Kingston system delivers 1.5 billion gallons of water annually

Long-serving head of the Kingston Water Department Judith Hansen is calling it quits after 40 years. Hansen’s last day as superintendent will be Friday, March 25.

Mayor Steve Noble has appointed Matthew Dysard, a finance man with a B.S. and an M.P.A., as Hansen’s successor. Dysard joined the Kingston Water Department as business manager in 2018, focusing on the department’s annual budget, bonding, and attracting funds from the Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC), a NYS public-benefit corporation which provides low-cost financing and technical assistance to municipalities for environmental and public-health-related projects.

Starting off in the public utility’s laboratory for water treatment in 1981 with a college degree in biology as well as an M.B.A., Hansen ascended six years later to the superintendency role in service of the labor she loved: Clean drinking water.

“I would like to thank the board for their many years of support, who provided me the opportunity to give back to my community, and helped me mentor the next generation of water professionals,” said Hansen.

With headwaters near Tannersville, the Mink Hollow stream is the principal source of Kingston’s water. Located about four miles from Woodstock’s central hamlet, Cooper Lake, Kingston’s water-storage reservoir, has a capacity of 1.2 billion gallons. From Cooper Lake, cast-iron transmission mains and the flow of gravity carry it to Kingston.

A unique architecturally significant water treatment plant was constructed off Zena Road in Sawkill in 1899. The Edmund T. Clooney plant has been utilized for Kingston’s water treatment ever since. The second floor of a small brick building there houses the laboratory where Hansen got her start.

Water is piped from the treatment plant to the Binnewater Reservoir, the city’s primary storage facility in the Town of Ulster, which contains twelve million gallons of treated water. Further mandated treatment by ultraviolet light takes place there. Three cast-iron transmission mains then carry the water into the city, which has approximately 100 miles of water mains and nearly 900 hydrants.

Water Board chair Dennis Croswell thanked Hansen in a press release from the mayor’s office commemorating her  retirement. “We want to thank Judy for her dedication to the department, the board and the residents of Kingston,” said Croswell, “that has ensured us the best water in New York State.”

The water department has 26 full-time employees and an annual budget of five million dollars. Eighteen million dollars of its $34-million capital budget is earmarked for expenditures on improvements to its Cooper Lake dam.

The terms of the five individual commissioners are staggered over different years. The mayor is one of the commissioners. Founded in May 1895 by a special act of the state legislature, the Kingston Water Department’s charge is “to provide for supplying the City of Kingston with pure and wholesome water.”

All revenues received from water rents and other related activities remain within the department to fund its operations. Sales of water accounts for approximately 93 percent of revenues.

“I am honored to have this opportunity and excited to take on this new role, while continuing to work with the exceptional staff of the Kingston Water Department,” said Dysard. “And I would like to thank Judy for her many years of service. I look forward to guiding the department and ensuring the continued supply of high-quality drinking water to the City of Kingston.”

While Hansen will be leaving, her four decades of experience will not be squandered in retirement. She will continue training future water-treatment professionals through continuing education courses at SUNY Ulster.

“I would also like to thank the amazing employees of the Water Department, past and present, who, through their dedication and hard work, continue to provide Kingston with water of the highest quality,” said Hansen. “I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to have served.”