Connecticut

Opinion:Sewage overflows are a call for collaboration, not conflict

Published

3 months ago

October 31, 2025

Opinion:Sewage overflows are a call for collaboration, not conflict

When most people flush the toilet, they don’t linger to think about where it all goes.

Behind the scenes, the people running wastewater treatment plants work tirelessly on one of the most important yet underappreciated public services. Treatment systems only make headlines when things go wrong, such as in recent months when unlucky Connecticut residents have been subjected to the sights and smells of sewage floating down the Connecticut River. Incidents like these are becoming more common as aging wastewater treatment plant infrastructure struggles to keep up with increased demand.

Across Connecticut and the entire eastern United States, vital steps to replace and update our old wastewater treatment plants are underway; however, updating the pipes and buildings alone will not be enough. We must rethink the whole management structure and soon — before the problem gets much worse.

Many overflows come from an old model of combined sewage-stormwater systems. For these systems, a heavy storm can overwhelm infrastructure, leading to the release of sewage. In recent years, Connecticut has taken steps forward, moving from over a dozen combined systems down to only four; Hartford’s MDC facility is one of the remaining combined systems.

In response to recent overflow events, some Connecticut state representatives have argued that these overflows are mostly rainwater, and much of the resulting public health advice is to avoid swimming or fishing for a few days before returning to normal. This advice suggests that the effects of a sewage outflow are fleeting — which may protect us from E. coli and algal blooms — but neglects the slower, growing threat of chemical contamination.

My research focuses on chemical contamination of water in the environment. Untreated sewage often contains industrially produced chemical contaminants like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), suspected to increase risk of cancer and pregnancy complications based on studies by the National Institute of Health. After being deposited from the overflow, these chemicals degrade very slowly and can remain in the water column for decades. Each outflow event adds another drop in the bucket of chemical contamination that affects our waters, fish, and eventually, us.

The situation will only become more dire as intensified storms, rising sea levels, and increasingly common extreme weather, pushes our wastewater systems beyond their limits.

There has been finger-pointing and blame over contamination of the Connecticut river across the Connecticut and Massachusetts state line. Rather than squabbling, now is the time to focus on cross-border cooperation.

To begin, we need updated infrastructure. This is already underway and Connecticut wastewater treatment plants have made strong progress towards repairing aging systems. But the next important step is developing regional cooperation along ecological boundaries rather than political ones.

The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments offers a model for a path forward: a coalition of municipalities that allows them to prepare for the changing landscape of wastewater by creating a shared, concrete plan for infrastructure, communication, and collaboration. But rivers do not abide by our state boundaries; we must expand this coalition model to include both Connecticut and Massachusetts. We can treat this issue the same way we handle threats to the Long Island Sound, as a team.

We are already investing billions of dollars into updating our wastewater infrastructure. Now is the time to rethink how we manage our collective wastewater systems — together. Consequences of these overflows remain far longer than the wastewater itself. Nothing we flush away ever really disappears, and neither will the consequences of our inaction.

Fiona Quin Zabel lives in Willimantic.

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Connecticut

Frigid cold temperatures to start the day

Published

2 hours ago

January 30, 2026

Press Room

Frigid cold temperatures to start the day

We have a very cold start to Friday with feel-like temperatures around -10 degrees with little relief in sight.

There is a cold weather advisory in effect until 11 a.m.

Temperatures will remain low throughout the day , with highs ranging from 10-20 degrees.

Overnight will remain calm and clear with brutally low 0-15 degree temperatures.

The weekend starts out a bit warmer, with highs near 20 degrees.

The coastal storm that was nearby continues to push out to the ocean and misses us.

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Connecticut

Child welfare advocate: Connecticut’s DCF must improve, get more funding

Published

14 hours ago

January 29, 2026

Press Room

Child welfare advocate: Connecticut’s DCF must improve, get more funding

The revelations continue on day two of the probable cause hearing for Jonatan Nanita, one of three people connected to the death of 11-year-old Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia.

Something revealed through testimony was that a Department of Children and Families (DCF) worker, who was working with the family during a sibling’s neglect case, checked on Mimi via a video call.

Except that the person on the other end of the call was not Mimi, who was believed to have been dead for a year by that point. Instead, the social worker unknowingly spoke with a woman in her 20s pretending to be the 11-year-old.

NBC Connecticut spoke with Sarah Eagan, the state’s former Child Advocate and now head of the Center for Children’s Advocacy in Hartford, about the incident.

“That’s hard to reconcile, right?” Eagan said. “The timeline is really important […] as to when folks should have discovered–whether through the school system, child protection system, or other–what happened to Mimi Torres.”

Eagan said this case helps underline how DCf, while no longer under federal oversight, still faces major challenges.

“It’s not because they’re not trying,” Eagan said. “They need a lot of help to turn that ship around.”

Eagan recently wrote an op-ed, highlighting two reports about the DCF issued last summer; one by the state, another by the federal government. One of the reports outlined more than 3,000 incidents of children in DCF custody going missing over two years.

The other report stated the state didn’t meet the safety and well-being benchmarks of children involved with DCF.

“This is a system, in my view, that is really on the brink workforce-wise, service-wise, foster care availability-wise, practice-wise–and that really has to concern us as stakeholders,” Eagan explained.

Eagan said the biggest way to help fix the issues is with more funding.

“If we want to hold DCF accountable for fulfilling the state’s legal obligation to ensure the safety of children like Mimi Torres, they need the tools,” Eagan said.

She said millions more are needed, probably tens of millions. Eagan highlighted the upcoming short legislative session, during which budget adjustments can be made, which could be helpful.

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