Well contamination could prompt water line extension

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. » Village officials are reviewing options for a water line extension at the Comfort Inn on state Route 32 in response to well contamination apparently caused by gas line leaks at the Sunoco station across the road.

At a Village Board meeting Monday, Water Department Superintendent Mike Hopf said a temporary line installed on an emergency basis must be replaced before winter.

“They approached us within a day or two of finding out of the high levels of petroleum in the water to run a temporary line to the Comfort Inn from a private line that’s municipally fed from the Howard Johnson’s,” he said.

“There’s currently a two-inch line going on top of the ground about 1,500 feet ... supplying Comfort Inn with water,” Hopf said. “That can’t stay there when the snow flies. It will freeze and break, so now they’re trying to get the ball rolling to get municipal water out there.”

Hopf said a 3,000-foot line would be required for a direct connection from the municipal line to the motel.

Sunoco station manager Al Billa, in a telephone interview Tuesday, said the contamination apparently came from lines that connect the underground tanks to the gas pumps. He did not know how long there had been a problem, saying he noticed the smell of gas in May, shortly after he started working at the station.

“I smelled it from the first day I got there,” he said. “So I stopped using the water for the coffee.”

Billa said the Ulster County Department of Health ordered the station to shut down the station’s water system.

The property is owned by Gasland Petroleum of Kingston. The replacement of the is expected to take another three weeks.

Billa said the gas line work and remediation of contaminated soil is estimated to cost $1 million, but he did not say whether that includes the cost of water lines to Comfort Inn.