Water Quality Is Managing Land Assets

Just like any business, we carefully review the assets of our water system. In our sizable landholdings, we identified about 900 acres of non-water system land. These parcels are not needed for the operation, protection and maintenance of our water system—now or in the future. We intend to sell these parcels in order to keep water rates as low as possible.
Land sales are something we do not enter into lightly. We must follow a lengthy statutory process to sell a parcel of land. Besides notification of local community officials, and land and conservation agencies, we tell the Connecticut Department of Public Health, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management. We also conduct an in-depth land study and environmental evaluation. These investigations, depending upon parcel size, can cost as much as $20,000. We also hold a public hearing prior to any sale of land. Based on these required procedures, we anticipate that selling these 900 acres will take us between five and 10 years.

Since 1980, we have sold 1,779 acres of land that were not necessary to protect water quality or useful for our water system. From this effort, we received $24 million. We applied these funds to offset the cost of our capital improvement program, which includes land acquisitions. At the bottom of this page are examples of land that we sold in the region. The inside back covers contain timelines of land sales
and purchases.

A Tale of Two Watersheds

While our drinking water is plentiful, development can create challenges to maintaining source water quality. As the first aerial photo shows, various types of urban and suburban development can surround a reservoir. Reservoir water quality deteriorates with increasing development on its watershed. The photo on the far right shows a well-protected, forested watershed surrounding the reservoir. Land ownership is a critical element for our source water protection program.

RWA Land Sold In Region—A Few Examples

Madison In 1999, the North Madison Congregational Church purchased two acres of land for parking.

Milford In 2005, Riverbrook LLC purchased 17 acres for the construction of residential age-restricted housing.

New Haven In 1987, nine acres of property in Fair Haven was sold for cluster-type residential development.

Orange In 2000, the Town of Orange purchased 230 acres of our Racebrook property, making the acquisition the largest tract of open space in the town’s history.

West Haven In 1989, Sursum Corda Properties purchased 70 acres of property on Route 34 in Allingtown to build a life care center.

Woodbridge In 2005, Woodbridge town officials began the process of acquiring 181 acres of our Racebrook property in phases over several years. In 2005, the town purchased nearly 62 acres of land. At the end of 2006, the town acquired roughly another 66 acres. Woodbridge has until 2009 to acquire the third and final phase of the property.

Continue to Page 4 of 5: Acres to Protect and Acres to Sell

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