NEW MILFORD — A seasonal stream that has eroded its banks and created a new course “very close” to a handful of condominiums is threatening to undermine a town road and a sewer line unless contractors intervene, officials say.

“The stream in this area has had accelerated scouring on the outside bend of some sharp curves and over time has shifted from its original location,” said James Ferlow, New Milford’s wetlands enforcement officer, referring to the emergency situation at the Sullivan Farm condominium complex. “This is causing slope failure in multiple locations.”

By scouring Ferlow is referring to the erosion of banks and the streambed by fast moving currents.   

“The erosion is starting to come close to the sewer line behind the units and the road,” Ferlow said in a memo to the town’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission, which could approve a solution as soon as its Aug. 13 meeting.

The fact that the stream is dry for most of the year hasn’t kept it out of trouble at the 123-unit condominium complex on the other side of Route 7 from the Candlewood Valley Country Club.

“The stream has moved very close to residential structures,” reads an application by a contractor working for the condominium owners association, which is proposing to redirect the stream and rebuild its banks.

If rerouting a stream sounds like a major project, it is. In addition to approval from the town’s wetlands commission, the condominium association’s contractor needs permission from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Under the plan, the eroded banks would be rebuilt with compacted crushed rock and “a variety of bounder sizes will be used to create a natural rock stream bed,” Garrett Meade, a contractor working for the condominium association, said during a July 9 wetlands commission hearing, according to meeting minutes.

During construction, which is expected to begin in August and last three weeks, the stream water will either be diverted through a temporary pipe, or it will be pumped around the work area, Meade told the commission at the hearing.

The idea, Ferlow said, is to “relocate the (stream) to prevent further scouring and prevent sewer collapse and structural failure of the residences as well as the road.”

“The proposal is to relocate a portion of the watercourse and armor the edges,” Ferlow said in a June 10 memo to the wetlands commission.

Sullivan Farm resident Cathy Hagadorn welcomed the repairs, telling the wetlands commission during the July hearing it was important to protect residents as well as the environment.

July 26, 2026