Resignations Expose Latest Rift in Old Lyme Sewer Project

OLD LYME, CT – Four members of the Old Lyme Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) have resigned amid a sea change in the agency charged with regulating wastewater systems. 

WPCA treasurer Andrea Lombard, 15-year-member Rob McCarthy, six-year member Randy Nixon and alternate member John Flick submitted their resignations following Tuesday’s joint meeting of the Board of Selectmen and WPCA. 

In his resignation letter, Nixon portrayed the administration of First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker as a three-act play: first spreading misinformation, then stacking the authority’s membership and ultimately taking it over.

“I won’t be part of that play,” he said. 

The WPCA for years has been at the helm of efforts to incorporate the public Sound View Beach area into a state-mandated plan by three private beach associations to address pollution attributed to septic systems. But at Tuesday’s meeting, the Old Lyme Board of Selectmen directed the WPCA to broaden its focus to overall wastewater oversight — including septic regulation, groundwater testing and ordinance review — in a shift away from the sewer project.

Selectmen pointed to the decisive failure of a townwide vote in December as their mandate to reconsider the town’s response to state demands for a cleaner Long Island Sound. 

The referendum, which asked for an additional $11.03 million for the Sound View sewer project that officials said would be largely mitigated by federal and state funding, failed in a 925 to 363 vote. 

The three beach associations are moving forward without Sound View’s participation after receiving the go-ahead from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

The resignation letter from Lombard, whose background is in nursing and public health, said the vote does not invalidate the Sound View project’s original approval in a 2019 referendum or the formal, legally binding state directive to fix the pollution problem. 

She warned “ongoing public mischaracterization” of what the referendum means obscures the true cost of defying the DEEP.

She also argued that members appointed earlier this month by selectmen lack relevant experience and show “a narrow, single-issue orientation toward opposing the sewer project.”

Shoemaker in a Friday phone interview said selectmen appointed everyone who applied for the open WPCA positions. Rather than look for more applicants, she said the intent was to make the appointments right away because the selectman knew “it was going to be a busy year.” 

She said the selectmen used the same process they’ve used for the past three years and that the appointments reflect state laws ensuring a mix of political parties on boards and commissions. 

“We followed all the rules,” she said. 

Deliberated and Resolved

McCarthy, an environmental engineer and Old Lyme Fire Department president, said he resigned in frustration after members at Tuesday’s meetings discussed topics that had already been deliberated and resolved.

“I do not have the time or interest in revisiting these topics,” he wrote, citing what he described as the new group’s lack of familiarity with past decisions.

For Flick, Tuesday’s meetings of the selectmen and WPCA signaled continued inaction after more than a decade of studies and planning have yielded no visible results. 

“In both meetings, the focus was on total sewer avoidance and use of new state of the art septic systems, even though DEEP has rejected this concept,” he wrote. “I walked away with the feeling that we will just ‘keep kicking the can down the road.’” 

Former WPCA Chair Steve Cinami on Thursday told LymeLine that water pollution control authorities are structured under state law to prevent politics from guiding policy. He alleged the current administration is attempting to make the WPCA an extension of the Board of Selectmen.

At Tuesday’s meeting, selectmen and Mary Daley – a WPCA member elected chair that evening – agreed on the need for closer coordination between the board and the authority. Daley said they should operate as “one group.”

Nixon, an engineering consultant for water and wastewater utilities, called out Selectman Jim Lampos for working to “derail” the project. He said Lampos’ status as a resident of the Sound View area represented a conflict of interest. 

Nixon contended that town leadership collaborated with project opponents and circulated misleading financial information ahead of the 2025 referendum, resulting in its failure. 

Lampos rejected that claim in a Friday interview.

“I think it’s absurd, and fairly rich, coming from a board that has had sewer contractors and residents of the private beaches sitting on it,” he said. 

Lampos said he relied on independent financial analysis from a consultant hired by the town to estimate costs for Sound View users. He maintained that the cost to taxpayers, which he suggested before the referendum could be as much as $4.7 million, was uncertain – “but it won’t be zero.”

He said past statements that residents outside Sound View would bear no cost were inaccurate.

He added that there had been no representation from Sound View residents on the WPCA until selectmen in 2024 appointed Daley and Dennis Melluzzo. The perspective of affected homeowners until then had been “shut down, excluded and demeaned,” according to Lampos. 

“We probably wouldn’t be in this situation now if people had been more respectful of others’ opinions.” 

He said the Sound View sewer project ultimately relies on the first selectwoman’s signature, making collaboration between the WPCA and Shoemaker’s administration essential.

“The Authority can’t independently obligate the town to something,” he said. “There’s a partnership there.” 

Filling Their Boots

Doug Whalen, chairman of the Old Colony Beach Club Association Board of Governors and a key player in the private beach association’s sewer project, on Thursday said the resignations reflect frustration among members who supported moving the project forward.

“They feel their voice is not going to be heard, and that’s unfortunate,” he said. 

Whalen detailed the beach associations’ efforts to work with DEEP and lawmakers to increase state and federal funding for a shared pump station and force main, with aid currently capped at $15 million. WPCA documents estimate the shared infrastructure at $22.3 million.

He said a cost sharing agreement obligates the town to cover 29.7% of costs for the pump station and force main whether sewers are installed in Sound View or not. Shoemaker said town counsel is reviewing that obligation.

“The town is looking to fight the program rather than work with us to get additional funding,” Whalen said. “We feel sort of upset over that.” 

Daley in a Thursday email told LymeLine she wishes Lombard, Nixon, McCarthy and Flick the best after their years of service. 

“The remaining WPCA will be working hard to fill their boots,” she said. 

She invited anyone interested in serving on the WPCA to submit an application to the Board of Selectmen.