State makes exception for dumping snow

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) -- The state is making exceptions when it comes to dumping the snow into the water and cities and towns say they don't have much of a choice.

It's off your street, but where does the snow go? Dump trucks get filled and then it's dumped.

"We're working 12 hour shifts so it's getting pretty overwhelming. I don't know how much longer, but it is what it is," said Frank Bonacassio who hauls snow.

All that heavy equipment brings it to the banks of the Naugatuck river where it will slowly melts away. Another dumping site is the parking lot at the Municipal Stadium.

"The two locations strategically put us on either end of the town to cut down on transport time," said David Simpson the Deputy Dir. of Waterbury Public Works.

Simpson says because of the state's department of energy and environmental protection regulations, they haven't dumped at this river site for 15 years due to concerns of what may have mixed in the snow.

"If we were not doing this, this lot would be completely full right now, if we weren't using the two sites," said Simpson.

With historic snow fall, the Governor says they're allowing snow into waterways.

"We really don't have an option, quite frankly. There is no place to put this. Towns have to satisfy us that they have filled their normal holding sites, and once they've done that, then they can use the waterways," said Gov. Dannel Malloy.

In Waterbury, they're trying to get roads back to normal. Bonacassio says by noon he already made 25 trips and by the end of the day Bonacassio says, "Maybe another hundred, who knows? As fast as we pull in as fast as they load us and then we come here and dump."

All in effort to make driving safer and get kids back in class.

Here are the DEEP regulations for dumping into waterways.