Town to take lead role in water grant request

Esopus Town Board members have agreed to take the lead agency role for a grant application seeking state assistance to study the drinking water systems of seven municipalities that draw from the Hudson River.

Approval to submit the request was given during a meeting Tuesday, with officials noting that the state Department of Environmental Conservation would take on an engineering review of similarities and differences each community faces when protecting water supplies.

“We found out about this grant because Riverkeeper alerted us it was possible,” town Supervisor Shannon Harris said.

Other communities include Hyde Park, Lloyd, the town and village of Rhinebeck, and the town and city of Poughkeepsie.

“All seven of our communities in a shared-services mindset ought to bond together to ... increase the chances that we’ll get the highest award since we all draw from the same source,” Harris said.

Grant-writing assistance is being provided through volunteer efforts of the engineering firm Tighe & Bond.

“The DEC (would) provide the Hudson 7 with a consultant and ... develop on their behalf a very detailed and advanced plan of source water protection,” engineer Erin Moore said.

“Generally, the communities recognize that they have more similar challenges than divergences,” she said. “But ... that is what is going to be addressed as well as the challenges that may impact some communities more than others.”

The municipalities share concerns about the impacts of stormwater runoff that increase turbidity and other contamination. However, there are differences that can be subtle, such as the distance from wastewater treatment facilities. Other differences can be unique, such as a salt table that comes up from the Atlantic Ocean as far as Poughkeepsie under certain conditions but doesn’t threaten Esopus or Rhinebeck at all.

“Each of us has a slightly different circumstance because of where we’re drawing from,” Harris said. “So after the diagnostics, we’re going to understand the various threats from commercial threats, invasive species and those types of things.”

Harris said Esopus has ongoing problems with the intake being impacted by erosion in streams that flow into the river.

“We’ve had invasive species, zebra mussels and things like that, over the long run,” she said.

TANIA BARRICKLO — DAILY FREEMAN FILE A sign post showing the distances to various communities along the Hudson River stands along western shore of the river at the Esopus Meadows Preserve in the town of Esopus. In the background is the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse.