Southington Council OK's Easing Of Rules Forcing Sewer Hookups

SOUTHINGTON, CT — Property owners were dealt a break by the Southington Town Council regarding potentially costly sewer hookup obligations versus staying with a septic system to handle wastewater.

Council members in an 8-0 bipartisan vote approved an easing up of the town's mandate requiring sewer hookups.

As a result, the town officially eliminated the five-year sewer hook-up mandate and it increased the minimum expenditure requiring property owners to hook up to sewers.

The vote came before a public hearing in which no members of the public spoke about the measure, resulting in the hearing's closure and subsequent vote.

Historically, sewers are more environmentally friendly, but they're also very costly to connect to, though they do incease a property's value.

But, according to Southington Town Council Chairperson Victoria Triano, the cost to connect can be expensive, sometimes in the $8,000 to $10,000 range.

Prior to Monday's vote, the town required that someone with a failing septic system that required $1,000 in repairs had to undertake the costly initiative of connecting to sewers.

Under the approved regulation change, however, that threshold was increased from $1,000 to $10,000.

If you need, say, $4,000 in septic repairs, you can spend the $4,000 and fix your septic system — not be forced to cough up $10,000 for a sewer connection.

"It has always been a real hardship," Triano, a Republican, said of the septic-vs.-sewer dilemma.

As the dilemma has shown historically, neighborhoods often are evenly divided over whether property owners want sewers or are satisfied with septic systems.

This, council members said, provides financially attainable options regarding wastewater management on a property.

"It's really beneficial to our residents," Councilman Christopher J. Palmieri, a Democrat said. "You would get those instances where half a neighborhood wants sewers and half a neighborhood wants septic."

Southington Town Manager Mark J. Sciota said the five-year mandate for all septic system owners to connect was never really enforced, so it was just eliminated from town ordinance codes with Monday's vote.

"We are all in support of this," Sciota said. "The town has not enforced this over the years for fairness purposes."

In order to abide by the new regulations, a property owner would have to go through the local health department and provide a written estimate about how much it would cost to fix a septic system, Sciota said.

To watch the Monday, Sept. 26, Southington Town Council meeting, click on this link.