My city-New Britain, CT has been suffering from the results of a drought since last year--but we were not told about this drought until this summer. She knew about it last year--and never told anyone. Maybe if she knew how to run a city instead of just hiking up taxes every year we would be in better shape now.

Our Mayor is in negotiations to sell our water to Tilcon so they can use it for drilling and then they will build a new res for us. Really? why cant they just build one for themselves and leave NB out of it. We have the best water--in fact NB is noted for three things--our water, our museums and our parks.

According to our local paper--Under the proposal, Tilcon would mine 131 acres of mostly Class I and Class II protected watershed land owned by the city but located off Woodford Avenue in Plainville for up to 40 years before returning the parcel to New Britain as a reservoir that could potentially increase the city’s water yield by 160,000 gallons per day.

The plan would include Tilcon paying New Britain for mineral rights to the land, but the city would retain ownership of the property. The financial terms of the mineral rights deal have not been made public. Under a similar proposal that failed in 2008, the city would have received $15 million.

As part of the current proposal, Tilcon would also donate open space — 95 acres to New Britain, 187 acres to Plainville and 75 acres to Southington — and create a 1,000-foot buffer zone around the quarry to protect neighbors from Tilcon’s blasting.

Class I and Class II watershed lands are “highly protected” water recharge areas that hold and filter water that enters a reservoir, said Margaret Miner, the executive director of the Rivers Alliance of Connecticut. In order to be considered Class I and Class II protected land, the areas must also be owned by a water company, or in this case, the New Britain Water Department, Miner said.

The legislature must vote to approve a change of use for the land in order for Tilcon to mine the property. Opponents are concerned that if the proposal is approved by the General Assembly, Class I and Class II watersheds would be imperiled throughout the state.

Now, the flip side of this is that Tilcon will also pay for our Mayor to run for Governor in 2018 if she passes this. This last line is a rumor about her. But, she has ambition just like the rest of us--except the rest of us wouldn't ruin NB's water to do it.