ALERT! A proposal to divert water from the Farmington to UCONN

UCONN has proposed several alternatives to secure more water for its campus in Storrs.  Among them is a proposal to divert water from the Farmington River watershed thru a 20 mile pipeline at the rate of 1.9 millions gallons per day.  We think there are much better alternatives and have submitted the following response to the UCONN proposers:

As a fly fisherman who regularly fishes the Farmington watershed and the eastern CT area, a close reading of the MDC alternative would appear to show that water supply would originate from the Nepaug and Barkhamstead Reservoirs which lie on the East Branch Farmington with no impact on the West Branch Farmington above New Hartford. There are minimum flows that must be met according to previous agreements. However with this past summer’s low levels in the Colebrook Reservoir we should be concerned about the availability of water in the entire MDC system in the future.  Severe drawdowns could heavily impact the lower Farmington river areas.

Of major concern, is the impact from pipeline construction in the many wetland areas associated with some fine trout streams in eastern CT; Skungamung, Hockanum, Tankerhoosen, and the Willimantic River and the smaller streams associated with these.
There are indeed other alternatives...this does not seem the best and we’ve asked our followers to oppose this alternative.  I would ask you to reject this alternative.

See more at::  

http://articles.courant.com/2012-12-11/community/hc-mansfield-storrs-water-1212-20121211_1_water-line-mdc-local-water-supplies

and:

http://www.envpolicy.uconn.edu/eie.html