By Lauren Young

Staff writer

The Bristol-Myers Squibb plant in DeWitt is being eyed for redevelopment to increase wastewater capacity for thousands of residents in the towns of DeWitt and Manlius and in the city of Syracuse. The project also could potentially add hundreds of jobs to the plant.

On Monday, Nov. 12, Doug Miller, chair of the town engineering committee, presented a wastewater treatment feasibility study outlining a public private partnership opportunity to the DeWitt Town Board, seeking to repurpose the industrial Bristol-Myers Squibb pre-treatment plant on behalf of “environmental stewardship” and to “promote economic growth,” specifically along the Thompson Road corridor and areas north of Interstate 90 and east of Interstate 481, said Miller.

“When we look at these areas, there’s some choke points that constrict growth in that area,” Miller said.

Town Supervisor Ed Michalenko said this idea stemmed from learning that 400 yogurt jobs were moved from the Byrne Dairy facility on Fly Road and relocated to Cortland. One of the site’s issues was that it needed to expand its sewer system, as both the Limestone-Meadowbrook Wastewater Treatment Plant to the east and the Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant to the northwest, both serving DeWitt, are at capacity, especially during wet weather, said Michalenko.

Last August, a public commissioner’s hearing at the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection was held to discuss the state of the Meadowbrook-Limestone plant, identified as needing $9 million worth of improvements to remove extraneous flows, or excess water, from its facility.

The plant, serving the Town of DeWitt, the town and village of Manlius, the City of Syracuse and the Village of Fayetteville, will undergo an I and I (Inflow and Infiltration) Abatement project, costing $9 million, with payment divided between municipalities and, hopefully, grant funding.

Currently, the Town of DeWitt is on the hook for four percent, or $220,000, while Syracuse is on the hook for 43 percent and the Town of Manlius with 18 percent.

This new pre-treatment plant, however, could help with excess flows and could have “tremendous economic impact for this area,” said Michalenko.

“46 percent of the manufacturing/industrial base in Onondaga County is here in the Town of DeWitt, and we feel that it’s a benefit to use this facility,” said Miller.

Currently, the Bristol-Myers Squibb plant on Carr Street, built in the mid-1990s, is “largely underused” and “operates at a very limited capacity,” said Michalenko. While the plant still pre-treats waste, the production is limited compared to several years prior, he said.

“The workforce that they have onsite and the products that they make right now are mainly biologics for research,” said Michalenko, with most of its mass production taking place in Massachusetts.

In addition to the county, the project team has been meeting with leaders from the Town of Manlius and the City of Syracuse, since the wastewater collection area encompasses both municipalities — totaling to about 6.5 million gallons of flows.

Miller said if a new pre-treatment facility can be built, making the older one “obsolete,” it can intercept half those flows, treat them at the new facility and then bring in flows from the north end of town.

“In today’s dollars, the value of that existing plant is approximately $67 million,” he said.

A pump station on the lower end and upgrades to the treatment plant are also planned.

Currently, the county charges residents a yearly $417 sewer bill with a $90 million budget — that number would increase by $11 over a 30-year period, or a two percent increase, said Miller.

“This really is a community asset,” said Terry Brown of the project team. The facility’s potential? It could make about $120 million per year, he said.

Moving forward, the project team will continue to meet with county and state stakeholders; if everything goes as planned, the project could begin construction as early as 2021.

Michalenko said there are “a number of different options,” but “it’s not going to be a big hurdle to take this facility and make it a wet weather flow facility.”

“This project could be a shift in strategies,” he said.

Also at the meeting, the board unanimously adopted the town’s final 2019 budget with a four cent increase in the town tax rate from 2018. The final budget includes a tax rate of $4.84 per every $1,000 of assessed value, up from the $4.80 last year. The increase, however, amounts to a less than 1 percent rise, Michalenko said.

The board also heard from Director of Planning and Zoning Sam Gordon, who said the town’s first project proposal for the Mixed-Use Village Overlay Floating District was referred to Onondaga County Planning Board, which “commended us for our work with the overlay.”

The four-story mixed-use project, planned for 5840 Bridge St. at the former Mixer’s Grill site, features a 17,967 square-foot main floor of retail space with 15,914 square feet of leasable retail space, and apartments on the second, third and fourth floors.

Gordon said some outstanding items have been commented on, but the county board did not advise any dramatic changes. The board voted unanimously to adopt the overlay for the parcel on Bridge Street and declared it would not have any significant impacts on the environment.

The next Town of DeWitt board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 26 at the DeWitt Town Hall.