A Connecticut legislative task force is working on proposals that might prevent dam breaches, following last week's concern about the Fitchville Pond Dam after really high water in the Yantic River caused flooding in Bozrah and Norwich.
The Hydropower Task Force was set up by lawmakers last year to study Connecticut’s existing hydropower assets, as the state seeks to implement policy to meet all its energy needs from renewable sources by 2040,
The environmental viability of hydropower projects should be strictly scrutinized, said task force member Alicia Charamut, the executive director of environmental group Rivers Alliance of Connecticut.
“If we incentivize building dams now, 30 years down the road, what's going to happen when these dams are falling apart and nobody wants to pay for them,” she asked at a task force meeting on Friday.
“Looking down 20 to 30 years, what happens when the dam is no longer profitable and someone just walks away, and you have another situation like Fitchville where DEEP has to step in and put taxpayer money into even evaluating the safety of that dam?” Charamut said.
The Fitchville Pond Dam is privately owned.
The task force is working on proposals for lawmakers to consider in the upcoming legislative session that begins on Feb. 7.
