Sewer district operating permit changing hands
The town has received state authorization to transfer the Vanderburgh Cove Sewer District operating permit to the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority.
“What that means is the transfer of the district is not far [off],” Rhinebeck Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia said at the most recent meeting of the Town Board. “I sent out a letter letting all residents know it’s going to happen. We are looking ... for a transfer as of January 1, or very soon thereafter.”
Vanderburgh Cove Sewer District equipment has failed repeatedly or proven to be substandard since the system was established more than 50 years ago. The inability of the town to resolve the problems, which has resulted in the state Department of Environmental Conservation issuing notices of violation, led to the request for the county takeover.
The district, which has 30 users in Rhinebeck and 10 in Hyde Park, was established under the management of private sewage works company Fisherman’s Road Inc.
Rhinebeck officials were notified in 1989 that Fisherman’s Road would abandon the system, and the district was formed in 1991, when an engineering report stated it would cost $57,613 to repair the system. By 2002, however, the problems worsened and town officials were given an estimate of $1.76 million for corrective action. Three years later, the figure rose to $4.2 million.
In 2012, the town said $270,000 spent over the previous 10 years had resulted in the installation of a new system that was out of compliance with state standards after less then a year in operation; and that two large septic tanks, installed only about 500 feet from the Hudson River, were too close to the intake for the city of Poughkeepsie’s water system.