KENT—They are unseen, but necessary, and often part of the business coming before the Inland Wetlands Commission. The commission had two applications this week concerning culverts, one more complex than the other.
Victoria Hughes, 23 Kane Mountain Rd., sought permission to replace a crushed section of a culvert running under a road on her property. Her civil engineer, Sean Quinlan, proposes cutting away gravel, replacing six feet of the pipe, and covering it again with soil. Side slopes would be stabilized with riprap.
Quinlan said that the section of pipe would be replaced with a matching 12-inch culvert, but met pointed questioning from Chairman Lynn Werner, who worried about “all these weird storms” that pass through the region.
Quinlan referred to the storm that flooded Southern Connecticut last summer as a “1,000-year flood,” but Werner objected. “There are no longer 100, 200 and 500-year floods,” she said, noting that weather is frequently volatile.
Land Use Administrator Tai Kern said she pulled the file on the site and discovered that the original 1985 approval required a 24-inch pipe, but Quinlan insisted that the smaller opening has been sufficient to carry the flow.
Hughes said it is an intermittent stream that is “barely seen, even during storms” but Werner was not persuaded. “Watching what happened last summer, with all that rain, it was the smaller streams that blew out and caused the flooding,” she cautioned.
Commissioners also wondered whether other portions of the culvert might be compromised by age and urged that the whole pipe be examined. Quinlan said his firm does not have a camera to do an internal examinations and said it would have to be examined while work was underway. Hughes worried that this might interfere with access for neighboring properties.
Discussion revealed another issue. Hughes said that a neighboring property owner had logged his land and that the heavy equipment passing over the culvert was what caused the problem. She asked if any permits had been issued for the logging.
“Over-size flatbeds were taking out full-size logs,” she said. “The logging started in fall and went on all winter. Other very over-sized equipment went over it. In April, the culvert was damaged. I’m the one that foots the bill for others not doing things through proper channels.”
Werner said the commission will investigate and take appropriate action.
Town Public Works foreman Rick Osborne had an easier conversation, presenting a proposal to replace two washed-out culverts and add a washbasin at 159 Macedonia Road. The culverts will be increased in size from 12-inch to 15-inch pipes.
Both applications will face action at the January meeting.
