Control of Saratoga County’s $67 million water project may have to revert to the county Board of Supervisors.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation in 2006 gave the board of supervisors a permit to install a waterline from Moreau to Malta, but refuses to transfer that permit to the Saratoga County Water Authority. The water authority took over the project early this year.
DEC officials said in a letter to the county that they had questions regarding the public necessity of the project, citing a lack of customers, and, more specifically, the town of Clifton Park not committing to buy water from the system.
`The circumstances of this project appear to have changed since December 2006, given that certain subscribers have withdrawn from the project,` DEC project manager Thomas W. Hall wrote.
If a permit is not issued to the water authority, construction on the pipeline would have to stop under its supervision, or the county Board of Supervisors would have to once again assume control of the project.
Clifton Park, Saratoga County’s largest municipality, withdrew from the project about the time the water authority took control and a full year after the original DEC permit was granted to the county Board of Supervisors. Clifton Park is a Glenville water district customer, although Clifton Park officials have yet to renew the contract with the Schenectady County municipality.
The county’s plan is to draw water from the Hudson River aquifer in Moreau and pipe it along the Northway to the southern end of the county, where it will serve the Luther Forest Technology Campus. It has an estimated price tag of $67 million and depends on a $4.8 million loan from the county general fund until the plant is in its seventh year of operation.
In February, the county approved a business plan calling for the authority to have contracts to sell 3 million gallons per day before construction starts. Since then, the towns of Wilton and Ballston have signed contracts. Ballston is also contractually obligated to at least 125,000 gallons per year from Glenville.
The state and Advanced Micro Devices have signed an agreement that would see a $3.2 billion plant constructed in the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta between 2007 and 2009, but the chip fab company hasn’t signed a water purchase contract. Instead, the Saratoga Economic Development Corp. signed on behalf of Luther Forest tenants, including the proposed AMD chip fabrication plant. Together, those contracts total 3.2 million gallons a day. AMD has an agreement with the state to receive $1.2 billion in incentives if it starts plant construction by July 2009.
Waterford Supervisor John Lawler, who is also chairman of the water authority, said the DEC’s actions would have no impact on the taxpayer or the construction schedule of the water system.
Lawler said the state is aware of the contracts that have been signed since the original permit was issued in 2006.
`The public necessity of this is apparent,` he said.
Lawler said that reverting control back to the Board of Supervisors would be easy, and could be done as soon as its Tuesday, Dec. 18 meeting.
This has not been the only bump in the road for the water project.
In addition to the town of Ballston having dual water contracts with both Glenville and Saratoga County, Alex Mackay, a private water provider who wants to sell water to the tech park, has filed a lawsuit against the state challenging the constitutionality of allowing the water line to be installed in Moreau Lake State Park.
Some residents and businesses have refused to allow easements for the waterline to cross their land. One landowner, the YMCA of Saratoga, wants $150,000 for its easement. Lawler said the property may be taken by eminent domain.
Saratoga Springs Supervisors Joanne Yepsen and Cheryl Keyrouze have also been vocal opponents of the water project, along with outgoing Saratoga Springs Public Works Commissioner Thomas McTygue. However, Keyrouze lost her seat to Republican Matthew Veitch, and a shift in the political climate in Saratoga Springs in the upcoming year may make the city more sympathetic to the project.“