The purpose of this Article 17 is to secure the public health, safety and welfare by protecting and preserving groundwater quality within stratified drift aquifers which are existing or potential public drinking water supplies. These groundwater resources have been shown to be easily contaminated by many land uses and activities, and it is necessary that specific controls over land use be exercised within these areas to protect groundwater quality.
These regulations are promulgated pursuant to C.G.S. § 8-2.
For the purposes of this Article 17 only, the following terms shall be defined as follows:
A geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that contains saturated, permeable materials to yield significant, usable quantities of water to wells and springs. Such a formation is usually composed of rock or sand and gravel.
That overlay zone which consists of the primary recharge area for aquifers in the Town of Willington. Those recharge areas, as believed to exist based on existing data, are illustrated on a map entitled "Groundwater Recharge Areas Connecticut Areawide Waste Treatment Management Planning Board Scale 1 Inch Represents 2,000 Feet Sheet No: 25, 26, 40, 41 Date: March 1980," which map is on file in the office of the Willington Town Clerk and which map is hereby incorporated as a part of these regulations. Such map is intended to be illustrative only and shall not limit or restrict the extent of the aquifer protection area.
Solid rock, commonly called "ledge," that forms the earth's crust. It is locally exposed at the land surface, but is more commonly beneath anywhere from a few inches to more than 300 feet of unconsolidated materials.
A predominantly nonsorted, nonstratified sediment deposited directly by a glacier and composed of boulders, gravel, sand, silt and clay, mixed in various proportions.
Water below the land surface, in the saturated zone, i.e., the subsurface zone in which all open spaces between soil particles or bedrock fractures are filled with water under pressure which is equal to or greater than atmospheric pressure.
The favorable set of geologic and hydrogeologic conditions within stratified drift deposits that are capable of supporting public water supply wells or well fields. Such favorable conditions are coarse-grained stratified drift deposits that have deep saturated subsurface regions containing groundwater.
That area immediately overlying a most significant stratified drift aquifer, adjacent areas of stratified drift that may not have sufficient saturated thickness to be part of the most significant stratified drift aquifer, and portions of the till area in which the groundwater flows directly into the most significant stratified drift aquifer. The boundary of the primary recharge area is the contact point between the stratified drift and the adjacent glacial till or bedrock. Those primary recharge areas, as believed to exist based on existing data, are illustrated on a map entitled "Groundwater Recharge Areas Connecticut Areawide Waste Treatment Management Planning Board Scale 1 Inch Represents 2,000 Feet Sheet No: 25, 26, 40, 41 Date: March 1980," which map is on file in the Office of the Willington Town Clerk and which map is hereby incorporated as a part of these regulations. Such map is intended to be illustrative only and shall not limit or restrict the extent of the primary recharge area.
That area from which water is added to the groundwater by natural processes, such as infiltration of precipitation, or by artificial processes, such as induced infiltration.
Predominantly unconsolidated, sorted sediment deposited by glacial meltwater consisting of gravel, sand, silt, or clay in layers of similar grain size.
One of the Zoning Districts set forth in Article 2 of these regulations which governs the use of land, buildings and structures in those zones.
A.
All uses permitted in the applicable underlying zone shall be permitted within the aquifer protection/groundwater recharge areas except as limited by the following conditions or restrictions:
(1)
No use may discharge on average more than 350 gallons of sanitary wastewater per acre per day to on-site septic systems, except upon the issuance of a special permit by the Commission in accordance with Article 13 of these regulations. The applicant discharging more than 350 gallons of sanitary wastewater per acre per day to on-site septic systems shall provide sufficient documentation to establish that wastewater discharges will not contaminate the groundwater.
(2)
In the case of business or industrial uses, or other uses requiring a special permit in accordance with other provisions of these regulations, the special permit required by this article shall be combined with, and made a part of, the special permit for such use.
B.
Agricultural operations shall be permitted uses, provided that they employ best management practices as recommended by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and/or Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, for all animal waste management systems and application of manure, fertilizer and pesticides.
The restrictions of this Article 17 shall not apply where it can be determined, through on-site investigation meeting the standards of the United States Geological Survey, that a parcel of land within the aquifer protection area is not within a primary recharge area.