The City of Kingston has just been awarded a three-mlllion-dollar state water infrastructure grant to help pay for improvements at its water storage facility at Cooper Lake in Lake Hill in Woodstock. The funding will help Kingston aboid what former Kingston water commissun head Judith Hansen described as a worst-case scenario, a $12-million city water bond over 20 years resulting in a 20 percent rate increase for Kingston users.
The grants for water-related infrastructure from the state’s Environmental Facilities Corporation were part of a $670-million statewide announcement.
When work is completed, the dam elevation at Cooper Lake will increase six feet, but the water level will be the same as it is now. The new height was incorporated into the design to accommodate more future capacity. More work as part of a future project will be needed to raise the water level.
A temporary Ashokan Reservoir connection, new water- supply piping, abandoning the existing piping, and dam and dike improvements are separate phases of the work.
Emigineers have estimated that the project will involve a peak of 40 trucks a day for 80 days, averaging five trucks per hour. The route those trucks will take is presently unklnown.