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Why is Watershed Land Important?

According to the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection, watershed land is the area that drains to a common waterway such as a stream, lake, estuary, wetland, aquifer, or the ocean. Watersheds supply drinking water, provide recreation and sustain life. Nationally, more than $450 billion in food, manufactured goods, and tourism depends on clean water and healthy watersheds.

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Your questions and concerns are important to us. For more information on Tilcon and our quarry expansion plan, please contact quarryinfo@tilcon-inc.com.

Tilcon’s plan will help to improve the region’s water resources by restoring land currently zoned for heavy industry into Class I and Class II watershed land. This will result in the creation of a potential new water storage reservoir with three times the capacity of the Shuttlemeadow Reservoir.

The reservoir would increase the region’s available supply of water, by capturing and storing rainfall that is currently lost and will continue to be lost if this land which is currently zoned for heavy industry is developed. In fact, this proposed reservoir will hold 4.7 billion gallons of water, compared to Shuttlemeadow’s 1.5 billion gallons, and would increase the City of New Britain’s yield by 160,000 gallons per day, serving up to 2000 people year round.

In addition, the proposed reservoir will be ideal for quality drinking water supplies because its depth and steep walls make it difficult for sunlight to foster the growth of algae and other plant growth that can adversely impact water supply quality.

By allowing the City to store additional water in this new reservoir, critical flood protections for New Britain residents living near the West Canal will be improved. In the past, homeowners on Wiegands Drive have filed lawsuits against the City because of flood damage to their homes caused by the overflow of the West Canal during days of heavy rainfall. Improving flood protections will make damage to homes in these neighborhoods a thing of the past.

The reservoir will not only help when the region experiences high rainfall but it will also help during times of drought, allowing the City to access an additional source of readily available high quality drinking water.

Although, we do not usually associate droughts with Connecticut, many modern day factors, such as climate change, population growth, protection of in-stream flows, and suburban sprawl are challenging the sustainability of water systems throughout the country including Connecticut.

With little cost to the City, this is a rare opportunity to create a new drinking water reservoir in densely populated central Connecticut that offers a number of benefits to the City of New Britain and its surrounding communities.