Aid will help village with services for SUNY
The village’s fire and police department needs will be reviewed to determine how to spend the state aid.
New York City will move forward with alternatives to provide backup water to village users this fall after court challenges have led to missing a deadline to construct a village water district along Plains Road.
In an email, city Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Adam Bosch said the village reservoir will be filled and then replenished as necessary to accommodate a planned shutdown of the Catskill Aqueduct for 10 weeks of repairs beginning in October.
The village draws some of its water from the New York City supply that runs through that aqueduct.
“The backup supply on Plains Road won’t be ready for this fall, but the Department of Environmental Protection still needs to shut down the Catskill Aqueduct to start work on this $155 million project,” he wrote.
“New Paltz has enough water in its reservoirs on Mountain Rest Road for about 5-10 days (and) will depend on that water during the shutdown,” Bosch wrote. “As the New Paltz reservoirs draw down, the Department of Environmental Protection will reactivate just the northern part of the Catskill Aqueduct so that New Paltz can activate its tap and refill its reservoirs. Then, we’ll shut it off again to go back to work.”
The state Department of Health on March 22 issued a permit that will let construction of the district begin once court cases are settled.
“The permit allows New Paltz to draw a maximum of 576,000 gallons per day during Catskill Aqueduct shutdowns, for a maximum of 70 days,” Bosch said. “It also authorizes a lower limit of 28,800 gallons per day just to serve the new water district on a more regular basis throughout the year.”
Town Board members on Feb. 25, 2016, established Water District No. 5 in hopes of providing a backup source, which would also include covering 86 properties along a section of Plains Road. However, several property owners challenged the town in court and are appealing decisions that have supported town efforts.
Bosch called the choice to refill the village reservoirs an “unusual and extraordinary” step that probably will not be possible for shutdowns planned for 2019 and 2020.
“That’s when we’ll need the backup supply to be in place, or the Department of Environmental Protection will run a pipeline back to New Paltz from another part of our system,” he wrote.
“At this point, the city still supports the concept of the Plains Road backup supply,” Bosch wrote. “It has been permitted by the state, and to date it is the best potential backup source that was found during a fairly exhaustive search a few years ago. The city does not currently have a contract with New Paltz to help fund the development of that backup supply, but we remain interested in helping to fund it.”
Under the plan, city officials would pay for construction of the $7.48 million district on Plains Road on the condition that it could only be used as a village backup source during shutdowns of the Catskill Aqueduct.