Zawistowski Relays Concern on Impact of Water Project
HARTFORD—State Rep. Tami Zawistowski on Friday stood alongside residents from Windsor and nearby towns who are concerned about the politics and environmental impact of project that would see the Niagara Bottling Company withdraw large amounts of water from the Farmington River watershed.
“This issue started with citizens who felt increasingly blindsided as they asked simple questions about the transparency of a tax abatement deal between Niagara and the Town of Bloomfield, and that’s morphed into a larger discussion that begs for a more thorough conversation about the Metropolitan District Commission’s core mission, the balance between water and sewer rates for residential and large capacity users such as Niagara, our local and regional economies, and how a project of this magnitude meshes with the long-term viability for our region’s water supply,” said Zawistowski, Windsor, Suffield and East Granby. “My constituents would have appreciated a slower, more inclusive process.”
The Town of Bloomfield gave Niagara a multi-year tax abatement to build a bottling plant there. Niagara plans to bottle and then sell water supplied by the Metropolitan District Commission. Environmental concerns aside, MDC’s residential customers have expressed frustration over discounted rates approved for large capacity users such as Niagara.
Zawistowski participated in a news conference held ahead of a Planning and Development Committee hearing on S.B. 422, a three-pronged proposal from state Sen. Beth Bye that seeks to:
- Prioritize residential consumer water sales during public drinking water supply emergencies
- Prohibit companies that sell bottled water from receiving water rates less than residential customers
- Ensure sellers who export bottled water out of Connecticut don’t pay lower sewer rates than residential customers
“We need to slow it down a little,” Zawistowski said. “Ask anyone you know who has lived in California or the southwest. They understand what a precious resource good, clean water is.”
Zawistowski, a member of the Planning and Development Committee, will now join other committee members in deliberating on the proposal and deciding whether to hold a vote on it.