Editorial: A Stray Conversation About Sewering Rogers Lake and Elsewhere in Old Lyme

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What should we make of a recent interview with Waterford First Selectman Daniel Steward, credibly recounting conversations with Old Lyme First Selectman Bonnie Reemsnyder on the topic of installing sewers in Rogers Lake and elsewhere in Old Lyme?

“What they haven’t included in any of these discussions is what it costs to transport the sewage from East Lyme through Waterford. The IMA [intermunicipal agreement] needs to include Waterford and to my knowledge it does not,” he said.

“Bonnie knows this because Bonnie is also talking about doing the other part of Old Lyme because you’ve got other areas in Old Lyme that need sewerage as well, like the Rogers Lake area — it’s terrible that we have a lake that’s so close to septic,” said Steward.

An odd slice of information. A Waterford first selectman unaccountably conversant with septic issues in Old Lyme. Is Waterford really a sticking point for negotiating a deal for piping sewage to a treatment plant in New London?

Surprised, reporters Cate Hewitt and Christopher McDermott, circled back around once again to clarify.

“Bonnie is talking about the rest of Old Lyme getting sewers at some point in time. I don’t know if she’s willing to talk about it but she’s going to… she should be talking about it because Old Lyme has a need for sewers.”

Such closed-door conversations raise a whole host of questions — the most basic being, how can we be hearing this for the first time from Waterford?