Nearly 100 Connecticut water systems are installing emergency power generators with the help of a $3.5 million loan program from the state Department of Public Health.
Public Health has offered low-interest loans to water systems since 1998 through its Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to pay for sustainable infrastructure improvements. After the significant storms of 2011 and 2012, Public Health broke off a separate program just to install emergency power generators.
As of May, 39 water systems have used the program to install generators, and another 60 have put in applications to be processed over the next two years.
In 2011 when Tropical Storm Irene and the October snowstorm hit, 206 water systems lost power. As a result, 37,000 residents had to boil their water before consuming it.
