On October a sewage blockage on Linbrook Road in West Hartford caused sewage to backup and flood into homes.
Residents in the Linbrook Road area of West Hartford said they hoped when the sewage backup situation resolved itself last fall, that would be the end of their worries.
It turns out for many of them, more issues came along, so they called a meeting at town hall Thursday to try to get a resolution.
“We can’t sit back and wait on our heels,” said Terry Conlon.
Conlon said his North Main Street home has a whole new set of water-related isues since the sewage backup in his neighborhood last fall.
Water covered his basement floor last October as many in his community experienced the same sewage water problems after a sewage blockage led to major flooding.
“Now we’re finding out since they’ve lined that sewer, and they’re taking the storm water out it now backing up into neighbor’s yards, in our basements,” Conlon told NBC Connecticut. “Sump pumps are going off around the clock.”
He’s now among the Linbrook neighborhood residents who called a meeting at town hall. They say since October, new challenges keep erupting. HE’S “ The reason that we’re here is not to complain about the little things that are happening… but to come up with a long term resolution that’s going to involve the town, the MDC and all the neighbors working together,” said neighbor Rick Bush.
At Thursday’s meeting, leaders from The Metropolitan District Commission, whose CEO says they’ve already ypaid out $1 million in claims for last year’s episode, said a long-term fix to the neighborhood’s problems don’t rest solely with them.
“What’s the real solution to solving the long term solution in MDC. It’s not building bigger sewer pipes. It’s getting the storm water out,” CEO Scott Jellison said. “That responsibility to get that storm out of our sewer is the town of West Hartford’s.”
The town has begun a drainage study to try to understand the full scope of the trouble, and eventually come up with a fix, though it won’t be a quick process.
“We can’t rush out and spend lots of money on something that’s not going to work,” said Town Manager Matt Hart. “We need to first determine what the causes are and what the appropriate fixes are.”
Hart said they should have conclusive results from all phases of the drainage study within two years. Then they can chart out a path to a more permanent solution.
