing back after a planned expansion of sewer services in Ledyard has led to community concerns about the safety of Stonington’s drinking water.
Steve Banks, the plant superintendent for the Ledyard Highlands Wastewater Treatment Facility on Town Road, said last week that the expansion to accommodate new residential development would not pose a risk to the health of local waterways, the Mystic River watershed or local aquifers that provide drinking water for the public.
Banks, who has 47 years of experience in wastewater including 25 as superintendent here, invited The Day to tour the facility and look over the years of records maintained on site, saying that the water his plant discharges is cleaner than the water already in neighboring Seth Williams Brook.
“We’d put our effluent up against anyone’s in the state,” Banks said.
His comments came as resident Kevin Blacker has raised concerns with local and state officials about the safety of drinking water and local waterways such as the Mystic River, as well as the watershed if more sewer customers came online.
Part of the concern may have arisen from a February Town Council meeting where Water Pollution Control Authority Chair Ed Lynch presented a three-part plan to expand sewer service and misspoke several times about the amount of wastewater the town facility processed.
Lynch misstated the plant’s processing capacity as 220,000 gallons per day, when it is actually 260,000. He also stated that the plant processes 500,000 gallons per day during the spring. The highest number of gallons per day processed by the plant occurred in March 2024 when the plant processed approximately 240,000 gallons per day according to documents on file with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Capacity not an issue
Banks explained that the facility can take in significantly more than 260,000 gallons per day and store it until it can be processed. It processes an average of 150,000 gallons per day, meaning the planned expansion is well within the facility’s capacity.
Banks also noted that the WPCA and CT DEEP would have the final say on whether or not to accept new customers that may put the facility at risk of exceeding capacity.
Blacker pointed to numbers Lynch provided as a source of concern because the treatment plant discharges treated wastewater near Seth Williams Brook and also expressed concerns for the entire watershed due to contaminated effluent, or discharge, from the facility. He also noted the facility does not test for PFAS, synthetic chemicals often referred to as “forever chemicals.”
Banks said that facilities are not required to test for them, and do not routinely do so, but that his facility had taken part in a PFAS study, though the results are not available yet.
A review of facility records showed that the facility consistently operates below state contaminant limits.
Banks explained that the Ledyard facility is held to higher standards than most plants because of its proximity to the brook and receives money from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection each year because of its low levels of nitrates and nitrates– pollutants that fuel excessive algae growth, deplete oxygen and harm aquatic life– in its discharge.
As part of the carrot-stick program, facilities that exceed state limits are fined, while plants that consistently stay under their limits are rewarded.
According to state records, in 2024, the Ledyard plant averaged approximately 50% of state limits, while locally, the Stonington Borough facility exceeded limits seven out of 12 months, and Norwich’s yearly average exceeded limits by more than 300%.
For example on Feb. 27, three E. coli tests were negative, and on Wednesday, total suspended solids measured just .4 milligrams per liter. The facility averages one to two milligrams per liter with a 10 milligram monthly average limit.
Additionally, on Thursday discharge water had a lower turbidity, or higher clarity, than a sample taken from the brook upstream from the plant.
Not a ‘glamorous’ job
Banks noted that though the job he and his fellow facility employees do may not be glamorous, they are proud of what they do and the cleanliness of the water they discharge.
Shift Supervisor Joey Kotfer pointed to a tank full of fish in the facility’s office noting that all the water in the tank was the plant’s effluent, or water the facility discharges after treatment.
“I do a ton of fishing, spear fishing, diving, and I trust what we’re putting out, that it’s safe for me to be in,” said Kotfer, noting that a wide array of wildlife lives and appears to thrive in and among the plant’s retention ponds including turtles, ducks, deer and the occasional bobcat.
Banks said that if there are high nitrogen or E. coli bacteria levels in the brook near the plant or adjacent waterways, they are not coming from his facility, and suggested a more likely culprit was stormwater, which the facility does not process, but is discharged in the general area.
He also said that runoff from nearby farms laying manure on fields, farm animal or wildlife waste, or failing septic systems could contribute to higher contamination. On Feb. 27, the smell of manure was strong coming from upstream of the plant.
Banks said he was happy to be able to show off the work he and his crew do and invited concerned citizens to come tour the facility.
https://theday.com/news/711733/ledyard-says-sewer-expansion-does-not-endanger-stonington-water/#
