When business leaders consider locating in Western New York, they often ask whether there is a clean and plentiful water supply.
Thanks to $20 million in state funding headed this way, it’s about to be a little easier for local officials to answer that there is.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced that the state will invest that money in planned water infrastructure upgrades at the Erie County Water Authority that, she said, will help relieve some of the financial burden on its 500,000 commercial and residential customers.
The state funding, Hochul said, will allow the water authority to complete a long-awaited $80 million overhaul of the water system that was first announced in 2019.
“As I see this water, I’m reminded that water really is the essence of life,” Hochul said during a news conference, set against the backdrop of the Niagara River at the Van de Water Treatment Plant on River Road in the Town of Tonawanda.
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“If we don’t protect our water systems and the systems that deliver it, we’re really putting our communities at risk,” she said, adding, “This generational investment will help alleviate the burden on local taxpayers.”
The governor said the state aid will leverage $60 million that the water authority will commit toward proposed improvements. They include plans to upgrade water filters at the Sturgeon Point Water Treatment Plant in Evans that daily treat 60 million gallons of water from Lake Erie and haven’t seen a substantial upgrade in 70 years.
“So we’re replacing filters that have been servicing this area since the 1950s. Think about that, filters in place now that are from the 1950s. You know how often you replace your filters at home. That’s a long time not to do it,” Hochul said.
While there have been some modifications and upgrades to the water authority’s infrastructure over the years, executive engineer for the water authority, Len Kowalski, said that, to his knowledge, the water authority has never before received an investment of the size announced by Hochul from any other outside source.
Charles "Chuck" E. Eaton, the longtime chief of staff to Democratic Congressman Brian Higgins, was unanimously appointed by the ECWA board to head the agency's water quality and engineering operations.
Kowalski said the state grant will help expedite some other projects, including at the Ball pump station that was built in the early 1970s.
“We’ve had some failures there over the last couple of decades of some of the large diameter transmission mains there. So that’s going to be a complete overhaul of that pump station,” he said.
Hochul said the state investment will ensure that up to 180,000 Erie County customers served by the Van de Water Treatment Plant will not be affected by prolonged service interruptions, and can respond to increased demands on the system. She said it will also help the water authority extend the life of its infrastructure and continue to provide its customers with a reliable supply of safe and affordable water. As a former Hamburg Town Board member, Hochul said she is aware of the demands that maintaining infrastructure places on local governments.
“We obsessed about water and sewer lines all the time, and we were always asking Albany for help because the cost is so prohibitive for local communities to put this on the backs of their taxpayers,” said Hochul.
Jerome Schad, chairman of the Erie County Water Authority Board of Commissioners, said the state’s investment will ensure the uninterrupted delivery of safe, high quality, affordable drinking water by the water authority to its residential and commercial customers.
He said the water authority has implemented significant operational, fiscal and financial policy changes to make it well positioned for the future.
“Since 2019, the water authority has made historic levels of investment in infrastructure to upgrade and replace aging infrastructure but, as you mentioned, the infrastructure needs of this community are simply too great for our ratepayers to carry that burden solely on their shoulders,” Schad said to Hochul.