Though the town of Clifton Park has sent correspondence to the Saratoga County Water Authority stating the municipality still considers the county water project a viable source, Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett said that is in no way a commitment to the county plan.
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 Department of Environmental Conservation 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.
For the time being, Barrett said, the town does not need additional water.
Barrett said after the Wednesday, Dec. 12, water authority meeting that the letter was not an indication that Clifton Park would definitely buy water from the county. He said Saratoga County was one of a few sources, within and without the town that town officials are looking at.
We’re doing all right with water. We’re very solid, he said. `But we know we’re going to need a supply in the future.`
Barrett’s statement came moments after Jack Lawler, chairman of the county water authority, announced that there is more interest in the water plan now than there has ever been. According to Lawler, officials from Clifton Park, Stillwater, Saratoga Springs and Moreau all said they were interested in having a connection installed in their community, but no one offered to sign a contract for water.
`The picture looks brighter than it ever has,` Lawler said.
As of this writing, only Ballston, Wilton and the Luther Forest Technology Campus Development Corp. have signed contracts to buy water.
DEC officials sent a letter to the Saratoga County Water Authority in late November stating they had concerns over the number of subscribers to the project. The DEC in 2006 gave the county Board of Supervisors a permit to install a waterline from Moreau to Malta, but refused to transfer that permit to the Saratoga County Water Authority.
When he first received the DEC’s letter of concern, Lawler said his plan was to revert control of the system to the board of supervisors, so that there would be no interruption in construction.
But control of the Saratoga County water system will not likely have to revert to the county Board of Supervisors as was previously thought, according to Lawler.
Lawler says he has met with state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Alexander B. `Pete` Grannis to hash out questions regarding the public necessity of the county’s $67 million plan to pump water from the Hudson River in Moreau.
The result of Lawler’s meeting with Grannis is that the water authority now only has to provide to the DEC a summary of potential customers for the next five years in order to get the permit.
`All they’re looking for is a letter from the authority outlining our customers for the next five years,` Lawler said in a Dec.11 interview. As for construction on the project thus far, Lawler said there has been only one change-order on the $67 million project ` unheard of, he said, for a project of its size.“