The brown water that turns up in New Paltz taps whenever something disruptive happens in the aging conveyance system is a cosmetic inconvenience that does not easily draw state funding to correct, according to mayor Tim Rogers. At the July 24 village meeting, the mayor brought a prop from a growing collection of replaced water pipes to use as a visual aid. The cast iron pipe section was constricted to about half its diameter by a buildup of flaky iron rust, which tends to remain in place as long as the direction and speed of the water in the pipes is relatively consistent. Rogers noted that a water main that broke under South Chestnut Street last week had likely failed due to a pressure spike caused by the breakage of another main nearby, a couple of weeks earlier. Pressure spikes can move through a system undetected for some time before causing damage. Even a power outage can cause this type of problem, said the mayor. The brown water that resulted from this most recent damage, however, is not in itself enough to convince state officials to award grants for more substantial work to prevent these issues.Â
Part of the issue, Rogers believes, is that health officials evaluate the chemistry of brown water and see no immediate health impacts. Fire officials, on the other hand, look at the potential conveyance failures that brown water may presage as a harbinger of firefighters being unable to get sufficient water on hand to save lives.Â
Unlike the village’s sewer system, the water pipes are not subject to a consent order that requires improvement. That consent order for the sewer system has ensured that state funding has been awarded for upgrades almost every year since it was signed, over 20 years ago. Only one of seven water-system grants applied for since Rogers has been mayor has been awarded.Â
Under pressure
Mayor Rogers’ concerns that hooking up the town’s fifth water district to the village system will cause problems have been dismissed by New York City officials, as well as the previous supervisor, who said that multiple engineers think that everything will work fine. Water district five will provide for the relatively small needs of Plains Roads residents, but can be turned up much higher to provide a backup supply during times when city officials cut off the Catskill aqueduct to scrub it free of accumulated matter. That is itself needed to make it possible to shut down the Delaware aqueduct, which leaks an estimated 20-35 million gallons a day under the Hudson, and needs a bypass installed.Â
What the mayor has been saying for months is that putting a large amount of water into the village system from a new direction could disrupt the old pipes in unexpected ways, leading not only to brown water, but additional water main breaks. At the July 24 meeting, Rogers specifically asked that the system be fully tested well ahead of the next planned shutdown of the aqueduct. Supervisor Amanda Gotto, who was in the audience, indicated support for this approach, which may be enough to get this concern addressed.Â
Between a rock and a wet place
State officials have limits on the use of village reservoir water, the first since they were put into use late in the 19th century. According to Mayor Rogers, applying for a permit to use water from wells drilled on village property nearby caused state officials to require detailed information about the amount of water drawn from village reservoirs. With no meters installed, that is not presently possible. According to Rogers, the result is to “handcuff us and require us to buy more expensive DEP water,” referring to the water extracted from this region by New York City officials under a scheme that’s nearly as old as the village reservoirs.Â
Water bills on the rise
Village trustees voted on July 24 to raise water rates for all users, an amount which Mayor Rogers said is expected to be about seven cents per person per day. This is the first across-the-board increase in many years; more recent price hikes only impacted the highest-volume users, such as the water consumed on campus. Rogers stopped short of saying that this increase will be enough to ensure that the water district accounts will have enough money to pay for all needed upgrades. State law requires that water district money be kept separate from general tax funds, under the reasoning that only those tapped into the system should be responsible for its upkeep.Â
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