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WALLINGFORD — Allnex’s application for a change to its waste water discharge permit has some river advocates calling for a public hearing after filings showed the chemical company had 17 discharge violations since February 2012.

Allnex wants to change its discharge permit because of plans to manufacture modified or new products at the South Cherry Street facility.

The products are similar to those already manufactured on site and will be produced with existing equipment. The modification includes monitoring for a new parameter, tetrahydrofuran, according to a report by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Tetrahydrofuran is a clear, colorless liquid used in adhesive and sealant chemicals, according to the compound summary on the National Institutes for Health website.

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The Public has until March 22 to comment on a permit modification application submitted by Allnex USA Inc., the chemical manufacturer in Wallingford. Allnex proposes a monitoring process for a new byproduct, “Tetrahydrofuran,” as well as modified permit limits for Acrylamide, Phosphorous and other requests related to its discharge into the Quinnipiac River. Read the posted notice here.

The Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection (“Commissioner”) has made a tentative decision to issue a permit for the modifications.

2016february22allnexusaincdraftpermit.pdf

Prior to making a final determination to approve or deny any application, the Commissioner shall consider written comments on the application from interested persons that are received within 30 days of this public notice. Written comments should be directed to Christine Gleason, Bureau of Materials Management and Compliance Assurance, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, 79 Elm Street, Hartford, CT, 06106 5127.

The Commissioner may hold a public hearing prior to approving or denying an application if in the Commissioner’s discretion the public interest will be best served thereby, and shall hold a hearing upon receipt of a petition signed by at least twenty-five persons. Notice of any public hearing shall be published at least 30 days prior to the hearing.

Petitions for a hearing should include the application number noted above and also identify a contact person to receive notifications.  Petitions may also identify a person who is authorized to engage in discussions regarding the application and, if resolution is reached, withdraw the petition. Original petitions must be mailed or delivered to: DEEP Office of Adjudications, 79 Elm Street, 3rd floor, Hartford, 06106-5127.  Petitions cannot be sent by fax or e-mail. Additional information can be found atwww.ct.gov/deep/adjudications.

The Connectiuct Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection’s investigation into a discharge pipe across from the Quinnipiac River State Park concluded that the discharge was likely related to the accidental release of lubricating oil into a batch of cooling water. The pipe’s owner, Nucor Steel, was found in violation of not reporting a permit violation in a timely manner. No further action is expected.

The full report of the complaint investigation can be downloaded below.

Read the DEEP comment in The New Haven Independent.

Read the original story in The New Haven Independent.

Harry Pylypiw stumbled across a Quinnipiac River “hot spot” where previously undetected chemicals pour into fish-filled water streaming toward New Haven Harbor.

Now he wants to find out if we should worry about that. And if it’s legal.

For six years Pylypiw, a chemistry professor at Quinnipiac Univerity, and his students have been testing the Quinnipiac River fromt Wallingford down to New Haven Harbor for industrial contaminants.

They’ve found plenty of them, because companies are still allowed to discharge a limited amount of pollutants, by permit. Not until this year, however, did they find a genuine “hot spot.”

The spot is right next to a fishing spot and a state park.

Continue reading on The New Haven Indpendent.

There was once a place called Dragon, in the east. A place where oysters thrived and Quinnipiac arrowheads could be found simply by tilling the soil of your garden. It got its name for the seals that once played and warmed themselves at the entrance to the bordering river. “The sailors called them sea-dragons and hence dubbed the waterway Dragon River,” remarks local historian Doris B. Townshend in the opening pages of Fair Haven: A Journey Through Time (1976).

With the seals long gone—the oysters mostly, too—the river’s taken a newer name, from another historic population: the Quinnipiac. And where the Dragon of old has sunken into the annals of history, Fair Haven has risen in its place.

Read more from the Daily Nutmeg.

Estrogen, fertilizers, plastic and heavy metals may kill entire species of fish in the Quinnipiac River—and limit humans’ dinner and recreation options. Unless four University of New Haven researchers succeed in sounding the alarm.

The four UNH researchers are testing the levels of a few pollutants along various sites of the 38-mile river, to find their sources and inform policy to reduce them.

Read the story in the New Haven Independent.

A new handbook has made it easier for the public to be involved in the permitting process that regulates the use of the three major rivers in Greater New Haven.

The Urban River Permits Review and Advocacy Recommendations for the Quinnipiac, Mill, and West Rivers lists the major water permits and their expiration dates for purposes of coordinating public participation in the three corresponding watersheds. The report lays out the timeline for river advocacy to influence key permits and regulatory decisions and provides the tools that advocates can use to further restore these rivers to benefit both people and wildlife.

“We’re trying to even the odds here,” said Mary Mushinsky, Director of River Advocates of South Central CT, which produced the report along with the the Mill River Watershed Association of South Central Connecticut.

“In many of these meetings, the regulated community, that is the people that hold the permits, are always there. There is not always representation from the general public who would like to see the rivers cleaner.

It’s a handbook. You can go to each section and read about best practices and then go to a hearing and get them inserted. If more people do that there will be a shift toward more protections.”

Download the report here: mill_river_pages.pdf

Young stewards from Solar Youth, the New Haven-based youth empowerment program, traveled to the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association for a river adventure. First stop: the Wallace dam for an overview of the river and its ecology.

The group then went to the QRWA headquarters and met with staff-volunteer Ginny Chirsky and other volunteers ready to take them out on the river. They paddled onto Hanover Pond to explore the ecosystem. They saw herons, egrets, hawks and other birds as well as turtles and insects.They met to discuss human impacts on the watershed and how they could be good stewards of the environment.

Next, they put on mud boots and waders and headed to a stream feeding into the pond to search for insects and larvae and other creatures

The day concluded with a discussion of how different organisms indicate the health of the stream. They brought specimens back to the lab for a closer look.

After more than a decade of waiting, work has finally begun on the Fireworks Island leg of the Quinnipiac River Linear Trail in Wallingford. An official groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 5 to honor the work of local volunteers, city officials, and funders of the project. Now that permits are in place, construction will commence on the section that will connect downtown Yalesville to the completed trail along Community Lake. When finished, the entire trail will stretch from border North Haven to Meriden.

Planning for the project, known as Phase III, began in 1998 with the first of multiple grants from the Quinnipiac River Fund at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

“The Foundation was the first to believe in us. That first grant was enough to make it a real project and attract other funding sources,” said Mary Mushinsky, co-chair of the Quinnipiac River Linear Trail Advisory Committee.

Various delays turned the project into an odyssey. The completed hydrology studies and engineering designs had to be redone after an endangered plant, false mermaid weed, was discovered at the location of the planned bridge crossing.

Trail planners encountered a second roadblock when the Yalesville on the Green condominiums refused to allow pedestrians to walk over the existing bridge to the state-owned Fireworks Island property. In October 2014, the state awarded a $150,000 grant to construct a separate 208-foot pedestrian bridge. The total cost of the third phase is expected to be $2.8 million.

Now that permits are in place, work is set to proceed this summer.

“We never gave up,” Mushinsky said.

Wallingford Mayor William Dickinson, Jr

Quinnipiac River Linear Trail Advisory Committee

Wallingford Town Engineer John P. Thompson

Advisory Committee Co-chairs Cathy Granucci and Mary Mushinsky, and Treasurer Elaine Doherty

Photos by Ian Christmann