DEC: Negations ongoing, papers haven’t been received
The proposed residential building moratorium ordered by the Department of Environmental Conservation in Niskayuna could be removed if the town can fix its sewer problems.
Town officials said that negotiations with the Department of Environmental Conservation about the draft Order of Consent recently issued have lessened the severity of fines and freeze of residential construction.
In October we received a new consent order that the waste water treatment plant is getting near its capacity and, particularly on rainy days, we have the problem of potentially exceeding the capacity, and because of that they’ve determined that those constituted violations and we have some issues with that, said Town Deputy Attorney Paul Briggs. `The town has made a decision to accept the consent order with certain modifications.`
The biggest change in the new Order of Consent, provided by town officials, is connections will be allowed for any residential properties that were submitted to the town by Dec. 3. Previously, the order only allowed new connections from projects that were approved by the Town Board before Oct. 1.
There are currently eight substantial residential projects that have been submitted to the Town and all will be allowed to progress with the moved date. Final approval for the projects are still around a year away, said Briggs, so the town would have time to improve the sewer system beforehand. The original date only allowed one of those projects to move forward.
`We can still continue to accept projects,` said Briggs, but actual construction would have to wait until the order is lifted.
Also, the possible $37,500 fine for violations has been reduced to only $7,500 if the town can adhere to the schedule of compliance setting benchmarks for improvements. If the town falls short on meeting DEC requirements, then the $30,000 fine is reinstated.
DEC officials confirmed there have been negotiations, but they have not received signed notice as of Tuesday, Dec. 14. The consent is due back to the DEC by Jan. 18, and will include a five-year plan on how the town is going to address the inflow and infiltration problem in sewer District 6.
`We can not comment on it until it has been signed by all the parties,` said Rick Georgeson, spokesman for DEC Region 4 office. `We don’t comment on ongoing enforcement issues until they have been resolved.`
Briggs said one way to solve the problem is to come down on homeowners discharging drain water into the sanitary sewer system by enforcing violations with fines. Although, he said the inspection process would be lengthy and expensive since every home would need to be visited.
`This has been an ongoing problem the town made a decision that we would not address the problem by going after homeowners and the residents in the town,` said Briggs. `The problem is that some residents may not know that in fact that is happening. I know I went down and looked at my sump pump, and there is a pipe that goes out through the wall, and I don’t know where that goes to be honest with you. I trust that my contractor put it into the storm system.`
Councilmember Denise Murphy McGraw said residents have the right to know that this is one of the problems and possible avenues that could be taken to amend the situation in the future.
The town has decided to address the problem by fixing and replacing pipes, and a few years ago the town purchased a grout truck to take care of this problem, which makes a new pipe inside the old pipe.
`We have done quite a bit of work and with this we are going to have certain areas in town that we know need improvements over other areas,` said Supervisor Joe Landry.
McGraw said the improvements to pipes will need to occur more aggressively than what has previously been done. As far as cost is concerned, town officials do not know the exact cost for improvements needed yet.
Landry said there would be no `substantial` new costs associated with the project.
`We may be able to do a lot of this in-house, because we do have grout truck that can go in and fix it form the inside out,` said Landry. `If you are fixing the pipes from the inside out that’s not a cost to us.`
He continued to say that replacing a pipe would just be normal maintenance anyway and there is the staff on hand to make the improvements.“
