HARTFORD – The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) is inviting all Hartford-area plumbing contractors with P-1 licenses to an informational meeting on the MDC’s revised, expanded backwater valve reimbursement program.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 30, at the MDC Training Center, 125 Maxim Road, Hartford.

The MDC will provide a brief overview of the revised backwater valve program, which provides for direct payments of up to $1,500 from the MDC to plumbing contractors who install or repair the devices in customers’ homes.

The program was initially adopted in December 1999 as a pilot program in the Upper Albany Avenue area of Hartford. It is being expanded to certain neighborhoods of Hartford, West Hartford, Newington and Wethersfield that have experienced chronic problems with basement sewer flooding during heavy rains.

The objective of the reimbursement program is to reduce or eliminate these backups by encouraging property owners to install backwater valves. The property owner would arrange to have the valves installed (or repaired if already installed and in need of repair), and the MDC would provide a direct reimbursement of up to $1,500 to the plumbing contractor. Homeowners who installed or repaired a backwater valve since the pilot program was adopted in 1999, also would be eligible for reimbursement.

For more information, call the MDC at 278-7850, ext. 3444.

A non-profit municipal corporation chartered by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1929, the MDC supplies water and sewer services to its eight member municipalities in Connecticut: Bloomfield, East Hartford, Newington, Rocky Hill, West Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor. In addition, the Dis-trict supplies treated water to Portland and portions of Glastonbury, East Granby, South Windsor and Farmington.

The MDC also owns and operates two three-megawatt hydroelectric power stations, one at the Goodwin Dam in Hartland and one at the Cole-brook River Dam in Colebrook. Also, the District is under contract with the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority to provide transportation and waste-processing for the Mid-Connecticut Project.

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