$80K from state to help town find sewage leaks
The town is getting $80,000 from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to help find holes that are letting stormwater get into the wastewater lines that go to the local sewage treatment plant.
New Paltz Supervisor Neil Bettez said the funding, included in the state’s latest round of Regional Economic Development Council awards, will be used to conduct tests next year in the town’s three sewer districts.
The state funding will cover 80 percent of the cost of equipment, engineering and carrying out the tests.
“The pipes get old, they get cracks and they leak,” Bettez said. “Sewage leaks out and water leaks in, but the bigger problem is when the snow melts and when it rains, the water table rises, so you have lots of water just going into the sewer pipes, and all that water goes down to the sewage treatment plant.”
The town sewer districts use the village of New Paltz’s sewage treatment facility, which has a capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day.
“We’re only putting in about 800,000 gallons per day, unless there is a big rainstorm or the water table gets really high in the spring when the snow melts,” Bettez said. “Then it’s going above 1.5 million gallons for a day or two at a time.”
The potential for exceeding capacity prevents the town from allowing new connections.
“There has not been a huge incentive on our part because we’re only getting charged for the sewer districts by what our water meters read,” Bettez said. “But if we want to add more users for development ... we need the village’s permission.”