BLOOMFIELD, Conn. -- When voters head to the polls on Tuesday, they have a lot more on which to decide than the candidates.

One of the biggest issues facing voters is concerning a new sewer and water project for the metro Hartford area.

A representative from the Metropolitan District Commission spoke with voters Thursday about the plan.

"What we're doing is offering our time so everyone knows what they're going to vote on Nov. 7," said MDC Commissioner Albert Reichin.

Voters will decide on allotting $800 million for the first part of $1.6 billion plan to improve the sewer infrastructure in MDC towns.

"We have sewers that are Civil War era, built in the Civil War era and they were built when Hartford had 15,000 people," Reichin said.

The vote will take place only in communities around Hartford that use MDC. The MDC said a small amount of rain will make sewage travel into the Connecticut River and then possibly downriver as far as East Haddam.

Most of the sewage from area towns goes to a treatment plant near Brainard Airport.

"When it rains two tenths of an inch, we get raw sewage in the streets, and when it rains on a hot summer day, the kids are out playing in it. That's unacceptable," Reichin said.

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