Water District Committee Urges Expedited Repair of Water System
by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board meeting on July 17 began with Siegfried Krahforst, the Chairman of the Water Committee, presenting a letter to the Town Board urging a more aggressive stance on PFOA matters and greater urgency on water system repairs. The Water Committee has met several times in the last few weeks. Members of the committee are frustrated because a grant deadline in late June went by and the Town did not get its grant application in for improvements to the Water District. State officials are not saying when the next round of grant applications will be accepted. They are saying it will be in the near future and they are saying they expect Petersburgh’s application to be funded, but such assurances remain vague, and the Town’s water system urgently needs repairs and renovations.
The system which controls the wells and the water level automatically is broken and unrepairable. Water District Superintendent Ben Krahforst’s report said, “The water system is currently being maintained by manually turning on Well #2 after a few days, along with manually turning on a chlorinator pump.” Krahforst has to climb the water tower to check the water level. Maintaining an adequate level of water in the tank and the proper amount of chlorine in the water under these circumstances is difficult and exhausting. In addition to this, Krahforst has to spend an enormous amount of time communicating with Taconic, Departments of Health, lawyers, engineers, and many others about the system, what it needs, and design considerations of all kinds. Krahforst’s report said “operating the system manually has taken a toll on me, financially, physically, and emotionally.” He urged the Town Board members to make every effort to expedite repairs.
Well #2 is the only well producing enough water to supply the system, and it has no backup. Yield from Wells 5 and 6 has been declining and would not be adequate to supply the system if anything were to happen to Well #2. Also, the system that prevents the tank from freezing is completely broken and must be repaired before it gets cold again.
Another problem is that the new building built last fall to house the GAC filter is too small to house additional equipment that now needs to be in the building, and therefore part of the project is now to expand the two small buildings into one larger building, and that work also should be done before it gets cold again.
There are many people who have input into how all of this will be fixed, and coming up with a design for system renovations. The Town, as the owner of the system, should theoretically be in charge, but since Taconic is footing part of the bill, their engineers are often controlling the process, according to Krahforst. In addition, the NYS Department of Health and the Rensselaer County Department of Health have to approve the plans, as does the engineer hired by the Town, Tom Suozzo of Cedarwood Engineering. Also, because Taconic’s expenditures are compelled to some extent by its Consent Order with DEC, DEC officials must get involved sometimes to determine what is required and what is not required under the consent agreement.
A meeting was held on July 10 with Taconic, DEC, NYSDOH and RCDOH, Krahforst and Supervisor Webster, and legal teams representing the parties involved. Much was discussed, including many financial and technical details, but many things remain unresolved, and discussions and arguments appear to be ongoing.
Some of the repairs to the water system are things that would have been needed even if PFOA had not been found in the water, and some are directly related to PFOA contamination, but there is a lot of gray area, and deciding how much of the water system repairs and renovations are the responsibility of Taconic because of PFOA contamination, and how much are the Water District’s normal repair and maintenance costs, is a judgment call, subject of debate.
Supervisor Webster said the grant application is nearly complete, and it specifies a total project cost of $787,348. The grant application was written by the Town’s engineering consultant, Cedarwood Engineering. If the grant application is fully funded by the State Environmental Facilities Corporation, 60% of it would be an outright grant, and 40%, or $314,939, would be a loan, probably at about 3% interest. The Town’s objective is to cover the 40% loan part with Taconic’s contribution.
Landfill
Concerning the latest news about the former Petersburgh/Berlin landfill, Webster said the Town has received a letter from NYS DEC requiring that a leachate collection system be installed as soon as possible, to stop the leachate from the closed landfill from running down the hill into a stream that feeds into the Little Hoosic River.
A leachate collection system should have been installed as part of the landfill closure that was done in the 1990s, but it was not installed at that time. The company that contracted to close the landfill, Energy Answers, did not install one, and for some reason neither the Town nor DEC demanded that they do so at that time. Since then, Energy Answers was bought by a large company called Covanta, which has over 50 waste management facilities around the world. Petersburgh’s environmental attorney Kevin Young wrote a letter to Covanta asking them to take care of the problem created by Energy Answers’ failure to put in a leachate collection system. As Town Attorney Dave Gruenberg put it, he asked them “to do what they should have done in the first place.” Covanta’s response has not been received yet.
Honoring Sharon Hodges
Supervisor Webster honored former Petersburgh librarian Sharon Hodges, who recently retired after serving the Town for many years as Library Director.
Town Hall Heating System
The Town Board scheduled a special meeting to open bids for a new heating system for the Town Hall on Monday July 24 at 7 pm. Webster said the town has received three proposals from contractors. Tim Church asked if the specifications have been written for the new heating system. The answer was that the specifications were minimal, saying only that the Town wanted to replace a steam system with a hot water system sized for 149,000 BTUs annually. Webster said if the proposals offered by the three contractors are unsatisfactory, the Town can reject them all and write more detailed specifications and put it out to bid again. He asked Church to come to the meeting on July 24 so he could comment or the proposals when they are opened.
Abandoned Properties
Supervisor Webster said the new Code Enforcement Officer Fran Rogers had asked for guidance on how to deal with abandoned properties that need to have the grass cut or garbage cleaned up. Webster said the idea is to have the Town hire someone to mow or to clean up and then put the cost on the tax bill. Unpaid Town tax bills are normally paid by the County when they become delinquent. Town Attorney Gruenberg said he wanted to check to see if any special procedure was needed to make sure that charges added to the tax bill would be paid by the County, as he was aware of some instances in which the County had refused to pay items added onto the Tax bill. Gruenberg and Webster both said they would research the matter to see how it ought to be done.
The Board scheduled a workshop meeting for Thursday August 10 at 7 pm which was billed as a “BAS workshop.” BAS is a company that makes software for municipalities.