Millions in funding needed to afford sewer project

NORTH EAST — It’s a long shot to make a sewer system affordable for the village of Millerton and the town of North East, and much of it depends on the amount of funding and grants the project might receive in the upcoming months.

A special public information meeting was held at American Legion Hall Post 178 last Thursday, May 21, for the presentation of a preliminary engineering report on a central sewer district in the village that would be shared with parts of the town.

Robert Flores from CT Male Associates made the presentation. Also in attendance were Bridget Barclay and Jonathan Churins, both from Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority. Audience members included North East Supervisor Dave Sherman, Millerton Mayor John Scutieri, members of both the village and town boards, members of the Sewer Committee and local residents interested in the project.

The Sewer Committee worked to map out a preferred sewer district, from a variety of choices including the core and three additional options. The preferred plan is Core plus A and B.

The final cost per taxpayer for a sewer system has not been determined, but would be calculated in Equivalent Dwelling Units (EDUs), a measurement averaging a single-family home (one EDU) as using 250 gallons per day of wastewater. Every residential and commercial building within the sewer district has already been calculated as to how many EDUs they use.

The proposed district (Core plus A and B) consists of 269.1 EDUs. Fifty-six percent of those EDUs are residential. In order to qualify for many grants and low-interest loans, at least 51 percent of a sewer district has to be residential. Core plus A and B was chosen because it fulfills that requirement; Core and Core plus A options alone do not.

The total cost to build the wastewater treatment plant and get Core plus A and B up and running is about $8.9 million, calculated in 2011 dollars since the project wouldn’t begin construction before then.

The wastewater treatment plant, which would be located south of the village, could process up to 80,000 gallons of effluent a day, much more than the expected output of the sewer district would be, meaning that if the village decided to increase the size of the district later on, the treatment plant would not need to be expanded.

Annual maintenance of the sewer system is estimated at $66,000 in 2011 dollars. Sludge would need to be transported to a larger facility, and Flores estimated a tanker truck similar to those that visit private septic systems would need to empty the tanks once every few months.

Concern was raised that the village is pre-emptively looking to install a sewer system where none is needed. Flores and Churins acknowledged that there was no hard evidence saying that many residents’ sewer systems were substandard or failing, but a test of Webatuck Creek that came back positive for effluent could possibly trigger the state to mandate the village create a sewer system, no matter the price or lack of funding. They said that testing the stream was a good idea, but that the village should be careful of the ramifications.

The cost of the sewer system would only be borne by people living within the district. When asked about the percentage of EDUs in the district that would immediately sign up to connect to the sewer system, Flores acknowledged that it would take “a couple years to get to 50 percent participation,� but after 10 years that percentage would most likely rise to over 80.

Flores explained that the cost per EDU could not be calculated yet, because the amount of grants and low-interest loans was not known. He said the state average of sewer systems built over the last three years was $739 per EDU, but that number was criticized by members of the audience for being misleading and much higher than residents in the village could afford. Village Trustee Debbie Middlebrook quoted the Environmental Facilities Corporation as saying an affordable price for a municipality with about the same medium income would be $419 per EDU.

“To get down to $739 you would need to get a substantial amount of grant money and low-interest loans to drive the debt service costs down,� Flores said, estimating somewhere around $4 million; $6 million would be needed to reach $419. However, those amounts of funding are not going to come easy.

“Unless you landed really unique funding, that wouldn’t happen,� he said. “You’re more typically looking at about $1 million to $1.5 million in grants, combined with low-interest loans.�

The only hope for the sewer system seems to be the second round of stimulus funding. Flores said projects that received large amounts of funding the first time around had their reports and applications finished and were sitting around waiting when the stimulus package came through. However, Flores pointed out that “for every project that gets a great funding package, there are 100 that don’t.�

There are two major funding agencies: Environmental Facilities Corporation and Rural Development. Flores said projects can apply to both and most are co-funded.

Moving forward, Flores, Churins and Barclay said the next step is to complete the feasibility study and have it accepted by the boards. The grant applications can then be submitted to funding agencies, and the village will have to wait to see what funding could possibly look like. Exact figures wouldn’t be available until later in the process, but the village would have an idea what kind of funding it might receive, and could then decide whether to move forward or abandon the project for being too costly.

In the scenario that the village receives enough funding, it would cost little additional money to prepare a map plan and report, which would really kick off the actual process of constructing a sewer system. Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority will be working pro bono with the village to get the project up to that point.

“We just need to see how low we can get that number,� said Scutieri.

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