A concrete plant, a sand and gravel yard, a small-engine repair shop, a Midas and several small manufacturers have one thing in common in Farmington: they sit on ground that feeds public drinking-water wells. Every five years they have to re-register with the town and show how they keep oil and chemicals out of the water.
That checkup came due this fall. On Tuesday night Farmington's Aquifer Protection Agency, whose members are the Town Plan and Zoning Commission, took up eight of the 15 registrations on file. Five were renewed. Three were continued to Oct. 14 to finish paperwork and repairs. Staff intends to bring the other seven that night as well.
A dispute ran through the night. Commissioner Josh Davidson pressed for complete chemical lists from every business, and Commissioner Philip Cordeiro said the board was holding businesses to uneven standards; the board settled it for one shop with a written condition. A second question went unsettled: whether the concrete plant's daily truck rinse is allowed under state rules.
What an aquifer protection area is
Connecticut draws protection areas around major public water-supply wells that pump from aquifers, underground deposits of sand and gravel that hold water, when the wells serve more than 1,000 people, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Inside those lines, existing businesses that use, store, handle or dispose of hazardous materials must register and follow a set of best practices. Without a registration, the state says, those activities are prohibited.
Tuesday's registrants sit in two of Farmington's areas. The Sand and Stone area, whose registrants heard Tuesday are on Brickyard Road and Farmington Avenue, dates to 2015. The Johnson Avenue area, at the south end of town, where Tuesday's registrants are on New Britain Avenue and Spring Lane, dates to 2008.
"The whole point here is to prevent spills from getting into the aquifers and into the wells," Davidson said.
What the inspectors looked for
Assistant Town Planner Garrett Daigle, acting as the agency's agent, said town staff did most of the inspections over the summer, with state environmental staff joining about four or five of the 15 sites. Going forward, Daigle said, the town will inspect every five years, adding a belief that staff did not inspect as much in the last round, in 2021 or 2022.
Three fixes came up repeatedly. The first is secondary containment: a tub, often a yellow one fitted with a plastic pallet, that sits under a drum or a tote so a leak stays in the tub instead of on the floor. The second is where idle equipment is parked. A machine that rarely moves should sit on pavement, Daigle said, so any leak stays on the pavement rather than on bare ground. The third is a cover over any fueling area.
Most of the problems were small, Daigle said, usually one or two items that were quick to fix. Manufacturers that work almost entirely indoors "did not really have any violations," Daigle said. The items that needed work were concentrated at maintenance shops and at sites that store or work outside.
If something spills
When a spill happens in an aquifer area, Daigle said, the state usually notifies Connecticut Water, the water utility, and the town. Daigle gave an example from Brickyard Road: what Daigle believed was a transformer that blew within roughly the last six months, after which the state emailed the town describing the material and the estimated quantity.
In Davidson's understanding, businesses are supposed to call Connecticut Water themselves, yet the utility was missing from most or all of the spill plans Davidson read. Some plans say little beyond calling 911 or the town, Davidson said.
Approved Tuesday
Advanced Equipment, 145 Brickyard Road, a small-engine repair shop with two employees, was renewed with a condition. A July 17 inspection found quarts of oil near the work area without containment. A containment pallet went in four days later, and the shop sent the town a photo. The condition is explained below.
Four more were renewed after inspections that found no violations. Midas, 1361 Farmington Avenue, drains its garage floor through an oil-water separator to the town sewer, and Davidson commended its filing as "at a different level than the ones we've reviewed so far." Dayon Manufacturing, 1820 New Britain Avenue, now owned by Lee Spring, had its registration transferred to the new owner; the company has stopped using methylene chloride in production and now uses citric acid, Daigle said. Edmunds Gages, 45 Spring Lane, moved its outdoor storage inside and runs its chrome plating inside a raised containment area. Mallory Industries, 33 Spring Lane, rounded out the list.
Each passed on a voice vote, with no opposition heard.
Continued to Oct. 14
Farmington Ready Mix, 164 Brickyard Road. The concrete plant is registered for fueling its own trucks and maintaining them on site. State and town staff inspected it in July, and the town is waiting on an updated stormwater pollution prevention plan, which maps where rain runs off the property and how that water is kept clean. The inspection list includes containment in the maintenance building, a cover over the fueling area and hoods on some catch basins to hold back sediment. The fuel canopy has been ordered, and the company expects to build it by the end of October, Daigle said. Vice President Jason Fatuma said the company has added 75 feet of concrete driveway, for 95 feet of pavement before trucks reach Brickyard Road. Fatuma said the state and town have reviewed the site about seven times since 2012 with no violations, and a couple of notices, usually about gray water after a rainstorm.
The truck rinse. Before trucks leave, workers spray them on a concrete pad to knock off concrete and cement dust. Davidson read state rules as prohibiting outdoor washing of any vehicle in an aquifer area, soap or no soap. Daigle believed washing on site was among the items flagged after an April visit by state and town staff, prompted by a stormwater complaint the state had received, and said the rinse that continues is meant to get concrete off the drum, "not meant to clean the trucks."
Fatuma described where the water goes: into four concrete-bottomed settling bays, where the solids drop out. The first bay is dug out weekly, and the material is hauled to Dunning Sand and Gravel, also on Brickyard Road, which crushes it into road base. Davidson asked for an oil-water separator. Town Planner Shannon Rutherford said a separator works on a piped system that discharges somewhere, and these open bays do not. Don Gagne of SLR Consulting, who is writing the stormwater plan, said a separator would fill with concrete and harden, and that the plan will call for checking the bays for an oil sheen and soaking it up with absorbent pads. "I'm the person to yell at for not having the SWIP ready yet," Gagne said, using the shorthand for the stormwater plan, "but I will have it ready within a week."
Davidson raised one more point: the plant adds well water to the bays every day, so some of it has to leave. "It has to be" going somewhere, Rutherford agreed, naming evaporation as one route. Davidson called the answer on the separator helpful and said that was all Davidson had on the topic. Whether the rinse itself is allowed was not decided Tuesday. The stormwater plan is due before the Oct. 14 meeting.
Dunning Sand and Gravel, 105 and 163 Brickyard Road. Registered for fueling, vehicle maintenance and storing de-icing salt. A July 16 inspection with the state found materials without containment in the maintenance building, idle equipment parked on unpaved ground, items stored around the property and no cover over the fueling area. Daigle said the company has addressed most of it and that Daigle will inspect again before Oct. 14. Moving the idle machines, some of which have to be dragged, is expected to take a couple of months. Benjamin Dunning said the business was started by Dunning's great-grandfather in 1917, keeps its salt in covered bins on pavement, and that the state has held up the company's closed-loop wash-water system as a model at other sand and gravel sites.
Par Manufacturing, 1824 New Britain Avenue. A machine shop of about 5,000 square feet. Daigle's July 9 inspection found no violations, with its oil drums on containment pallets. Since 2008 the shop has filed the safety sheets for its two lubricating oils and no formal plan. Asked whether the shop had been unwilling to do more, Daigle said that was not how to put it: the agency had never required a more detailed plan. Daigle also has to check with the state whether the shop counts as a regulated activity at all, because shops that use lubricating oil without chlorinated solvents may fall under an exception. The commission asked for a materials management plan, the list of what is on site and how it is stored and disposed of, by Oct. 14. Lisa Fagan, an alternate member of the commission, said that even giving the benefit of the doubt, it "seems wrong to allow one applicant ... to be exempt from the process."
How much paperwork is enough
Davidson spent the evening asking for complete lists: every hazardous material named, where it is stored, who hauls it away, and a spill plan that names who gets called. Davidson said the point was not to presume anyone was doing anything wrong. "But I can't assume that they're doing everything right either," Davidson said. Davidson raised similar questions about hazardous materials at a Brickyard Road towing yard's hearing that began in January and voted against that application in February.
Cordeiro pushed back during the discussion of Advanced Equipment. "I feel like we're willy-nilly adding requirements to different people based on varying standards," Cordeiro said. The job, Cordeiro said, was to approve registrations, "not tell them you got to count your batteries and add it to some list."
Davidson answered that everything Davidson had asked for comes from the regulations. The commission settled on a condition: the shop must confirm in writing that its materials list is complete, and update its plan if it is not. Rutherford said staff will email the questions and expect an answer within about a month. Davidson confirmed with staff that failing to do so would be a violation.
What happens next
The agency meets again Oct. 14 to take up Ready Mix, Dunning and Par, along with the seven registrations it has not yet heard, and Oct. 20 is held in case it needs another night. Daigle said the two biggest sites were brought forward now so the agency is not "down to the wire" before registrations lapse.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road, the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has covered Farmington's Plan and Zoning Commission long enough to know it is also the aquifer board, and now knows more about concrete settling bays than he planned to. Second coffee. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers the town nobody else is covering: the meeting that ran late, the log nobody typed up, the registration file that turns out to be about your drinking water. We publish slowly and without apology. Always last to breaking news, thorough about everything else. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell your neighbors. #WeAreFarmington 📰