City aims to lessen impact of dam work
Grants will be sought to offset cost, mayor says
Mayor Steve Noble says the Kingston Board of Water Commissioners, of which he is a member, will do its best to find outside funding to offset the cost of repairing the dam at the city’s Cooper Lake reservoir.
Noble was responding to city Water Superintendent Judith Hansen telling the Freeman last week that rates for Kingston water customers could surge by as much as 20 percent if grants are not secured to pay for part of the $12 million project (which originally was expected to cost $5 million).
And on Monday, Hansen said a possible increase in the cost of replacing aging water pipes at the site of a planned traffic roundabout in Kingston also could drive water rates higher.
“Repairing critical infrastructure, like dams, [is] necessary to protect life and property, as well as a major component of our drinking water system,” Noble wrote in an email late Monday. “I know that the Water Department and its commissioners will look at all available funding sources to help defray the cost of this statemandated and critical project.”
The state Department of Environmental Conservation issued dam safety regulations in 2009 that require owners to make detailed engineering evaluations and bring their dams into compliance with current engineering standards. While the Cooper Lake dam was found to be safe, the state said it needed improvements to comply with the new safety standards.
Cooper Lake, in the Woodstock hamlet of Lake Hill, is the main water supply for the city of Kingston. The lake is fed by the Mink Hollow Creek.
Noble said the the city is “lucky to have a great, but aging, water system, and these types of investments will help to attract further investment to the city in the years to come, while also providing our residents with an important asset — fresh, clean drinking water.”
Noble declined to say whether he agreed with opponents of Niagara Bottling’s previous plan to build a plant in the town of Ulster, draw water from Cooper Lake and pay the city for it.
Supporters of the plan said the income would have helped pay for repairs to the city water system’s infrastructure. Opponents said the city could not afford to give up the amount of water the company wanted and that a public commodity should not be sold to a company seeking to profit from it.
The period between Niagara proposing the bottling operation and ultimately withdrawing the plan in the face of public opposition was before Noble was mayor.
Hansen, who has been water superintendent for more than three decades, supported the Niagara Bottling plan and said at the time of the company’s withdrawal that she was “disappointed” by the decision. “I certainly believe we had water and that this would be a good way” to minimize rate hikes, she said then.
Hansen said last week that grants will be sought to offset the cost of the dam repair. She said the Board of Water Commissioners “is looking at any and all funding opportunities, and they are hoping at least a portion of [the work] could receive some grant funding.”
She said the Water Department also is likely to ask the Kingston Common council for the required permission to borrow money for the project.