Mohawk River Magic: The Fecal Follies Continue

You might think that the human feces floating in the Mohawk River would be a major roadblock to developing it's tourist potential, but you would be wrong. The same folks responsible for dumping billions of gallons of raw sewage into the mighty Mohawk are now planning to spend an undisclosed amount of money selling it as a "Greenway":

Residents tonight can suggest options for developing and marketing a 35-mile stretch along the Mohawk River and Erie Canal in Oneida County.

Officials are creating a Comprehensive Greenway Plan for the Mohawk River Corridor, which would be from Utica to Sylvan Beach.

“We’re going for a unified plan, so everybody starts thinking bigger than their own particular projects,” said Jessica Breiten, chief planner of the Oneida County Planning Department.

If they're looking for suggestions I've got one that should really help- STOP DUMPING MEGATONS OF FECES INTO THE RIVER.

I'm simply aghast that this tourism proposal is even being considered by Oneida County. Keep in mind, these are the same government officials that have postponed fixing the sewage overflow problem from the Sauquoit Creek station for at least another five years. That means the County, and New Hartford in particular, will continue to let billions of gallons of raw sewage spurt from the inadequate pipelines in the commercial district while at the same time they try and convince people that the Mohawk River is a valuable natural resource.

Just click on the "Fecal Follies" label over there on the left to get an idea of just how inane and hypocritical this Greenway proposal is. I'm absolutely stunned at the sheer chutzpah of these people.

Update: A kind emailer points out that this could turn into a PR disaster of epic proportions. That's something we simply can't afford, since the Utica metro area already suffers from a dismal image around the globe. Don't believe me? Go to Google News and do a search for "utica shotgun stroller" and you'll find roughly two hundred stories from around the world about the Stephanie Wilson case- and those are just the outlets that reprinted the story on the internet. Pardon my bluntness, but you can just imagine the reaction when it comes out we were marketing a river filled with our own shit as a tourist destination.

Update: A commenter on the Observer-Dispatch story used part of my rant against this goofy idea, but his comment has since been removed.

Update: A very helpful source claims that Oneida County officials are well aware of the extensive sewage problem, but plan to ignore it. Allegedly, there are more than a few folks that view the Greenway plan as a gravy train that will be running for years.

Oh, and RoAnne Destito is a big supporter. Please notice that this claim is in a totally seperate paragraph from the claim that some officials view the Greenway plan as a gravy train, because I'd hate people to think I was suggesting anything. Because we all know that RoAnne would never try to personally profit from her elected office, and to imply otherwise would be legally actionable.

Update: A helpful emailer points out that the Oneida County Planning Department's own writeup of the initial Greenway proposal meeting includes multiple comments on the River's sewage and pollution issues, including this gem:

One car-top boat (canoe/kayak) access point is better than none but several would make it more accessible to those with less physical ability. Most important is the safety of having proximity to each other. Also of great importance is the pollution (sewage) in the water. This is to be a greenway, not a brownway.

You can browse the PDF for yourself over here.

The Long Reach Of Sauquoit Creek

Here in central New York, Sauquoit Creek's most recent claim to fame is as the site of the leaky pumping station that dumps millions of gallons of Oneida County's raw sewage into the Mohawk River. Which makes me a little sad for the students of Antioch High School in Illinois.

In our neighborhood, one high-school nickname that definitely is a one-of-a-kinder is Antioch High's "Sequoits."

In his book, "Why Mascots Have Tales," author Fred Willman tried to explain the Sequoit nickname.

He wrote the following: "The word Sequoit is a form of spelling of the Iroquois Indian word Sa-da-quoit, which was the name the Iroquois Indians gave to a stream that flows through Oneida County in New York state. In the Iroquois language, Sa-da-quoit literally means 'smooth pebbles in the bed of a stream.' When settlers moved into Oneida County, they modified the spelling and pronunciation of the stream to Sauquoit Creek."

Apparently, Antioch's first settlers, Darius and Thomas Gage, traveled west from Oneida County, and named the stream that ran past their land "Sequoit Creek" because it reminded them of Sauquoit Creek back home."

And that's how we got to "Sequoits."

Hopefully their Sequoit Creek isn't filled with as much feces as the one here in New York.

Good News, Bad News

First, the good news. Utica has found a new tenant for the marina restaurant.

The city will lease its building at the Utica Historic Marina for $2,500 a month to a company operated by National Hockey League player Robert Esche, city officials announced Tuesday.

ED Ventures LLC, which is operated by Esche and business partner Alicia Dicks, will operate Aqua Vino Restaurant & Catering at the facility. The site was occupied by Kitty's on the Canal restaurant from 2002 until June 30.

The city chose not to renew the occupancy agreement with Kitty's on the Canal, whose owners owed back rent and a portion of utility payments to the city. There are no outstanding parties scheduled by Kitty's on the Canal that would have to be picked up by Aqua Vino, officials said.

This seems like a great deal for the city, particularly the fact that it's a straight-up lease with monthly rent and utility payments. The deal the city had with "Deadbeat" Dave Morgan was, to be kind, less than optimal. As the studios in Hollywood regularly demonstrate, and any accountant can verify, basing your payments on a portion of the profits is a losing proposition. Just ask Peter Jackson, the director of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. While the films made billions of dollars in movie theaters and on video he's still waiting to see his cut of the "profits".

Now for the bad news: the canal adjacent to "Aqua Vino" is an open sewer. It's contaminated with human waste, and will continue to be so thanks to County Executive Anthony Picente's deft handling of the DEC consent order for the defective Sauquoit Pumping Station. Every time it rains millions of gallons of raw sewage is dumped into the Mohawk River and hence into the Erie Canal via the lock located about 800 meters west of the restaurant. Mr. Esche may not be aware of that, but I don't think it's a coincidence that he plans to glass in the restaurant's deck.

I'm also a bit disappointed that the city didn't accept my proposal for the facility- "McFloaty's, home of the Jalapeno Plopper!". Someday they'll recognize that my vision of a sewer themed eating establishment was brilliant.

More Crap

Strikeslip has more on just what the sewer consent decree is going to end up costing.

The dirty little secret is revealed today about who pays for the Consent Order -- though it was couched in vague terms.

On July 12: "Picente said the burden will likely land on the taxpayers of the part county sewer district, which includes New Hartford, Paris and Whitestown." ...
"This is a problem everybody knew about and nobody wanted to deal with it," Picente said. "The towns and villages knew about this — it's a violation issue and we're responding to that."

On May 24: "Within the next week, Picente said he also is planning to meet with representatives from the towns and areas affected, which include areas in the villages of New York Mills, Yorkville, Whitesboro, New Hartford and Oriskany and in the towns of New Hartford and Whitestown."

Today we discover:

"Ratepayers in the sewer district, not all county residents, will have to pick up the tab if state or federal grants can't be found to defray the costs of what could become a $66 million project."

I think this whole fiasco is eventually going to end up costing something north of $100 million dollars to clean up. Most municipalities in the state already require dedicated sewage treatment facilities for major projects, but that option doesn't even appear to be on the table. Instead, we're going to end up subsidizing the new construction of a massive wastewater infrastructure with taxpayer dollars. An expense that will far outweigh any potential tax income from those same projects.

Homework

Strikeslip has started an excellent explanation of the sewer system consent order over here. Read the whole thing.

Da Law!

The DEC/Oneida County consent order is now online. There's some interesting stuff in there, including the revelation that the defective pumping station is overflowing an average of 7 times a month, sending 24 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Mohawk River every thirty days.

Oh, and this fiasco has been going on since 2003. Let's give Joe Griffo a big round of applause.

Grrrr.

I just spent twenty minutes blogging the Rome-Sentinel's story on the DEC/Oneida County sewage agreement, only to have Blogger eat the damn post. I'm too lazy to rewrite the whole thing, so I'll jump right to the end:

Picente said the $66 million figure is a "guesstimate, if you will." It could be higher or lower than the preliminary number compiled based on projects elsewhere.

Crap. Less than a day has gone by and I already have to revise my graphic.

Ka-Ching!

More details about the secretive sewer agreement between the DEC and Oneida County have started dribbling out. It looks like the residents of the area are going to be stuck with a $60,000,000 bill.

A deal was reached yesterday between Oneida County and the state concerning repairs at the Sauquoit Pumping Station.

Fixing the pumping station will help the entire county, but only nine municipalities using the station will have to pay.

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said the reason is simple: “It’s the law.”

According to Picente, the nine municipalities which include New York Mills, Town of Paris, and Whitestown, among others, entered into a pact 42 years ago forming the part county sewer district.

The sewage flow problem arose from excess storm water overburdening the pumping station. The waste then goes to the water treatment center, and discharges into the Mohawk River.

Wednesday, Picente announced a deal the county reached with the state that will lower fines levied against Oneida County and give it three years to study the problem, and four to fix it.

The cost is estimated to be around $60,000,000, much of which will be paid by those in the Park County Sewer District.

I hope you folks living there really enjoy all those big box stores, because you're now subsidizing them to the tune of $545 dollars for every man, woman, and child. It's another Big Win(TM) for Oneida County!

The Fecal Fountain, Having Flown, Flows On

Smell that? That's the smell of Oneida County's "government". And you're going to be smelling it for at least seven more years.

The Oneida County Board of Legislators had one day to see a revised state-and-county agreement crafted to address a $66 million sewer problem, but the short time frame didn't stop legislators from unanimously supporting the deal.

Although County Executive Anthony Picente could have signed the agreement without the board's consent, he said he wanted legislators to be involved. They voted 29-0 to support the terms of the deal at their Wednesday board meeting.

Some legislators, however, questioned whether they had enough time to properly review the problem and order before voting.

"We should have been allowed to have more time to review this," said Legislator William Goodman, D-Whitesboro.

It's absolutely amazing how quickly these folks can work. Of course, raw sewage flowing into the Mohawk River is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible...which is why we need to study it for three more years. Then we get to fiddle around for another four years figuring out how to actually, you know, fix the problem.

You know what the best part of this "deal" is? It's going to pump even more feces into the Mohawk River. Oh, and it's going to make the already serious surface water problems in the Whitestown/New Hartford area even worse.

Yes, you heard that right.

From the terms of the agreement, such as they are:

•For new sewer permits and those that were pending, the county has to show the state that for every one gallon of wastewater that will go into the sewer system, five gallons will be removed.

The problem being that the new connections to the defective sewer system will be pumping "black water" into the system. That's water contaminated with human waste.

The "five gallons" of water the County plans on "removing" from the system? Since none of the permitted projects are installing their own own waste treatment facilities that water is going to be "grey water", essentially rainwater and surface runoff.

Which means that every time the defective Sauquoit pumping station overflows it will be dumping sewage with an even higher concentration of feces and urine into the Mohawk River than ever before. The grey water? Instead of going into the pipes of the sewage system it will have to be diverted to surface holding ponds and ditch works. The residents of the area that have already seen their back yards, driveways, and landscaping washed away by uncontrolled surface flow can now look forward to having even more water to deal with.

Another fine bit of work from our talented government officials in Oneida County.

Sewage? What Sewage?

In an interview in today's Observer-Dispatch Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente appears to make the claim that the county isn't dumping raw sewage into the Mohawk River. If Mr. Picente is correct he should probably give the State Department of Environmental Conservation a call, since they're pretty convinced the raw sewage isn't an elaborate illusion.

Additionally, this modification contains the Department's determination (initially disclosed to the permittee in February 2006) that the Sauquoit Creek Pump Station overflow is considered a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) rather than a CSO because it receives wastewater from a conveyance system that is not combined. As SSOs in New York State are not legally permitted, this designation means the problem of regular overflow discharges of raw sewage from the Sauquoit Creek Pump Station must be addressed and abated.

Maybe the Feces Fairy waved her magic wand and made it all vanish.

Seriously, WTF?

The latest development in the ongoing Fecal Follies is the amazing claim, despite months of reporting to the contrary, that there really isn't any raw sewage in the Mohawk River. Except for when there is.

O-D: Is there really raw sewage floating in the Mohawk River?

Picente: No, not in the least... I think over the last two years what they call 92 occurrences possibly.

Update: Someone forgot to tell Sen. Schumer that there really isn't any sewage in the Mohawk River:

Due to outdated infrastructure and limited capacity, untreated sewage from the sanitary and storm water sewage disposal is being dumped into the Mohawk River from the Oneida County sewer district, which consists of 13 different towns and villages. As a result, New York State slapped Oneida County with a proposed consent order that puts a stopper on new development, and would require the County to fix the problem by 2011.

The estimated cost to repair the waste water problem is $66 million. Until the problem is fixed, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation will not approve additional sewer extensions. As a result, the County is unable to approve building permits for commercial projects. In addition, there are serious health concerns from the sewage, including: fish and aquatic life in the water; animals wading in the water; and people who use the water for recreational uses, including swimming.

This would appear to put Sen. Schumer in the unenviable position of having requested federal funds and intervention in a problem that simply doesn't exist, since, as Mr. Picente claims, there isn't any raw sewage in the Mohawk River. I certainly hope the Oneida County Executive plans on telling Sen. Schumer that the considerable resources of the Army Corp of Engineers can be better used elsewhere.

Update: The story ID number this post originally linked to was changed, but I've now corrected the link.

Update: It changed again. And again. Arrrrrgh!

The Temple, Forsaken. With Apologies To Robert E. Howard

The immense doors to the great hall swung open, revealing a room lost in shadows. On either side of the chamber initiates chanted softly to themselves while tending the braziers that filled the room with the fragrant hallucinogenic smoke of the black lotus. The floor of smooth, polished stone was inset with strange geometric designs dominated by a five pointed star bounded by a circle inscribed with curious sigils from some forgotten tongue.

"The council welcomes you," said a deep, booming voice that seemed to come from nowhere. "What is it you seek?"

Trembling, the supplicant moved further into the room. "I seek your power. My people have been placed under a geas and I...humbly...ask your intervention."

In response, a faint light filled the air around the throne at the head of the room. The cool green glow seemed to drift through the air like mist, indistinct and faint, but strong enough to reveal a black-robed figure sitting upon the age worn stone of the throne. The figure was more more shadow than man and what little of his face that was visible from the deep shadow of his robe's cowl was leathery and mottled with corruption.

"A geas? Who casts this spell, and what type of binding is upon you," it asked.

The supplicant paused for a moment, staring at the floor. "The wizards of Enkhan. We have begun to build a great temple to Mammon. We have cleared the trees, flattened the earth, and begun the laying of stones, but they refuse to let us do more. They say our temple will fill the waters with filth and disease."

The figure upon the throne gently laughed, a sound like sandpaper on flesh. "Enkhan, eh? Their powers are mighty," the voice whispered. "But there is a way to warp the geas, to shape it so it's compulsion is voided."

"There is?" asked the supplicant, glancing up hopefully.

"Yes. Yes, my friend, we can help you...if you're willing to pay the blood price."

The supplicant trembled once more. He knew there would be a dear cost for this intervention, but until this moment he hadn't fully accepted how heavy it would be. "I'll pay it," he said.

The figure upon the throne hummed softly in satisfaction. "Very well." He turned to one of the initiates at the edge of the room. "Fetch the iron basin from my chambers and prepare the knife. Make sure it's sharpened. I don't want a repeat of last time."

The supplicant started removing his shirt as the initiates scurried to put all in readiness for the ritual.

---

What can a developer do when the DEC won't let them connect their building to Oneida County's massively overloaded sewer system? Why, you just do a little magic.

A Lowe's home improvement store under construction in New Hartford has gotten the go-ahead for a sewer connection, even though the state has banned sewer extensions for new projects in sections of Oneida County, town officials said.

More than two months ago, the state issued a proposed consent order stemming from repairs the county needed to make to stop untreated sewage from being pumped into the Mohawk River from a Yorkville pump station. The county was given a 2011 deadline.

Letters were sent to seven entities, including the developer of the Lowe's in New Hartford, notifying it that reviews of proposed sewer extensions that feed into the Sauquoit Creek Pump Station were being suspended, DEC Spokesman Stephen Litwhiler said.

Lowe's, however, was granted a sewer permit by the Town of New Hartford in May, said Roger Cleveland, New Hartford's highway and engineering superintendent.

The DEC is not reviewing sewer extensions, which would be a connection to more than one commercial or residential site, New Hartford Town Planner Kurt Schwenzfeier said.

"But since the town has jurisdiction over lateral connections, we're still issuing sewer lateral permits," said Schwenzfeier, who said that was the type of permit granted to Lowe's.

Presto! Chango! Abracadabra! Just like that the town of New Hartford cleverly out-maneuvered those big meanies at the Department of Environmental Conservation, letting the builders of the new Lowe's connect to the sewer system without, wink, wink, "hooking up" to it.

There's just one teeny tiny little problem.

The developers of a Lowe's home improvement store under construction in New Hartford must receive state approval — and not just town approval — before building a sewer line, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said Friday.

The DEC earlier this year suspended its reviews of proposed sewer extensions in parts of Oneida County because of untreated sewage flowing into the Mohawk River. New Hartford nonetheless granted a sewer permit for the Lowe's project in May, saying the town had jurisdiction over the permit type granted.

The state disagreed Friday. The DEC sent a letter to Lowe's developer COR Middle Settlement Road Company LLC, a subsidiary of Fayetteville-based The COR Companies, outlining its position.

The construction of a sewer extension without department approval or discharges that adversely affect water-quality standards are prohibited by law, states the letter from Randall C. Young, acting attorney for the DEC's region 6.

"Any violations will be subject to appropriate enforcement action," according to the letter.

The current administration of the Town of New Hartford has just been, as the kids say, bitch slapped by the DEC.

Seriously, what the hell were they thinking? If the motivation to actually, you know, "obey the law" wasn't enough, what about the simple logic of not dumping even more human waste into a system that is already gushing a quarter of a billion gallons of untreated sewage a year into the Mohawk River? I'm starting to think that the only way these people will get it is when somebody starts dumping a little of that funky sewer slime on their front lawn. Maybe they'll start to understand how serious this problem is when there's a giant, stinking pile of human feces sitting on their doorstep.

Next Thing You Know You've Got A Movement

New Hartford Online is onboard the SewerGate pile-on. While you're there be sure to click through on their link to the development plans for the New Hartford Office Park. If you have "Google Earth" installed take a look at that plan and compare it to the topography of the area, keeping in mind that water flows downhill.

It's such a simple fact, but it has devastating consequences.

Great Minds

Strikeslip finds the Observer-Dispatch's editorial on Oneida County's sewer problem as bizarre as I do, but he has a slightly different take on things.

First, who's to blame does matter, because consent orders only are required for violations of law. If a public building were to be vandalized, would not the editors want the perpetrators caught, brought to justice, made to provide restitution, and taught a lesson so that the crime is never committed again? What is different here? Are the editors suggesting that the state government should look the other way because local government is the guilty party? Here, the Mohawk River has been vandalized. That is unacceptable, and is a crime under the Environmental Conservation Law Articles 17 and 71. The editors seem to be saying that breaking the law is OK as long as the governmental units or officials that the OD favors do it.

As an aside, my paranoid friend thinks the plans of the powers-that-be were royally screwed up when the DEC issued the construction moratorium. Now they're stuck with a real "contaminated water" crisis instead of the ginned-up one that would justify spending tens of millions of dollars extending water pipelines to the Turning Sto....uh...western Oneida County.

Is he a loon? Probably. But it is rather interesting which politicians aren't talking about the sewage issue.

OD Sez: Let The Fecal Fountain Flow!

Sunday's Observer-Dispatch included an amazing editorial endorsing the continued dumping of hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Mohawk River. Of course, that's not quite how they put it, but that's what it boils down to.

There's a lot of shouting going on over New York state's development ban imposed on parts of Oneida County due to a problem that's causing untreated sewage to be dumped into the Mohawk River from a Yorkville pumping station.

Who's to blame for what doesn't matter. What matters is that everybody — federal, state and local officials — come together and figure out how to get the problem fixed.

Well, yes, it actually does matter who's to blame. It's obvious that the state was aware the continued development of the New Hartford area caused the total collapse of the sewage system. How long has it been going on? Who approved these projects on the local level? Were the rated throughputs totally ignored? If they were, why? Once it became clear human feces was flowing into the river who signed off on adding even more hookups to the system?

This isn't just some minor little tiff about dirty water. Water-born diseases like giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis are already endemic across most of the state thanks to poor water quality controls and bad hygienic practices. The hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage flowing out of the defective pumping station in question are contaminating not only the Mohawk River, but it's tributaries and the Barge Canal. That, to put it mildly, is not a big tourist draw.

This would be a good project for New York's "economic czar," Dan Gundersen. He was named by Gov. Eliot Spitzer as co-chairman of the Empire State Development Corp., the state's economic development arm, whose main responsibility is to revive the upstate economy.

Well, here's a good place for him to start. Certainly untreated sewage flowing into a river isn't acceptable. Neither is a ban on development. It's a problem that should have been addressed years ago, and given the Northeast's aging infrastructure, it's quite likely that similar problems will crop up elsewhere in the future — if they don't already exist. The larger issue here might be to chart a strategy for dealing with such problems before they reach the critical level.

In the meantime, the state has a responsibility to taxpayers living in Oneida County to address this issue without doing any more damage. Get the problem fixed as soon as possible, but let the hookups continue.

Er...no. The moratorium on hookups has accomplished exactly what it's supposed to do. After years of ignoring the problem Oneida County is finally paying attention to it. It's unfortunate that the situation was allowed to develop in the first place, but the ban on new construction certainly has focused everyone's attention, now hasn't it?

It's also worth noting that the Observer-Dispatch editorial board may be in the same "Huh? What sewage?" position as Anthony Picente when it comes to recognizing how serious the problem is. As I've pointed out, Mr. Picente lives upstream of the emission point, so the rafts of toilet paper and feces floating down the Mohawk River don't impact his daily existence. I'm lead to believe, and I welcome correction, that most if not all of the OD's editorial board are in the same lucky situation. In fact, since Donna Donovan and her family happen to live in New Hartford, there's a good chance it's their feces and toilet paper boaters are watching float by.

The Fecal Follies Continue

Those big meanies at the DEC still think dumping human feces into the Mohawk River is a bad thing. That has Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente hopping mad.

The ban on new development in parts of the county because of a major sanitary sewage problem was kicked around at a meeting Friday between the county executive and three developers.
"The DEC (state Department of Environmental Conservation) is literally shutting down development in this county," County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. said after the session. "It’s handcuffing this county’s ability to grow."
The moratorium would be in affect while the situation is being corrected, and that’s not acceptable to Picente.

Mr. Picente seems to be confused about the chain of cause and effect here. The only roadblock to Oneida County's continued development is...Oneida County's refusal to take responsibility for it's continued development.

Friday’s meeting followed the county receiving a reply Wednesday from DEC in response to the county’s earlier comments to the state concerning its initial proposed consent order.
"They haven’t really budged on anything," Picente said when asked whether the state offered a new deadline for ending the discharge of raw sewage. He declined to give details about the state’s answer. The proposed order won’t be public until both sides sign it.
He has no interest in signing a consent order containing fines or an unrealistic timetable for a final solution, in addition to having to cope with the ban on new sanitary hook-ups in certain areas.
Picente hopes to set up a meeting of state and county officials early next month to talk face-to-face.

Hmmmm....the state won't budge on it's demands that Oneida County quit dumping billions of gallons of untreated sewage into the river. Mr. Picente won't budge on his demand that the state just ignore the whole thing.

Gosh, I wonder who's going to win this fight?

It's becoming increasingly obvious that Mr. Picente simply refuses to accept that contaminating surface water with human waste is a bad thing. Then again, from his viewpoint the problem may not exist. If the information in this NYS Board of Elections report is accurate Mr. Picente lives at 110 West Oak Street in Rome, which just happens to be miles upstream from the gushing fountain of filth flowing into the Mohawk River.

Does anyone think he'd be so cavalier about this issue if he lived downstream from all the crap?

Update: Perhaps Mr. Picente would be singing a different tune if billions of gallons of sewage were being dumped into Delta Lake. From this Google Maps view it appears his home is only 800 meters west of the Lake's primary outlet. The Mohawk River, the part of it that isn't filled with sewage from Oneida County, is over five kilometers directly south of his home.

That does kind of put things in perspective, doesn't it?

One Step At A Time

It's a small step, but it's a start. New York Sen. Charles Schumer pushed a provision through the Senate to have the Army Corp of Engineers study Oneida County's abysmal sewage system.

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., announced today the U.S Senate passed a provision he authored requiring the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a comprehensive study to evaluate the waste water drain and disposal crisis in the Utica and Oneida County area.

Schumer called for a similar study last week.

The legislation cleared the Senate late Wednesday night and was passed as part of the Water Resources Development Act. The full legislation will go to a joint House-Senate Conference before final consideration by Congress.

Due to outdated infrastructure and limited capacity, untreated sewage from the sanitary and storm water sewage disposal is being dumped into the Mohawk River from the county sewer district, which consists of 13 towns and villages.

I appreciate Sen. Schumer's attention to the problem, but I sincerely hope we'll have a solution to the problem sooner rather than later. We're dumping a quarter of a billion gallons of untreated sewage into the Mohawk River, and by extension an entire network of waterways across the area, every year. The more we delay fixing the problem the more we contaminate the area's surface water supply.

Update:A helpful reader pointed out that Congressman Arcuri has been silent on this issue. That's of particular note since he holds a seat on the Water Resources and Environment subcommittee of the House, which specifically handles wastewater infrastructure improvements.

Floaty Sez: Happy Boating!

Huzzah! The state's canal system is now open.

The entire 524-mile state canal system is open, the New York State Canal Corp. announced today.

This year marks the 182nd consecutive navigation season on New York’s canal system.

Boaters are reminded that the corporation’s board has approved the extension of a 2006 pilot program to waive recreational boating tolls for the 2007 navigation season. Pleasure-craft owners will not be required to purchase a pass to cruise on the system during the 2007 season.

Floaty, Oneida County's official watersports mascot, would also like to remind boaters that the canal downstream from New Hartford is contaminated with human feces and sewage, which means a "floating log" warning on this stretch of the canal is something you should take seriously. Thanks to a defective sewage pumping station an average of four million gallons a day of untreated waste flows into the beautiful Mohawk River and hence into the canal system.

Happy Boating!

(Yeah, it's a cheap shot. Worse, it's true. I shed a tear for New Hartford's construction moratorium every time I inhale the rich organic stink of decaying sewage coming off the water.)

Are Floaty's Days Numbered?

Oneida County has spewed over half a billion gallons of sewage into the Mohawk River in the last two years. The state has set this week as the deadline for fixing the problem.

The county needs to either sign the state's proposed consent order or request further discussions, said Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Stephen Litwhiler.

The order was issued by the environmental agency so the county would stop pumping untreated waste from a Yorkville pump station into the Mohawk River. The estimate for repair work is $66 million.

"We're going to continue negotiations until we get a consent that works in a manner to our satisfaction," Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said.

The county's response will be given to the department by Monday and will have three major amendments to the state's order, Picente said. They are:

•More time to conduct a study of the problem and an extension of the state's 2011 deadline to complete necessary repairs.

•Getting rid of the $200,000 in fines the department imposed on the county.

•Lifting the moratorium barring sewer extension permits to the affected areas.

To boil that down to it's essence, Mr. Picente's response is to do a study. Worse, he wants to continue allowing development that will only put even more feces and sewage into the river. In much of the state projects like that are forced to construct their own water treatment facilities so the net load on the sewage system doesn't increase, but Oneida County seemingly can't agree to even that token effort to keep our surface water uncontaminated.

Floaty Fan Club Grows

It looks as though Floaty's fan club is growing!



At least they were doing it during their lunch hour.