Shandaken’s Town Board approved a resolution to support wastewater treatment, reviving efforts that failed three times over more than two decades and potentially restoring Phoenicia to the list of towns eligible for New York City funding to build one.
Phoenicia first tried to build a plant in 2000, only to have its plans fall apart due to insufficient funding. Two other attempts also faltered, leaving homeowners and businesses to rely on individual septic systems. The Oct. 5 vote clears the way to try again.
“We’re seeing record numbers of visitors in Shandaken,” said Shandaken Supervisor Barbara Mansfield. “I’m hopeful that the state will help us get where we need to be to receive all the visitors that we have. And part of that is having clean groundwater and drinking water.”
A lack of wastewater infrastructure in Phoenicia is a key challenge for Main Street, according to the town. Aging septic systems and small lot sizes makes it tough to attract residents and businesses in a hamlet where vacant properties and stores are common. Sewage also seeps into Stony Clove Creek and the Esopus River through groundwater, Mansfield said.
“We have two water convergences that are major,” she said. “It definitely impacts New York City’s drinking water, but also our drinking water.”
While the resolution doesn’t guarantee a plant, it may keep Phoenicia in the running for one under the city’s Watershed Memorandum of Agreement, said Shandaken Deputy Supervisor Robert Drake.
“This is a memorializing resolution, it doesn’t have the force of law,” said Drake. “If this is not included in the MOA, then that option’s closed for the next 15 years, or forever.”
The city often funds water treatment for communities linked to the Ashokan Reservoir and watershed, especially if the water they provide is substandard. Although five other towns have been identified as communities with water that’s worse than Phoenicia, all of them have treatment plants.
The city is keen to ensure it’s getting clean water so that it won’t be forced to build its own plant. It can steer clear of a project that would cost at least $8 billion to build and $1 million a day to maintain through a so-called Filtration Avoidance Determination enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The hamlet’s attempts to build a plant near the Phoenicia Diner in 2000 stalled when it couldn’t raise enough funds. Plans fell apart again in 2007 upon the failure of a referendum to create a sewer district. Over time, rising engineering costs reduced the scope of the project that could be completed with the remaining funds.
Three years later, in 2010, the Catskill Watershed Corporation took on the project and worked to develop a smaller facility focused on downtown commercial and residential areas. The DEP approved the proposal but the town missed a critical deadline after it tabled resolutions because of opposition from the public. Catskill Watershed terminated its contract with the town in 2012.
The DEP has provided more than $1.9 million to study and design treatment options in Phoenicia.
“We’re trying to say, `It was 15 years ago, and we’re a different town with different needs now, and please let us back in the program,’” Mansfield said.
Shandaken’s comprehensive plan includes support for septic and water treatment systems in Phoenicia that includes a request that the town restart discussions with the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the DEP.
Mia Quick is an editorial assistant and reporter at The Overlook. Send correspondence to mia@theoverlooknews.com.
