Prior to my service on the county legislature, a plan was put in place to employ green infrastructure to reduce the amount of stormwater entering our sewer system. Treating storm and rainwater is wasteful and expensive for sewer rate payers and taxpayers, in general. Simply put, there are real cost savings in removing storm water from our system.
Much of the county’s green infrastructure strategy was a result of a consent order to reduce the amount of superfluous rainwater consuming capacity at our six Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP). In other words, the county had no choice in this matter and green infrastructure was, and remains, the most cost-effective approach to remain in compliance with the courts while protecting our streams, lakes and your tax dollars.
To remain in compliance with the consent order, the county is required to make continuous and substantial investments in the sewer system, which also serves the city of Syracuse.
Contrary to some high-level opinions on local governments’ ability to work together for the benefit of taxpayers, we have a strong history of teaming-up with the city every year during road construction season. Each year, the city supplies a list of roads they will be working on, then we determine which areas need storm water mitigation and whether green infrastructure may be employed.
In 2018, we budgeted $625,000 for the county’s portion of this work, which is performed by a single contractor — this creates economic efficiency for the city and county, as well as sewer rate payers. And because these sewer projects are coordinated with the city’s road construction, we estimate county rate payers save 50 percent on the actual work performed.
As of December 2017, the county is capturing 97.6 percent of combined sewer overflows. While it isn’t perfect, and overflows still occur during some weather events, we have exceeded the court requirement of 95 percent capture.
Intermunicipal cooperation and our green infrastructure strategy are good for the county’s sewage treatment capacity, the environment, economic development and your wallet.
Brian May represents the First District, which includes the town of Lysander and the western portion of the town of Clay.
