Ballston Lake sewer vote to be held Monday

BALLSTON, N.Y. » A mapping program designed to take loads of numerical data and transform them into a series of colorful maps that allow the most casual viewer to see what has taken place has revealed that the residential development around Ballston Lake happened on soil not suitable for private septic systems.

The computer program’s results were shown and discussed during a two-hourlong webinar Monday presented by Blue Neils, a stormwater management coordinator with Cornell Cooperative of Saratoga County at the behest of Town of Ballston officials.

The presentation was a final effort for town officials to distribute as much information as possible on the Ballston Lake watershed before the Aug. 17 vote on whether to move forward with a long-discussed public sewer system.

Using a series of graphs and later on maps generated from years of collected data, Neils showed how the land around the lake had been developed for residential housing and consequently how the lake itself had changed due to what was coming from those homes.

Neils said research of the watershed has shown that the lake had houses on it since the mid-18th century. Though the strong suburban development in nearby Clifton Park came in the 1960s and 1970s, the lake area did not see intense development until the late 1990s.

With no public sewer and continuous residential development going on around it and on land that was not suitable for septic systems the graphs showed the lake quickly began to go downhill environmentally due to phosphorous, coliforms, and E.coli bacteria.

During the question and answer portion of the evening Neils was asked if the sewer line was to go in how long would it be before improvement in the lake might be seen. In answering the question he referenced the sewer line that went in around Saratoga Lake in the 1980s where improvements were seen in 10 years.

“However, you have to look at how long there’s been settlement around Ballston Lake,” he said.

The webinar drew around 100 viewers and is available for viewing on the town’s website and its Facebook page.

Deed holders to properties in the proposed sewer district can vote from noon to 8 p.m. Aug. 17 at the Town of Ballston Town Hall, 323 Charlton Road.

As there are 91 lots in the Town of Clifton Park that are within the proposed district, voting will also take place at the Ballston lake Volunteer Fire Department, 1125 Ballston Lake Road, Ballston Lake.

The two towns have been working as partners to put in sanitary sewer lines around Ballston Lake and through Ballston’s residential subdivision, Buell Heights for five years. There are total 651 units impacted by the plan.

After a vote in 2015 allowed the project to move forward construction bids came in totaling more than the originally estimated cost of $10.2 million and

the project came to a halt.

After separating the bids into multiple parts and getting a $5 million grant from the state Department of Environmental Conservation the project is ready to move forward again as long as those impacted by it approve of the project’s monetary change at Monday’s vote.

For frequently asked questions regarding voting in the special election go to the Town of Ballston website’s homepage at: http:// www.townofballstonny. org/.