Town seeks to move ahead with new water tank

PORT EWEN, N.Y. >> Esopus Town Board members hope to move forward soon with the paperwork needed to begin construction of a new water storage tank, now that court approval has been given to taken over ownership of property acquired through eminent domain.

Supervisor Shannon Harris provided the update during a telephone interview Friday. He said paperwork needs to be submitted to the state to avoid jeopardizing future grant applications.

“The next step for us to (is) amend our engineering agreement ... and to do the (state environmental quality review),” she said. “The Town Board has to be lead agency ... so we’ve got a SEQR coordination we’re working out.”

In an email, Harris said the town needs to have paperwork filed for the water tank project as soon as possible.

“We are now in a time crunch to prepare all the documentation ... because we are putting in another (state Environmental Facilities Corporation) grant,” she wrote. “Right now, it looks like this project is stalled.”

Officials are seeking to replace a 2 million gallon welded steel tank that was constructed in 1972. Information in grant applications said the tank was recoated “reputedly prior to 1987” and again in 1995. It serves 1,450 customers in Port Ewen, Sleightsburg, Connelly and Ulster Park with an average daily demand of about 299,000 gallons.

Eminent domain proceedings were initiated in 2017 to acquire a 0.56acre section of a 24-acre property owned by Renee D’Anna at 625 Broadway immediately south of the current tank. The case was initiated after town officials could not reach an agreement to buy the property, which officials said was appraised at $4,000.

The $3.73 million cost is expected to be partially funded through a $2.24 million state Water Infrastructure Improvement Act grant approved last year. An additional $200,000 will be coming from Kingston based on agreements involved in use of the city sewer system by 1,380 town residents. That funding represents the town’s portion of a $1.98 million state grant being used to cover costs for a $7.9 million project to reduce the nitrogen content of effluent from the city’s waste water treatment plant.

During a 2013 inspection of the tank, officials reported, the interior’s protective coating was found to have lost adhesion, causing blistering and exposed steel throughout, while the exterior protective coating was found to have lost its film thickness, causing chalking at all levels.

Engineers for the town added that “needless to say, the condition of the interior and exterior coatings has not improved since the 2013 inspection and report.”