Fast Tracking Water Project

After numerous meetings, and pushback from Greene County and local officials, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reportedly agreed to reimburse construction costs for a municipal pipeline extension in So. Cairo opening the door to fast tracking the project.

While the agency had previously indicated that the connection from the Catskill water main along Route 23B to Country Estates Mobile Home Park was eligible for funding, initial reports put completion of the work several years down the line. At an earlier meeting in August, Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden asked the EPA if it would reimburse for project costs if managed locally to allow prompt commencement. At the time, EPA official Joel Sieglman said the question would need to be referred to counsel.

Now that the question has been answered, the Towns of Cairo and Catskill, along with the Village of Catskill and Greene County are not wasting any time.

During a Zoom meeting last week that included Greene and local officials, the EPA and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and the NYS Department of Health (DOH), the following plan was put into place: the Village of Catskill, as the water provider, will start the EPA application process for the future funding. Cairo will form a special water district and work on an inter-municipal agreement with the Town of Catskill, which owns the water lines. Both towns, along with the County and the owners of Country Estates, will be working together to commence an engineering study and design the specs. All plans will need to be approved by the appropriate agencies. The Estates’ owner will also need to sign an agreement for the water delivery. Residents at the property will be receiving letters advising that they will be placed in a special water district. Each residence will have its own meter and homeowners will pay the quarterly water bill with a base charge of roughly $86.

Working on these requirements tandemly rather than consecutively will help move the project along quicker, says Groden. While this work is aimed at providing municipal water to Country Estates, testing in the surrounding area continues. Cairo officials have been going door to door in a proscribed area to private homes whose wells were previously untested, handing out correspondence from the Department of Health (DOH) outlining the process of having the testing done at no cost.

This past July, the EPA held a public meeting regarding a new proposal to investigate possible residual sources of contamination in the soil “directly beneath” the American Thermostat Superfund site located in the Town of Catskill. The move came when a fifth, five-year review, released early this year, revealed that, after 25 years of treatment, groundwater contaminants remain elevated. The study, beginning this month, will include soil borings and installing up to eight new monitoring wells. The investigation is expected to take 3 – 5 years.

The meeting’s agenda was basically hijacked by a full house of area residents and officials demanding “clean water now.” Since that meeting, representatives from the Towns of Cairo and Catskill, the Village of Catskill, and Greene County, along with some residents and the owners of Country Estates, have met numerous times either in person or via Zoom with EPA, the DEC, and DOH representatives to push the project forward without having to foot a bond to pay the costs, roughly estimated at $320,000. According to Groden, the current hope is that by the time construction commences, the Federal funding will be available. Done locally, early estimates put the project at being completed within 10 – 12 months.

In the early 80s, it was discovered that the Thermostat factory was incorrectly disposing of solvents leading to contamination of the groundwater with trichloroethylene (TCE) and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including tetrachloroethylene (PCE).

In 1992, the EPA constructed a 3.5-mile-long water-main extension of the Catskill pipeline down Route 23B allowing hook-ups to residences with contaminated wells. The line ended at the outer limits of the Estates. Then owners of the property declined hooking up, reportedly citing concerns over increased taxes as well as other increased costs to residents. At that time there was no evidence of contamination at the site.

In the late 90s after contamination was discovered in the Estates’ wells, the EPA installed a Point of Entry Treatment System (POET). That system is tested every three months, mid-, pre-, and post-treatment. It continues to meet DOH and DEC drinking water standards according to officials at those agencies. The next testing is scheduled for September. POETS were also installed at three private residences on Scotch Rock Road in early 2000. “Since that time, levels of VOCs in the untreated water from their supply wells have decreased to levels in conformance with New York State Department of Health regulations for public water supply systems,” according to the DEC.

In the meantime, South Cairo residents continue to be concerned about the contamination plume spreading beyond currently tested boundaries and what any of that means in terms of long-term health.