The New London Day 12/14/2024
By Carrie Czerwinski
Stonington— With the help of the Eastern Connecticut Conservation District and a new state grant, the town will begin addressing water quality in Wequetequock Cove.
The $545,000 grant from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will pay to install rain gardens and other natural stormwater filtration tools in and around Spellman Drive and nearby neighborhoods.
“We are so grateful to our Stonington team and the excellent partners that have made this project possible. This project is another example of what can be possible when we are able to bring together people with a range of skills,” said First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough on Monday.
Funding for the grant, which targets the Wequetequock watershed to reduce pollutants from reaching Wequetequock Cove, comes from the federal Environmental Protection Agency as part of the federal Clean Water Act and is distributed to municipalities through the DEEP.
The majority of the infrastructure work and ongoing maintenance will be performed by the town’s Department of Public Works as part of a funding match required to receive the grant.
The Board of Finance approved an additional $123,000 cash match in the 2024-25 fiscal year town budget.
The cove received an overall grade of D- in the 2022 Save the Sound Water Quality Report Card and failed in two categories — oxygen saturation and dissolved oxygen—both indicators of an unhealthy body of water.
The cove was the only body of water tested east of the Housatonic River that received lower than a C on the report. Additionally, residents living around the cove have seen their wells become contaminated with fecal coliform bacteria and other harmful contaminants.
A 2021 plan to mitigate the pollution in the Anguilla Brook/ Inner Wequetequock Cove watershed prepared by the Eastern Connecticut Conservation District identified a number of sources of contamination but primarily pointed to water runoff into the cove that included animal waste and fertilizer among other substances as well as failing septic systems and cesspools.
The grant, awarded this fall, intends to address pollutants found in storm water runoff like pesticides, fertilizers, bacteria and petroleum products like engine oil and salts.
Dan Mullins, executive director for the conservation district, said the grant would pay for four storm water filtration systems known as bioswales.
A bioswale funnels stormwater through vegetation like trees or native plants to filter out pollutants before the water reaches storm drains.
The four systems will be installed along Spellman Drive and throughout the park, including in the Department of Human Services parking lot, which will see the greatest visual change.
The parking lot will be repaved and a bioswale containing trees, local plants and potentially flowers, will be placed around the storm drain which currently exists in the center of the lot, said Engineering Department intern Steven Matille on Tuesday.
The grant will also pay for nine tree box filters. This type of stormwater filtration system involves trees planted in specialized soil inside a concrete box. The box captures and temporarily holds stormwater while the soil and the trees filter out pollutants.
Matille said deep-rooted trees work best in the box filters and the town would work closely with the tree warden to determine the most appropriate trees to use.
The conservation district will also be working with nearby property owners like those in the adjacent Birdland neighborhood, to install 10 residential rain gardens.
Lastly, the Wequetequock Clean Water Coalition will assist the conservation district in a community outreach program intended to identify homeowners willing to host a rain garden on their property, recruiting volunteers to install the rain gardens and educate residents about the importance of proper pet waste disposal, septic system maintenance and pesticide and fertilizer reduction.
Mullins said that this was just a first step in cleaning up the watershed and cove, and acknowledged there was a great deal more work to do.
“Thanks to Eastern Connecticut Conservation District’s leadership in addressing stormwater’s impacts on our local waterways, Wequetequock Clean Water Coalition’s extensive community engagement and Stonington’s DPW and Engineering team’s on the ground efforts, we should see important improvements over the coming years,” Chesebrough said.
https://theday.com/news/210931/stonington-scores-grant-to-clean-wequetequock-cove/#
