Danbury and Putnam County officials have been in talks on extending the Danbury sewer line into Southeast along the Route 6 corridor. A City Council committee met this week and plans to hold joint meetings in the next few months to hear formally from their New York counterparts.
New York City watershed regulations make it a challenge to grow infrastructure in order to support any future development in the Southeast area. Extending the Danbury sewer line through the Route 6 corridor of Brewster would connect 3.5 miles of commercially zoned land to the system, which has excess capacity.
Danbury recently beefed up the west side sewer intercept, a project from 1977. Mayor Mark Boughton says that recently completed work makes this project a lot easier.
He notes that adding more users to the waste water treatment plant could spread out the estimated $102 million cost of upgrades and phosphorous removal improvements needed at the facility.
County Executive MaryEllen Odell says boundaries cannot prevent progress and by crossing the New York-Connecticut state line, they can work to improve both communities. Boughton says being able to collaborate with New York has ignited new ideas on how to better serve residents while saving taxpayers money.
Councilmen Duane Perkins and Fred Visconti expressed concerns over whether the extension would be subsidizing competition to Danbury businesses.
