Northwest Hills Council of Governments: Survey on Waste, Possible Aquarion Sale, Goshen Convention Center

09/12/24

The Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG) will resume in-person meetings once more. Most meetings, of late, have been remote via Zoom.

New Hartford First Selectman Dan Jerram suggested that if local municipalities had success stories that benefited the area, they should present a brief presentation about the challenges they faced when accomplishing this task and include a brief walkthrough tour of some of those successes.

Goshen First Selectman Todd Carusillo noted that he spoke with George Motel of Goshen’s Agricultural Council about purchasing Wadhams Farm and converting a building into a convention center to rent out for weddings and other events. Carusillo suggested this building be used for a potential NHCOG meeting in spring 2025.

With encouragement from many municipalities' representatives, Jerram nominated Norbrook Farm Brewery in Colebrook to host the next NHCOG meeting in-person on Wednesday, October 10th from 10 am-11:45 am. Morris First Selectman Tom Weik added that the meetings should remain hybrid, both in-person and remote, if people don’t want to or can’t travel long distances. On top of the return of in-person meetings NHCOG Executive Director Rob Phillips announced that the council will soon begin producing quarterly newsletters to act as a supplement to their agenda discussions and include information on new initiatives and announcements. The first newsletter was slated for release in October.

Jerram announced that the Southwest Regional Water Authority may be interested in acquiring the Aquarion Water Company. Aquarion is a Bridgeport-based public water supply subsidiary of Eversource which serves over 750,000 people in 72 cities and towns across Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. In regard to the NHCOG, Aquarion currently serves 13 out of the NHCOG’s 21 total municipalities including Canaan, Cornwall, Goshen, Harwinton, Litchfield, Torrington, and Washington. Eversource intends to sell Aquarion to offset $443 million in losses from 2023. Jerram expressed caution in this acquisition as Southwest is exempt from Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) oversight and their rates do not need to be approved by PURA. “PURA has always been a good gatekeeper for the residents of our state, in terms of watching what happens with rates,” Jerram explained. “A potential sale would change that…The Southwest Regional Water rates are higher than Aquarion rates.”

The council conducted a review of their municipal solid waste survey. 20 out of the NHCOG’s 21 municipalities responded and took part in the survey. Among these municipalities, 65% claim their residents use transfer stations for their waste while 60% are also contracted with private trash haulers. 64.29% of municipalities had their residents pay for the disposal of trash and recyclables via a single annual permit fee. The trash hauler that is registered with most NHCOG municipalities was found to be USA Hauling & Recycling at 65% while Oak Ridge Waste & Recycling, Joe Rocco Carting Inc., and Plainville CWPM, LLC tied as the least registered hauler at 10% each. In terms of materials accepted at transfer stations, drop-off facilities, or recycling centers, scrap metal was accepted at all of them and e-waste was accepted at over 94%. Corks were the least accepted materials at only 29.41%.