Annual Report 2003

Getting it Done—Night & Day

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What matters to our customers? In a word: performance. At the Regional Water Authority, our performance matters each and every day. We are responsible for delivering some 55 million gallons of water a day to 400,000 consumers. It matters 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It matters when you twist the faucet knob to fill that coffee pot with water or take that morning shower. It matters when you hear on the radio while driving into work that the local fire department battled a two-alarm house fire just after midnight. And it matters when you need the convenience, in today’s busy environment, of paying your water bill on-line after the kids go to bed. We provide an essential service that people in our region cannot live without.

Our mission is to provide an adequate supply of pure water at a reasonable cost and advance the conservation and recreation use of our land. We protect over 25,000 acres of undeveloped watershed land in communities across our region. Our core business value is that customers receive attentive, knowledgeable and quality service.

How do we do it everyday? Credit the performance of our employees. Their vitality, vigilance and creativity get it done. They keep us going at the Authority. As you would imagine, it takes a variety of people, performing a multitude of important tasks, cohesively and consistently, day in and day out, to make us run well. On the following pages you will be introduced to more of our individuals and programs that display vitality, vigilance and creativity. You will read about a gentleman who helps to keep our fleet of vehicles ready to roll; learn how electronic maps help to manage everything from watershed lands to our distribution system; and perhaps be encouraged to gather up your old or unused household cleaning chemicals and dispose of them safely and for free.

The better the quality of source water, the less demanding it is on facilities and operations to produce safe drinking water for distribution. For nearly a decade, we have pursued an aggressive program to acquire undeveloped watershed lands in our region. Purchasing this open space is a vital strategy in protecting drinking water quality. In 2003, we purchased over 110 acres of land and protected another 48 through conservation easements in the communities of Bethany, Durham, Hamden, Killingworth and Madison. Important partners in land acquisition are the towns where the land is located. We are pleased to have the support of the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Lands, as well as local land trusts, when we undertake these open space initiatives. Since 1996, the Authority has invested $7.4 million to purchase and protect over 1,303 acres of land and another 343 acres in conservation easements.

Reading the profile about our watershed inspector, you will become aware of the challenges involved in protecting water quality. You can visualize how one’s activity on land does affect the quality of the sources of our water. He conducts about 3,000-watershed inspections annually. Those inspections, combined with a team of environmental analysts, laboratory technicians, security officers, lake crews and foresters, work to safeguard the health of our reservoirs. Our water science educators, their programs at the Whitney Water Center and field activities on the Project WATER Bus all complement our watershed management program.

Each year, we heavily invest in the infrastructure that delivers high-quality water to our customers around the clock. In 2003, we devoted more than $40 million to capital improvement projects. We installed over 32,000 feet of pipe. We spent over $2 million to clean and cement-line nine miles of water main in East Haven as part of a program that restores older water mains at approximately half the cost of replacement. We also began the process of upgrading the information management system of our laboratory, a facility that conducts thousands of water quality tests each month, which are reported to regulatory agencies. During the last three years, we have been building pumping stations to serve the growing communities of Cheshire, Hamden and North Haven—the northern end of our distribution system. Last year, the third of four new pumping stations went online. The fourth phase of a $6 million initiative to improve the distribution system and extend water service in the towns of North Haven and North Branford will go online in the fall of 2004.

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