The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Town turns to Rome for water
Oneida unable to provide enough water to fill Verona’s needs, says supervisor
VERONA, N.Y. » Verona is looking to expand its water district and is changing suppliers from Oneida to Rome to meet that need.
Oneida Water Superintendent Art Smolinski explained that it wasn’t a quality issue that sparked the move, but quantity.
“Our water is perfectly fine, it meets and exceeds all water quality standards by the state,” Smolinski said. “Verona has been asking for additional supply that Oneida is unable to serve them. We had a smart grid study, in which Verona, Rome and Oneida were among its participants. It’s not final, but Rome was one of the most advantageous of suppliers.”
The report, Smolinski said, identified a projected deficit of water in the Oneida service area of around 1 million gallons by 2025 and close to 2 million gallons by 2035.
“We supply 5 percent of the cities in New York state with water,” Smolinski said. “Our water supply comes fromthe town of Annsville. We have a reservoir there and an 18 mile main. We distribute to customers in Annsville, One of the basins for water at the City of Oneida Water Treatment Plant in Taberg. Photo taken on Wednesday Feb. 21, 2018.
two water districts in Taberg, a few permissive services, through part of the city of Rome and through the town of Verona before it gets to Oneida. We have customers all through that main.”
Smolinski said the city of Oneida has had a deficit of water for decades, but that the projection doesn’t take into account the changing needs and situations that arise.
“It seems that when something expands, something else contracts,” Smolinski said. “Oneida Limited closes, the casino opens.”
Smolinski said there is cogeneration power plant behind where Oneida Lim- ited once operated and when the plant first started in 1991, it used around 10 million gallons of water a month. Nowadays, the plant only uses 20,000 gallons a month.
But while Oneida may possibly be facing a defi- cit of water in the future, Rome had around a 3.3 million gallon surplus.
“Verona approached us because Oneida cannot supply them any more water,” Rome Mayor Jacqueline Izzo said. “And they are in need of a larger volume of water to service the entire town. And we have that volume of water, we have a surplus as a matter of fact.”
Izzo said Rome’s water filtration plant was built at a time when it was meant to service 55,000 to 60,000 people, when Griffis Air Force Base was fully operational.
“When Griffis Air Force Base was closed, our usage has dropped to about 35,000. Our plant can handle much more water than what we’re using at this time, so it just makes perfect sense,” Izzo said.
At the moment, Izzo said the city of Rome and town of Verona officials are looking at proposed routes for water distribution, looking for state assistance money and brought the Rome common council together to put forth a memorandum of understanding to facilitate an inter-municipal agreement to supply water to the town of Verona.
“We only get 340,000 gallons per day,” Town of Verona Supervisor Scott Musacchio said. “This is a quantity issue. We can’t expand the districts because we’re over our allotment.”
Musacchio said that are concerns for areas currently outside the present water district and the quality of the drinking water they receive from nearby wells that could contain high sulfur and iron content.
“The allotted water we get now just isn’t enough to expand our districts,” Musacchio said. “Rome has water to sell and have the quantities we need. We did do our research. We researched Mohawk Valley Water Authority, we researched Aqua, we researched Rome and after our investigations, Rome is the most cost effective source.”
Musacchio said if the project is approved, the new water main would come down Route 46 and through County Route 50, covering the areas needed before joining the main Verona line.
“On Feb. 28, Rome council will be voting on the memorandum of understanding so that we can bargain in good faith and form the district, finalize the designs and by September, we’ll start submitting our funding grants,” Musacchio said. “There is a lot of steps to the process, so it’s going to probably take 2 to 2 and a half years. But this is born out of necessity. We need to look to the future.”