The University of Connecticut’s trustees this week voted to move ahead with a contract with Connecticut Water that will supplement its Storrs campus water supply by as much as 1.5 million gallons a day over the next 50 years, the school and utility announced.
The agreement, which still needs regulatory approvals, will provide a long-term solution for UConn’s water needs, including a technology park that is in the works.
Under the deal, the utility would build a pipeline from its Tolland reservoir to Storrs. UConn will get a state-owned rate on the water it uses, while property owners in a section of Mansfield that has relied on UConn for its water will get a locked-in rate.
UConn first selected Connecticut Water from a field of proposals over the summer. The pipeline to be built by Connecticut Water eliminates the need for a controversial pipeline once proposed by the Metropolitan District Commission that would have run from reservoirs in Burlington/Canton/New Hartford and Barkhamsted to the campus.
