Connecticut politicians are going back and forth over allegations about wastewater dumping in the Connecticut River.
In August, Connecticut Representatives Tami Zawistowski (R-East Granby) and Devin Carney (R-Lyme) sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New England Administrator Mark Sanborn about wastewater overflow.
“We are deeply troubled by the ongoing wastewater discharge issues affecting the Connecticut River, particularly the recent Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) events from upstream municipalities in Massachusetts that directly impact downstream communities in our state,” the letter stated. “When these discharges occur, you can actually see some of the solid waste from untreated sewage floating down with the current. We have video footage of this.”
In 2024, around 543 million gallons of wastewater from three towns in Massachusetts-Springfield, Holyoke, and Chicopee—overflowed into the river, upstream from Connecticut and Long Island Sound, according to a report from Massachusetts’ Department of Environmental Protection. The vast majority of the wastewater overflow happened during heavy rainstorms, and the wastewater consists mostly of rain; however, human sewage has also seeped into the river.
While there has not been a comprehensive report about discharge in 2025, recent reports show that more than 400 million gallons of wastewater overflowed from the three towns in Massachusetts into the Connecticut River in July alone.
But Rep. John Santanella (D-Enfield) says that Zawistowski is overstating the problem. He told 22 News that Zawistowski’s claims were “misleading” and that it was not a new problem. When he was growing up in Enfield, people always knew that the river was not safe to swim in after large rainstorms, he said.
Santanella did, however, reaffirm the importance of preventing sewage leakage in that interview.
“It’s hard for us in Connecticut to legitimately point our finger to our friends to the north when Connecticut dumps the same amount of sewage into the river on a regular basis,” he said in that interview.
There have been more than 130 sewage spillages and overflows in Connecticut since the start of the year. The largest was discovered on April 3, 2025, when East Windsor officials identified a break in one of the town’s sanitary sewer lines. DEEP estimated 300,000 gallons of untreated sewage may have been discharged directly into the Connecticut River each day that emergency repairs were being worked on.
“While the discharges may not be 100% human sewage, it is impossible to ignore the incidents of solid sewage debris that people are seeing in the river in the towns nearest the Massachusetts border,” Zawistowski wrote in a public statement on Sept. 15. “I do find it curious, however, that my Democrat colleague would choose to make a political issue out of anyone working to demand clean, safe waterways that are free from dangerous upriver sewage, pollutants and contaminants, and that all of a sudden he is making accusations of disinformation about facts and figures that have been officially reported by the treatment plants themselves.”
CSO into the Connecticut River has been happening for years, but local officials in Massachusetts claim that it has gotten worse because of climate change. Officials told the Massachusetts-based CommonWealth Beacon that storms will become more intense because of climate change, and that the towns do not have the money to expand their wastewater treatment capacity. The recent elimination of the EPA Community Change Grant Program will make it harder to secure funding, they said.
This grant program was established during Pres. Joe Biden’s administration. The grants were cancelled in May amidst grant cuts and spending freezes at the EPA.
Despite this, there are ongoing infrastructure-improvement projects taking place in Springfield, Holyoke, and Chicopee to process wastewater and mitigate other CSO effects.
The EPA responded to Zawistowski and Carney’s letter on Sept. 18. The response letter, which was signed by Sanborn, stated that the EPA has been working with Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee for years to reduce CSO discharge.
“All three communities are working under enforcement actions signed with EPA and DOJ to further reduce the volume of sewage mixed with stormwater that is discharged from their systems,” the letter states. “Collectively, these communities have spent hundreds of millions of dollars towards infrastructure improvements that have reduced these discharges.”
In a statement released that same day, Zawistowski said, “While the EPA acknowledged the persistent problem of combined sewer overflows from up-river municipalities and the related impacts on Connecticut residents, unfortunately, the official reply falls short of providing any immediate, short-term solutions and insists that changes are being made, albeit slowly and as funding permits… I appreciate the timely response and I’m glad we have open lines of communication with federal agencies as we continue to press for solutions.”
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300,000 gallons in East Windsor on April 3, 2025? Maybe that’s what the news reported. I think the actual spill report, if I remember correctly, showed 600–900 gallons of untreated sewage released before they even located the site of line break. The 300,000 gallons was presented to the media is a stagnant or fixed number but the emergency response report tells a much different story. More than 1,000,000 gallons of raw sewage was released directly into the Connecticut during that one break but over several days. It was very difficult to stop.
130 gallon sewage spillages and overflows in Connecticut since the start of the year? That is more like the number of spillages reported per month. I don’t have the exact data in front of me right now because DEEP just implemented a new tracking tool that requires the regulated community to register their personal information with the agency so the state can monitor and track user behavior. I’m not sure I want to enroll in their new tracking system. Prior to yesterday or the day before when “eyes” began watching, I feel fairly confident suggesting there were several months since the beginning of the year with over 130 sewage spill reports. Maybe the data referred to in this article considers all breaks or overflows along the same line or system equal to one spill. So if there are 10 or 20 separate reports of a a sewage release on a particular day in a particular town or region, it only counts as one spill. But each of those reports should have their own unique spill case # so I’m not sure its accurate to condense multiple reports of releases into a single release. Anyone who feels like being tracked and monitored by DEEP should register their user information into hazconnect now, log in, find out, and report back. Go for it!
607 Sewage Release and Overflow Incident Reports so far this year in Connecticut. These are Connecticut breaks, releases and overflows. This number does include releases originating from Massachusetts and flowing into Connecticut.
It’s important for people to understand how this works.
Incident Report for 4/4/2025 Sewage Incident (Incident ID: 202500868): “PIPE BREAK AT OUTFALL, 400,000 GALLONS OF SEWAGE PER DAY GOING DIRECTLY INTO CT RIVER. COMPANY HAS BEEN TRYING TO LOCATE THE BREAK FOR THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS. CLOSEST ADDRESS IS TO THE REAR OF 249 SOUTH WATER STREET EAST WINDSOR. BALZAR CONTRACTED FOR REPAIRS.”
Steve from the Windsor Water Pollution Control Authority calls in to report that raw sewage had been emptying directly into the Connecticut River at the rate of 400,000 per day for days (probably several). At the time of Steve’s report, 800,000 gallons of raw sewage (minimum) was already floating down the Connecticut River toward the capitol. I think it’s probably safe to assume that over 1,000,000 gallons had been released by the time the first “media reporter” arrives on scene. So I’m not sure we are protecting public health when the media reports, “Crews have been working day and night to hold back 300,000 gallons of sewage from entering the Connecticut River.” I believe crews worked day and night. I believe crews worked extremely hard to repair the break. But I also believe millions of gallons of raw sewage mixed with storm & wastewater had been released directly into the Connecticut River as a result of this break. It was difficult to stop the bleeding.
Meanwhile, on 4/5/2025, Sewage Incident (Incident ID: 202500886): “Raw sewage bypass at Broad St. and Capital Ave, Hartford into Park River conduit at sewer outfall. Park River conduit impacted, non-recoverable.