- By Dan Veaner
- News
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Two weeks ago Town Councilman Bud Shattuck, who chairs the Sewer Committee, announced the Town would go ahead with engineering to build the trunk line from the Town to the Cayuga Heights treatment plant along Cayuga Heights Road. "If something dramatic changes to make 34 affordable some of the engineering can be changed to that route," he said. Shattuck has said that the choice of a route depends entirely upon the cost.
Moore told the Trustees that when Hartill met with the Town's engineer Jim Blum and Village Engineer Dave Putnam, they found more expenses in the Route 34 choice, bringing the cost difference between the two routes up from $400,000 to $550,000. Hartill had hoped to find less expense, not more.
Moore challenged the notion of discord between the Town and Village, but said that distrust is an issue. "There are long term issues of our relationship that we need to pay attention to," he said. Referring to Sewer Committee member Noel Desch's comment that the Village is purposely trying to delay or kill the Town's sewer to prevent development in the southern part of the Town, Moore said, "We don't want to give anybody any remote reason to think that."
But Fresinski said "It's OK to have that title, to be obstructionist. It's our job to look out for the interests of the Village, not the Town." He went on to say, "I don't know whether the Town folks think we are opposed to the Cayuga Heights route or not." While the town has been told that Route 34 is the Village's preference, he felt that a resolution "formally recognizing our position" would clarify the Trustees' opposition to Cayuga Heights Road route.
Opposition to the route stems from concerns about disruption to the neighborhood, environmental concerns and problems that might arise from a major pressurized trunk line, including the possibility of odors emanating from the sewer. Moore restated his position that the Village should have recourse if something were to go wrong. "We should insist on the right to review and require changes," he said. "We should not be embarrassed to make that demand.
As Moore continued his report the issue of letters written to the Town in support of a stand-alone treatment plant in the north of the Town was discussed. He shared a copy of a white paper John Dennis had sent, saying he had encouraged Dennis to write it thinking that Mayor Don Hartill and Town Supervisor Steve Farkas planned to ask the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) whether they would allow it. However, at the sewer meeting Farkas told Moore there is no plan to ask, because the DEC has said no in no uncertain terms, several times.
In this context Moore brought up Shattuck's plan to invite DEC official Steve Eidt to the March 22 sewer committee meeting. The visit is an opportunity for local officials to hear the DEC's position "from the horse's mouth" and head off second guessing about what the DEC considered or didn't consider in their overall strategy for southern Cayuga Lake in forcing the "Group of Six" to consolidate sewer treatment in existing plants. When Moore asked the Trustees whether they would be willing to attend that meeting, Fresinski said, "Any time we can get first hand information from the DEC, I think it's a great idea."
Leopold expressed environmental concerns, saying "John Dennis raised some important issues. If we are thinking about the lake three or four of his issues were very pertinent." But recognizing that a standalone plant is unlikely at this juncture, Trustees focussed on the route to the Cayuga Heights plant. Fresinski said that he thought they had no legal options, but Village Attorney David Dubow noted that some are available to the Trustees if they choose to pursue them. He declined to discuss them in a public meeting.
Moore noted that the maximum capacity of the trunk line would be 800,000 gallons per day. The projected starting usage is 140,000 per day. "This is a big facility," he said. "We don't know what it's going to look like. I think the Mayor and the Village Engineer favor Cayuga Heights Road, and I think we're going to be sorry."
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