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Poughkeepsie Journal: Poughkeepsie Water Customers to See $30 Increase, Annual Fee Hike Due to Upgrade Required by EPA

Tuesday August 14, 2012

The approximately 30,000 water customers in the city and town of Poughkeepsie face an increase of about $30 a year in their water bills due to a plant upgrade needed to meet new federal standards.
 
But the officials, who oversee the Poughkeepsies’ Water Treatment Facility, say they want to do all they can to keep the price of water affordable. The joint water plant provides treated Hudson River water to about 75,000 residents, primarily in the city and town of Poughkeepsie.
 
“We are looking at everything we can do to get the highest quality water to our customers at the lowest cost,” said Randy Alstadt, water plant administrator.
 
The plant is estimating a cost of at least $16 million to meet the new Environmental Protection Agency requirement, Alstadt said. The agency is imposing a more stringent standard for the permissible level of disinfection byproducts in municipal drinking water.
 
The upgrade will likely cost the average customer another $30 a year for 25 years, Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik said today.
 
Robert Casement, who lives on Ridge Road in the Town of Poughkeepsie, said to improve the drinking quality of the plant’s water that is piped to his home he filters and treats it with a softener. He said he finds the cost of his water bills “appropriate” for the service he is provided, including no interruptions during power outages.
 
One measure to keep the price of Poughkeepsie’s water affordable would be to expand the customer base.
 
The Poughkeepsies’ Joint Water Board is seeking to attract major companies to locate to Poughkeepsie to enjoy the abundant supply of water the plant is capable of providing. The plant treats 9 million gallons of Hudson River water a day, but has a capacity to treat 19.3 million.
 
Tkazyik, a water board member, said the city and town are faced with having to borrow the $16 million, which will drive up their levels of debt and require paying interest on the loans. The federal government, he said, would provide a low-interest loan through the New York State Environmental Facilities Corp.
 
Getting such help is one reason the water board invited U.S. Rep. Nan Hayworth, R-Bedford, to take a tour Monday of the plant, located within the Marist College campus. The officials also wanted to call attention to the cost impact of the new EPA rules on the plant.
 
Immediately following the tour, Hayworth said she would do what she could to minimize the cost of the required upgrade for Poughkeepsie’s water customers.
 
“I want to make sure that from the federal level if there are unfunded mandates from EPA or other sources, we are providing the help that they need,” she said.
 
This article was written by John Davis and published by the Poughkeepsie Journal on August 14, 2012 and can be found here.