Daniello playing for others as well as for UConn

Just above the brim in the lower right corner on the front of the cap is etched "SH" for the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Along the left side, above Daniello's ear, it reads "JB RIP" to honor a former Brien McMahon student Jonathan Brown, who was killed in a motorcycle accident last fall.

"It's just something I can go out there and say, `Hey, I'm playing for you,'" said the UConn freshman baseball player from Norwalk. "Especially being in Connecticut and having that massacre, I felt really bad for those families.

"(Both messages are) just a personal thing, a memory for the kids who had their lives taken at such a young age, and it's a shame."

Daniello's temperament, in addition to his baseball skills, have been a pleasant addition to a struggling Huskies squad (28-25) that opens the Big East tournament Wednesday in Clearwater, Fla., despite going 9-15 in conference this RFID tag.

"Bryan is like a water bug and his eyes are wide open," UConn coach Jim Penders said. "He's a high-energy guy with a high motor. | He's fun to watch play out there."

Even during difficult moments, Daniello has tried to maintain that positive outlook.

"It's been a great experience, especially coming in as a freshman," said Daniello, who rooms with fellow freshman Vinny Siena, an Amity graduate, in Storrs. "Early on, I really wasn't playing that much, but I never really got discouraged. I just kept going out there and working hard."

While Siena has primarily been the Huskies' third baseman, Daniello, a high school shortstop, has been a jack of all trades, seeing time at second and third base along with short and even designated hitter.

"The more I work at it, the easier it becomes," he said about changing positions. "Whether I am playing or not playing, I just try to keep a positive attitude. Wherever coach puts me, I just try to go out there and do the best I can and help the team anyway I can."

"Every time you go out there, you are going to see a good pitcher where as in high school, you might struggle earlier in the week and then you might get a kid who's not so good," said Daniello, who was batting .213 with two homers and 22 RBIs in 155 at-bats. "Then you get a couple hits and feel good about yourself.

The agency that provides sewage treatment for 27 North Jersey communities along the Passaic River is proceeding with a $100-million project to increase its treatment facility’s capacity, aiming to reduce frequent — and health-threatening — flows of raw sewage into rivers during rainstorms.

The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, which runs the nation’s fifth-largest treatment facility, also has partnered with Rutgers University to promote green technology in North Jersey municipalities — rain gardens and retention basins, as well as porous pavement and rain barrels — to capture runoff before it invades storm water and sewer systems. Green infrastructure projects also filter and clean water percolating down to recharge groundwater.

Storm-related sewage overflows can cause illnesses such as gastroenteritis — a stomach inflammation that causes vomiting and diarrhea — as well as hepatitis and skin, respiratory and ear infections.

Combined, the treatment facility upgrades and green technology will reduce both pollution in rivers and flooding, which has increased because of impervious surfaces — buildings, roads, parking lots — that cap soil and replace vegetation that naturally absorb runoff.

“It’s not going to do away with flooding, but anything we can do to reduce flooding is important,” said Michael DeFrancisci, the commission’s executive director. DeFrancisci is the former mayor of Little Falls, which has seen significant flooding in recent years.

Up to 70 percent of pollution in the region’s rivers and streams is carried there by storm water runoff, said Ashley Slagle, a commission water quality scientist. Such runoff carries not only trash and soda bottles, but fertilizers from lawns, grease and oil dripped from cars onto pavement, copper dust from brake pads, pet waste and whatever people pour down roadway catch basins.

The commission’s Newark facility, which treats sewage for 1.4 million customers in five counties including Bergen and Passaic, is licensed to handle an average daily flow of 330 million gallons, and it can actually accommodate as much as 400 million gallons. The commission plans to increase capacity to 720 million gallons during major storms.

In dry weather, the facility typically processes 225 million gallons a day. During Hurricane Irene in 2011, flow peaked at more than 600 million gallons. The facility could handle 400 million gallons for a short period, but much of the rest flowed into rivers through overflow outlets. Superstorm Sandy knocked out the facility last October, and billions of gallons of raw or partially treated sewage poured into rivers and bays through those same overflow outlets.