Nearly every time it rains in Newington, there are reminders that the MDC District’s aging sewer system – including the even older core of the system in Hartford – is unable to handle our 21st century development and population.

Why? First, Newington sends its sewage to the Hartford treatment plant, part of the 150-year-old Hartford system originally designed to support about 15,000 people. Today the expanded Hartford system serves almost 400,000 people in 6 towns.

Second, storm water frequently overwhelms the system. Old pipes are cracked, letting groundwater flow in. Many of the pipes are too small. Homeowner drainage also burdens the system with flows from roof drains or leaders, basement sump pumps, and yard drains.

The result? During rainy weather, storm water pours into the sewage pipes, adding dramatically to the wastewater volume, and filling the pipes beyond their capacity. Over-full sewers send extra-large flow volumes to the treatment plant where they exceed the facility’s treatment capacity, and cause basement backups, street flooding, and discharges of raw sewage to local streams and the Connecticut River. These problems happen more than 50 times per year.

Over 1 billion gallons of untreated Sewage overflows every year in Greater Hartford
But the MDC has a solution – The Clean Water Project

In 2006 the MDC reached a Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate illegal discharges from our sewers within 12 years. Also in 2006, the MDC reached a Consent Order with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP) and will also address the CTDEP's requirements to reduce nitrogen levels, which impact Long Island Sound.

The Clean Water Project will repair and rebuild the MDC District’s sewer system, including measures to reduce the amount of storm water in Newington’s sewers, and a major rehabilitation and rebuilding of the core system in Hartford. The Project will open up new sewer capacity and curtail both sewage backups and polluting overflows into the Connecticut River, Wethersfield Cove, and other waterways. It will remove a major obstacle to serving today’s population fully and allowing for future growth in our region.