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Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 82F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Variably cloudy with scattered thunderstorms. Low 62F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Part of New Haven’s shore on Lake Ontario. Photo provided.

Part of New Haven’s shore on Lake Ontario. Photo provided.

NEW HAVEN and ORWELL – “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink,” the cry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’ rings true now as then in parts of Oswego County.

The towns of New Haven and Orwell are perfect examples. New Haven with Lake Ontario right on its doorstep and Orwell, green as can be with some beautiful small, watery areas, yet neither town has drinkable water throughout it. Wells remain New Haven’s source of water, some excellent, others absolutely undrinkable. Orwell has public water, but its quality has come into question.

That is all scheduled to change. New York state has provided both towns with water grants, that, while not providing all the funds necessary, are making it possible for New Haven and Orwell to put in public drinking water within this year or the next.

Dan Barney is supervisor of the town of New Haven. He discussed the town’s ongoing $2,231,102 water project and the $925,000 state grant New Haven received in a recent interview.

“We got approved for that WIIA (New York State Water Infrastructure Improvement Act) grant in addition to another,” Barney said. “Hopefully, everything’s going to be moving forward. The good news that we did get the other day, and I didn’t know this, is we found out that the contractor did purchase the pipe last year. There’s a shortage of pipe, and the (cost of the) pipe has tripled, actually quadrupled. It’s polyethylene pipe, and anything plastic’s petroleum-based. So, that’s gone up significantly in price, but we did find out that our contractor did actually did purchase the pipe last fall, and they have it in their possession. So, that’s huge. That’s a big help for us. Some towns are in a situation where they can’t get pipe, and when they do get it, it’s four times the money. So, we do have some good new there.”

He’s hoping the cost will still come in at the projected $2.2 million. “We know it’s going to be a little bit more because of fuel costs, diesel. The pipe would have been a big, significant game changer, but the fact that our contractor already bought the pipe last fall and took possession of it, that’s a huge, huge impact, a good impact. But I don’t know about the diesel. We’re hoping to get the project moving forward here as soon as possible. We’re done with the design. We’re into the permits.

The project entails “water district nine, and it’s the last one that our town will do,” Barney said. “You know, when they do a water district, they cherry pick. They get the most EDUs that they can for a small area.” (An EDU, or ‘Equivalent Dwelling Unit,’ is defined as one single-family residential household.) “The most cost-effective water districts get done first. The very last ones are the ones with the least number of houses. And the price has gone up. So, we’ve got some water districts in our town that are only a couple hundred dollars per EDU. The problem with this water district is that there’s just not that many houses, and the price has gone up, and the price per EDU is greater, much greater. We knew that there was always a chance that the price would go up. Now in this case, we applied for the WIIA grant, and it went down per EDU. It’s going to help immensely. A lot of the people in this district, they’re not made of money. You tell somebody we’re going to raise your taxes $700-$800, when they’re already struggling…with fuel prices and the price of everything, it’s just terrible right now.”

Is there other funding you might get?

“No, this is all that we could get right now. We got the original funding through Rural Development, and then we got the WIIA grant on top of it. Our engineering contractor said that’s pretty much it.

“We believe that the EDU is going to be between $700 and $800. Hopefully, we will keep it there. But, like I said, the price of fuel will have an effect on it. Diesel has doubled. It’s a tough situation.”

Do you have public sewer in New Haven?

“We do not, right now. That would be costly. I think the only way we could ever justify doing that is if we had some kind of a business district that would require it. I’ve talked to different companies, and I know, like a McDonald’s or Dunkin’ Donuts, they’re not going to come to an area unless there’s public water and there’s public sewer there. I’d love to see our town grow. I’d love to see some business come in. And unfortunately, certain businesses won’t unless there’s public water and sewer. We’ve got water throughout the town now, or we will have, but the sewer would be the next thing we would have to talk about. Obviously that would involve a sewage treatment facility. Big money.”

And, of course, growth comes with major considerations, some possibly positive and some possibly negative.

“Some people like our town small the way it is,” Barney continued, “and some people want growth. With growth comes revenue, but it also comes with cost. You have to spend the money upfront to get it on the back end. Some people don’t understand that.”

This water district that remains (water district nine), what part of New Haven is that?

“It’s a few different parts,” Barney replied. “District nine is parts and pieces throughout the town that were never done before. The area around Johnson Road, those people have terrible water over through there. Some of them have water that you wouldn’t want to do anything with. I mean, you wouldn’t shower with it. You certainly wouldn’t drink it. It’s so bad, I’ve got a video that one of our residents sent me last year of her turning her tap on in her sink. The water was brown. It was terrible. It’s just really bad.

“We’re hoping for the best,” he said. “We’ve got our fingers crossed. We really want to get this project going this year, get the construction phase of it done. We’re hoping that there’s no more delays. The worst part of the whole thing is, the people that got their water first were people that had good water. And it’s really ironic that the people that had the worst water in our whole town were the last to get it. You don’t realize how important good water is until you’re in a situation where you don’t have it.”

And the project has been delayed and delayed.

“It’s just a slow-moving dream,” Barney said of it.

COVID caused them a big delay. No meetings were allowed. No public hearings. “And then, unfortunately, the price went up,” Barney said. “It just seems like one delay after another.”

“If we can get through this situation here, the water district and these high prices, get this thing done, we’ll be in good shape,” he said.

“The engineering firm is hoping that if we can get started here soon, we’ll be done, hopefully, by bad weather this fall,” Barney concluded. “I’m hoping and praying we can get some water turned on for people this calendar year, only ’cause there’s people who need it so bad.”

Orwell’s situation is rather different. They’ve had public drinking water in the hamlet for years, and though they may not have had quite enough of it, even worse, they suddenly were made aware it may not be safe for everyone to drink. And that changed everything.

William Potter is supervisor of the town of Orwell. He described Orwell’s $2,939,000 water project, their $1,763,400 state grant, and their overall situation this way:

The hamlet’s drinking water project is “going very slowly,” he said in a recent interview. “This started a couple years ago. Basically, we had an inadequate water supply. That’s what spearheaded the whole project. But subsequent to that, we have a nitrate issue. So we have to change plans, and so, ultimately our goal is to connect to Richland’s water source, like everybody else in this part of the county. That’ll take care of that situation. But, it’s a long, drawn-out process. I don’t anticipate construction’ll start before possibly October of this year. And it’s going to take at least another year to complete.”

Up to now, the project has only been “in the planning stages. We had done a couple of test wells. We had found one test well that had lots of water but the nitrate levels are an issue there as well.”

Potter anticipates the project now will be more expensive than was first planned “by a million dollars,” bringing the current estimate up to $2.939 million.

This is only a drinking water project. It is not a sewer project.

“Right now, the nitrate level is not to the point where we can’t drink it,” Potter said. “My understanding from the Health Dept. is it’s only harmful for infants under the age of six months. It’s fine for everybody else to drink.”

Orwell’s drinking water is presently part of a public water system that’s been in effect for “well over 100 years,” Potter said. “It was last redone in the mid-80s with all new mains and water tower, filtration, the whole gauntlet. But, of course, after 30, 35 years or more, the system begins to age out and deteriorate, though there have been some few enhancements along the way. Our water tower, for one thing, is in need of some repairs. So, that’s all part of the project too.”

What caused the nitrate problem?

“I’m not sure,” Potter replied. “We did have a potential violation in our wellhead protection area that may or may not have contributed.”

Is that something that’s caused by fertilizers?

“I don’t really know the answer to that. But it’s my understanding that any kind of vegetation, decay, and what have you, even a dead animal in the woods, is my understanding, can contribute. There’s a lot of things that can contribute to nitrate levels. But, that’s not my area of expertise, so I can’t answer that question.”

Did it get into the main source of water? Is that how it then got into your water system?

“Apparently,” Potter said. “Most of this is spring-fed. There’s a couple of wells and what have you, and groundwater gets into the system or any system. So, I really don’t know. All I know is I got to fix it.

“We’re also applying for a CBDG grant, a Community Block Development Grant. So, that $1.7 million, that figure can change. We also have the availability of an interest-free loan through WIIA.”

How many people will be served by this water?

“I’m not sure how many people, but there’s between 95 and 100 households. It’s only in the hamlet,” said Potter.

He couldn’t comment on the quality of the water for the rest of Orwell’s population outside the hamlet. “You’d have to ask them,” he said.

How many people altogether in the town of Orwell?

When will this project be completed?

“Once we start construction, it’s hopeful that the project will be done by the end of 2023,” Potter said.

This project will not raise taxes in Orwell, Potter said, because it’s paid for by user fees.

People who are hooked up to the present drinking water system already pay such user fees. “I anticipate that that’ll increase,” Potter said, “but at this point, we don’t know how much, and we’re doing everything we can to keep that increase as low as possible.

“One thing, because we’re testing on a regular basis, the nitrate levels are starting to come down. So, that’s helpful. They fluctuate from time to time, but they had been on the rise for a while, and once they exceeded the state limit, that’s when we had to really revamp our plans. The public perception is that the nitrates are coming from liquid manure, but I don’t know that to be a fact. But that is the perception. After talking with the farm involved, and getting a little education on what all that involved, I really don’t know if it contributes or not. I think there’s a lot of things that contribute to it.”

Any other negative effects of high nitrate levels throughout the Orwell environment “would be handled by the DEC and the Health Department,” Potter said. Constructing an entire new water system that gets its water from Richland instead of Orwell makes the problem of nitrates in Orwell’s water “moot,” Potter noted.

How far away is the water source in Richland?

“It’s between two and three miles.”

And does the present water taste different or unusual in any way?

Anything else you’d like to say about this project, I asked Potter.

“I’ll be glad when it’s done,” he said.

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