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June 6, 2009

Last on Lake Champlain, Essex approves wastewater treatment plant

Stimulus funds will support project

By KIM SMITH DEDAM

ESSEX -- The Town of Essex won $7.7 million in federal stimulus funding and loans to build a new wastewater treatment plant.

A designated historic site, Essex is the only town on the shores of Lake Champlain without a sewer treatment plant.

A mandatory referendum vote by water-district taxpayers in Essex Friday approved the $8.9 million project 91 to 5.

The new facility will serve 110 existing homes, about one-third of which are owned by year-round residents.

Gov. David A. Paterson announced the grant award late Thursday, one project among 20 in upstate counties to divvy up $130 million for water and sewer projects around the state.

Projects in three other Essex County towns won stimulus funding Thursday, and the Town of Keene earned $3.2 million in Rural Development grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week.

"These projects will not only create jobs, they will help keep New York's waters clean without the need to raise local property taxes," Paterson said in a statement Thursday.

This, the second round of Clean Water monies, completes stimulus grant awards regionally from the $432 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds received by New York.

"The announcement yesterday was for the full allocation of non-New York City project awards," Matthew J. Millea, acting president of Environmental Facilities Corp., said in a telephone interview Friday.

Environmental Facilities Corp. is the state agency that monitors and oversees low-interest loans and grants for municipal water and sewer infrastructure.

Millea told regional leaders at Local Government Day in March the Facilities Corp. had received more than $11 billion in project requests for stimulus money.

Essex was awarded a hardship loan from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund of $3.7 million plus principle forgiveness grant of $4 million.

The town voted Friday to borrow $1 million of the loan funds offered. The remaining $2.5 million needed for the sewer plant is expected to come as a Department of Agriculture grant.

The town had previously received $1 million toward the project under Gov. George Pataki, and had $500,000 from bond act monies given several years ago.

"On top of yesterday's announcement from EFC, it's very encouraging to know that, hopefully, we'll get the remaining 2.5 million from USDA Rural Development and be able to actually construct the collection and treatment facility we've been trying to build for 55 years," Town Supervisor Ron Jackson said.

Jackson thanked leaders on both sides of Lake Champlain for their efforts naming former Gov. George Pataki, state Sen. Betty Little, Tom Berry from Sen. James Jeffords office in Vermont, Bob Paquin from Sen. Patrick Leahy's office, Congressman John McHugh and Susan Merrill from former Sen. Hillary Clinton's office.

"The one we have to give the most credit to is (Assemblywoman) Teresa Sayward," Jackson said.

Ranking minority member of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee, Sayward said it is especially gratifying for the Adirondack region to receive these kinds of funds.

"With so few residents comprising each town, costs associated with wastewater treatment and overall water quality maintenance is overwhelming for our small communities."

LOCAL FUNDING
Besides the money for the Town of Essex, the Environmental Facilities Corp. will also funnel funding for these local projects:
Town of Newcomb: $1.8 million to support the design and construction of the refurbishment of the town's treatment plant, which was built in 1963 and is reaching the end of its useful life.
The refurbished plant will provide better and more consistent treatment of wastewater, improving water quality into a tributary of the Hudson River.
Town of Schroon: $4.4 million to support the design and construction of the refurbishment of the town's treatment plant, which was built in 1973 and is reaching the end of its useful life.
The refurbished plant will provide better and more consistent treatment of wastewater, improving water quality into a tributary of the Hudson River.
Town of Ticonderoga: $4.1 million to support the design and construction of treatment plants and sewer upgrades for the collection and treatment of both sanitary wastewater and wet-weather flows in the vicinity of the LaChute River, the discharge from Lake George into Lake Champlain.
This work is part of a multi-year effort by the town to improve these facilities and the quality of the discharge to Lake Champlain.

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