Groton Open Space Association

Land Use/Water Quality Program Draws Audience Of 45

GROTON, April 22, 2002–A public meeting on water pollution sponsored by GOSA and the Southeast Connecticut Sierra Club drew an attendance of about 45 persons, including 10 municipal officials, at the Groton Senior Center.

The meeting featured a lecture by Laurie Giannotti, Connecticut coordinator for the NEMO project of the University of Connecticut’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. NEMO stands for Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials, an information program on nonpoint, or multi-sourced, water pollution that is primarily designed for city and town decision makers. Ms. Giannotti was introduced by Duncan Schweitzer, of the Sierra Club.

Ms. Giannotti’s topic was “Linking Land Use to Water Quality.” She explained how residential and commercial development promotes water pollution by generating nutrients, pathogens, sediment, chemicals, debris and heat. To counteract these effects, she stressed the need for town planning that is based on natural resources, as well as attention to site design and “best management practices” in containing pollution.

On planning, she urged that natural resources be inventoried, with priorities being assigned to areas for protection. Development should be situated in most appropriate areas. Zoning and subdivision regulations need to be altered to support plans.

Good site design, she said, includes retention of the natural landscape and the avoidance of unnecessary fragmentation of the land. Other measures are reduction of impervious surfaces such as conventional roofs and blacktopping, maximizing on-site drainage of storm water, and storm water management plans.

Ms. Giannotti urged use of best management practices such as green buffers to control storm water, good maintenance of catch basins, restoration of natural means of drainage by replacement of impervious surfaces, and efforts to contain sprawl by “infilling.”

Officials attending the lecture were: Mark Oefinger, planning and development director, and the following members of official bodies: Hank Steinford, Planning Commission; Catherine Kolnaski, Elissa Wright, and John Wirzbicki, town council; Eunice Sutphen and Barbara Block, Inland Wetlands Agency; Helen Kroll and Pete Jones, Conservation Commission; and Paul Bates, Noank Fire District executive committee.

A member of the audience, Paulann Sheets, an attorney who lives in Groton, suggested that a sharp tightening was needed in regulations governing impervious surfaces near Groton’s drinking water supplies. “In the old days, you could have 70% impervious surfaces,” she said. “Now we know that over 10% is a problem. Should we revise those regulations?”