Watertown needs to prove $59 million water treatment plant project benefits Fort Drum | Fort Drum | nny360.com

Kevin Castro, left, an engineer with GHD Engineering, Syracuse, gives an update to City Council on a costly water treatment plant project on Tuesday night.

WATERTOWN — City officials have learned that a costly water treatment plant project was not awarded $17 million in Department of Defense funding because the project “fell short of military value.”

The city had been optimistic that it could secure the DOD grant because it provides water to Fort Drum. The DOD denied the grant in August.

The funding would help defray the cost to reduce two disinfection byproducts that have prompted drinking water violations over the last several years.

City officials have been grappling with ways to finance the project, which initially was projected to be about $15 million, then jumped to $50 million and now is projected at about $59.2 million.

After meeting on Tuesday with them, Kevin Castro, an engineer with GHD Engineering who helped put together the application, got “some tips” from regional DOD officials on how to show that the project would benefit Fort Drum.

He and city officials were told to provide more information about water users in the community and from Fort Drum, Castro told the City Council on Tuesday night.

After the council work session, Castro and city water superintendent Vicky Murphy said they don’t know why the DOD determined that the project “fell short of military value.”

The city provides water to Fort Drum, the Development Authority of the North Country and a handful of other nearby communities. Some Fort Drum soldiers and their families who live off post also are city water customers.

The city plans to apply for the funding during the next round in the spring.

“We’ll beef up to show community use,” City Manager Eric F. Wagenaar said.

To qualify for the funding next year, city officials have also been told that they cannot start construction until after finding out whether the city is awarded the grant, Castro said.

With that development, the city will have to hold off clearing some trees at the construction site to see if the grant is successful, Wagenaar said. The city planned on starting that work next month but will have to wait until next fall.

“I think it’s definitely worth trying again and push it off a bit in my opinion,” Mayor Sarah V.C. Pierce said.

In 2020, the city was placed under a consent order by the Environmental Protection Agency to submit a Corrective Action Plan to comply with maximum levels of two disinfection byproducts: total trihalomethanes, or TTHM, and haloacetic acids, or HAA5, that are created during the disinfection process when they react with organic material from the city’s water supply. The city water is drawn from the Black River.

The city is applying for a $3 million federal grant for the project from the Northern Border Regional Commission’s fall Catalyst Program.

Under the water contract with the city, DANC will pay 25% of the project. The city also has obtained a $5 million state grant through the Department of Health. The state also promised to arrange for an interest-free loan up to $14 million. The city already received $1 million in federal funding for the project.

Depending on the start of construction, the project could wrap up in September 2027.

When the city is in violation, water customers receive postcards in the mail notifying them about the disinfection byproducts exceeding acceptable levels at the plant. Residents haven’t received any of those postcards since March 2023 when the contaminant, TTHM, was found to be higher than the federal standard.

Johnson Newspapers 7.1

Tell the army i guess, we will shut taps off

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