By June Peterson
Editor

WINSTED — Something different will soon be swimming around the waters of the town's wastrewater treatment plant.

Sometime next week the state Department of Environmental Protection will stock 500 young rainbow trout in an unused aeration tank at the plant. The tank, which holds a half-million gallons of water has never been used in the sewer treatment process.

“However, it is necessary to keep water circulating through it to avoid scale buildup on the ceramic stones inside,” Richard Kemp, plant chief operator said. “Once the scale builds up removing it is a complex process. Unlike tanks in operation a low volume of air is pumped thorugh,” Mr. Kemp said.

Richard I. Van Nostrand, a fish pathologist with the DEP said this is a first-ever experiment at a wastewater treatment plant.

“It was very innovative,” Mr. Van Nostrand said. The tank at the sewer plant is unused and contains clean city water. It will be home to 500 young rainbow trout, most between 7 and 9 inchyes long. The fish will be caged to keep them contained. The netting also has a cover to keep the rainbow trout, which have a tendency to jump, confined.

Although 2,000 could be held in the cage at the plant, the state wanted to strt with a smaller quantity to see if the experiment works.

In the springtime, when the fish reach 9 to 11 inches in size, the state will pick them up and stock them locally in rivers and lakes. The trout may even end up in Still River, which runs alongside the sewer plant.

Under the state's Trout Co-op Program, the state provides the fish and food and it is up to the individuals to maintain them. In this case, there's an employee at the sewer plant seven days a week anyway, so the fish will be fed daily. Otherwise there is little effort involved.

Mr. Kemp and Stephen G. Vaill, chairman of the Water Pollution Control Authority, built a net cage to house the fish. The material for the cage was about $400, but it will be a long-term investment, assuming the experiment works and the stocking becomes an annual event.

“We felt (spreading) $400 was a good benefit to the people around here who fish,” Mr. Vaill said.

Vaill and Kemp have thought about the potential for the big tank for years. But it was Richard Nalette, also a WPCA member, who contact the state.