Federal Funding-Water Loop

We are excited to share that the Stonington 'Water Loop' project has been selected as a Community Project Funding. Thanks to Congressman Courtney and his team this project was included in the latest round of FY 2022 funding bills approved in the House Appropriations Committee.

This marks a big step forward in obtaining the final appropriation. There’s more work to do until this budget becomes law, but this is a major step forward. It looks promising that later this Fall the final vote will take place and Stonington will receive nearly $2 million in federal funds to complete this project.  

The village of Pawcatuck has been served with municipal water supply by the Town of Westerly, Rhode Island dating back to the late 1800’s. The pipelines serving this area are known to be unlined cast iron and generally undersized considering today’s American Waterworks Standards. The Town has had a longstanding desire to improve the firefighting water supply in the southeastern section of the village of Pawcatuck, CT which includes an area bounded by Interstate 1 (South Broad Street) to the north and west and Greenhaven Road to the south.

The objective is to create a looped water system thereby improving redundancy and improving firefighting supplies in this portion of the water system. The Pawcatuck Fire Department has expressed concerns with regards to the redundancy of the water system within the village of Pawcatuck. These concerns stem from the addition of several new and proposed developments within this area of the water system. There are two (2) dead end water transmission mains within this portion of the water system and it is the Pawcatuck Fire Department’s view that connecting these transmission mains would increase system redundancy and improve available fire flows within the Pawcatuck area.

While no such break has occurred, the number of populations potentially impacted is noteworthy, such as Stonington Arms, Davis-Standard, Stonington Police Station, and High School. These locations rely on public water particularly for fire protection purposes and a water line breakage in this area can impact public safety, elderly residents and local businesses, especially if the repair takes an extensive timeframe to resolve.

For years funding remained the critical obstacle for addressing this risk, but thanks to the efforts of a great team of Stonington staff and volunteers, along with the Pawcatuck Fire Chief, new efforts to identify funding have been underway.