With construction almost close enough to taste and after years of work by the Sullivan Town Council, the Bridgeport Sewer District faces a new hurdle: the waste water treatment plant expected to be the destiny for the BSD’s output told the Sullivan Town Council last week that they won’t sign off on the project until some issues are ironed out.
The news came from Mike Powell, representative for the Sylvan Beach facility where the town’s East Sullivan Sewer District sewage is pumped. Powell, reporting to the council at a special meeting held March 4 to review all facets of the project, said inflows and infiltrations, also known as I&I, in the ESSD need to be isolated and corrected before the village of Sylvan Beach will consider letting the town contribute any more capacity to its facility.
Consultants say the lack of collaboration by Sylvan Beach could be detrimental to the project’s funding status.
Engineer Ken Knutsen of Barton & Loguidice said one of his concerns is that the Environmental Facilities Corporation is going to want to see that Sylvan Beach is open to the project.
Powell said the town promised to address those problems a decade ago when the village gave it the OK to move ahead with the ESSD Extension.
The work was never performed.
Supervisor John M. Becker appeared incensed.
“I can’t understand why, in 1977, the biggest town in Madison County didn’t have its own sewer plant,” Becker said. “Why’d they let the West Sullivan Sewer District go if all this was a problem?”
“Because of the upgrades to the pump stations at the same time,” Powell said. “You were supposed to address I&I at that time.”
Sylvan Beach has been notified by the state Department of Environmental Conservation that it has surcharged on a number of occasions, and Sylvan Beach said one of the biggest culprits is the ESSD.
According to a DEC Region 6 official, 200,000 gallons of raw sewage was pumped into a stream at Larkins Point in the ESSD because of surcharging. He said the agency had no choice but to let it go because they couldn’t let it sit on people’s lawns.
The DEC also is against any additional flow being added to the Sylvan Beach facility until Sullivan fixes the problems in its existing sewer districts. The agency doesn’t want to approve a project now that will create a bigger problem in the future.
Powell said sewage already is backing up at Larkins Point.
“We are pumping more than 1.2 million gallons out of there now, and we’re still not keeping up,” Powell said. “That’s way over the allotment amount Sullivan should be putting out. Larkins Point should be putting out 200,000 to 300,000 gallons a day, averaged out over the year.”
“So the bottom line is we have to get the East Sullivan Sewer District fixed, and we’ll have plenty of room?” Becker asked.
Knutsen said the town is addressing that issue.
“It’s documented,” Knutsen said.
Sullivan began a three-phase process last year to address I&I problems in the ESSD. He said smoke-testing of the district had been performed, 38 of the district’s 137 manholes have been inspected in an attempt to identify problems, and the firm is working now to target other problem areas.
“We were hoping to get the mayor here to talk about getting the information needed and the village’s requirements to add the Bridgeport Sewer District,” Knutsen said.
“The work on the I&I should have been done 10 year ago,” Powell said. “I don’t know if we will be able to do an agreement when you are over the flow allotment now. It would have to be approved by the village board.”
Knutsen responded that the town is trying to be proactive now, beginning work last year to identify I&I. That preliminary work uncovered broken laterals, breached manholes and an accidental drilling through a water main by the Onondaga County Water Authority that caused fresh water to be pumped straight into the system.
“From a regulatory standpoint, what do you need to see?” Knutsen asked.
The DEC’s review of the proposed project is confined to capacity. Officials say the agency cannot overrule the village, just because they approve it.
A representative at the meeting last week said he doesn’t want to have to close the beach again “…and call all the little kids out of the water because there’s raw sewage in the lake.”
“Sullivan is moving forward [with repairs] parallel to the Bridgeport Sewer District project to create capacity for some of the additional flow,” Knutsen said.
Barton & Loguidice will press forward with manhole inspections as rain and melt runoff continue to inundate the area this month.
“We want to do this during high groundwater and plowing events,” Knutsen said.
After those inspections, four flow meters will be installed for six weeks to further pinpoint problems for repair.
“I don’t anticipate a delay,” Knutsen said after the meeting. “What could happen is DEC Region 7 will coordinate a review with Region 6 and come up with contingencies for the approval of our proposed plan.”
Knutsen said if the contingencies are to remove any excess infiltrations before the map, plan and report are accepted by the DEC and before Sylvan Beach will allow the town to bring in any additional flow, they town will have to remediate that.
{Q}”We’ve got to take care of the I & I,” Becker said. “We’ve got to get this stuff done that shoud have been done 10 years ago, obviously. That’s the bottom line, so let’s get it done.”{Q}
The town is working to arrange a joint meeting of the two municipalities’ boards to better nail down the concerns and remedies, Becker said.
