Concerns over rising water levels at Jobs Pond

PORTLAND, CT (WFSB) – Over the last month water has been rising rapidly at Jobs Pond in Portland, forcing residents to prepare for the worst but hope for the best.

Officials are concerned about keeping the residents who live along the pond safe from these rising waters.

Residents are hoping to keep the water out of their homes.

Jobs Pond is fed by underground springs and more importantly storm runoff, something we have had plenty of over the last several months. Water comes into the pond but has nowhere to exit.

Residents said it’s been like watching a slow-motion train wreck and their way of stopping it with water pumps isn’t enough.

They’re using these pumps to save the first floor of their homes, but the water is filling up faster than they can get it out.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal was at the press conference in Portland Wednesday urging officials to take immediate action regarding the ongoing flooding and for future preservation.

“Both the state and the federal government has a trust obligation to do something here. And I can tell you I’m personally going to call Ned Lamont as we leave here, but I’m also going to contact the Secretary of Agriculture to make sure that Washington D.C. knows about Jobs Pond,” Blumenthal said.

The short-term plan is to use larger and more powerful pumps that will transport water from Jobs Pond to the Connecticut River over a mile away. It’s a similar strategy that was used in 1984 when flooding of this magnitude last occurred.

The town of Portland also applied for grant money from the USDA Emergency Watershed Protection Conservation program, but like any federally funded government program, that takes time.

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