Windham is “right in line” to receive at least $2.4 million from the Department of Environmental Protection to build a septic receiving station that would allow residential discharge to flow into the town’s wastewater treatment plant without overburdening the system, according to Town Supervisor Thomas Hoyt.
“It’s a big deal for the town of Windham and also for the entire watershed,” said Hoyt, who is on the board of the nonprofit Catskill Watershed Corp., which approved the funding.
A total of $5 million is being made available to upgrade both Windham and Prattsville treatment plants. Windham is the larger of the two facilities, Hoyt said.
The money is part of Governor Hochul’s plan to improve water infrastructure. Preliminary estimates from Delaware Engineering show a cost of $2.4 million to design, permit and build the septic station, based on a 2026 bid cycle and 25-percent contingency.
Plans for the upgrade have been brewing since 2022, when the DEP said Catskills treatment plants should reduce the amount of septic waste that they accept from private haulers.
The DEP later reversed that decision, which could have tripled the cost of pumping residential tanks. Yet the lingering septic waste dilemma prompted towns in the watershed to speak to both the agency and Catskill Watershed about conducting a study to determine how to add septic stations. Windham was among the first towns to complete the study, Hoyt said.
Windham’s tentative design would add a smaller building at the plant, located at 491 South Street, or County Route 12, with underground tanks, odor controls, rock traps, screens, and augers to prepare material for processing at the plant. Construction bids will be solicited next year, according to Hoyt.
The Delaware Engineering study from March recommends that the Windham receiving station has a piped inlet for connection to the septage truck and a metering system that records the volume discharged. The system would operate at influent rates of sludge and liquid up to 400 gallons per minute.
Screened septage would then be discharged into a 20,000-gallon aerated holding tank to equalize the flow. The engineering firm also advised the construction of a transfer pumping system to steadily feed septage into the treatment plant over a 24-hour period. The plant can now treat up to 39,000 gallons per day of waste.
The funding was announced on Dec. 2, when the Catskill Watershed Corp.’s board approved the Fourth Supplemental Side Agreement to the 1997 New York City Watershed Memorandum of Agreement, a landmark partnership between New York City and rural communities aimed at protecting the city’s water supply by funding upstate watershed development.
Barbara Reina is a contributing reporter. Reach her at reporting@theoverlooknews.com.