KINGSTON >> A draft of the Kingston Water Department’s capital improvement plan shows $18 million worth of identified repairs and projects to the aging system.
That amount is about $2 million more than what Kingston Water Department Superintendent Judith Hansen recently suggested are needed to the system.
“These are real projects that need to be done and these are the projected costs and we are going to have to figure out how we are going to pay for them,” Hansen said.
The two projects are the most expensive projects in the plan and are a sweeping replacement of underground valves and the rehabilitation of the Cooper Lake dam.
Hansen said the new capital plan has identified the replacements of underground water valves, many installed in late 1920s and 1930s and never replaced or upgraded. The cost of that project: $5,108,738.
“The majority of the Department’s distribution system was installed prior to WWII,” the capital plan said. “While significant improvements have been made, including the addition of large diameter mains in some areas and cement lining projects, investment in this aging infrastructure needs to be made to maintain the level of service and reliability.”
“Projects include some water main replacement, gate valve installation along our transmission mains, and replacement regulating valves throughout the system,” the plan noted.
The new capital plan also adds about $1.5 million to a Cooper Lake Dam rehabilitation project that has been part of discussions among the Board of Water Commissioners. In total, the dam rehabilitation project is estimated to cost $6.5 million.
“Following the 2009 Dam Safety Regulations by the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Kingston Water Department was required to conduct an engineering analysis of its Cooper Lake Dam and West Dike,” the plan said. “This was required of all Class C dams in NYS.
“As a result of the findings in the engineering assessment, the KWD is required to bring the dam into compliance with current dam safety regulations.”
Schnabel Engineering, the report noted, is designing the improvements.
“Based on the timetable submitted to the NYSDEC, construction is expected to be complete by the close of 2016,” the report said,
In order to pay for the project, the Kingston Common Council will need to authorize borrowing, with payback being made by water users. No such authorization has yet been done.
Hansen said the Board of Water Commissioners has also revived discussions about the possibility of raising the dam, something that has been the board’s focus for decades.
“We know from our own observations as well as from a … report by New York City Department of Environmental Protection on the impacts of climate change on its Ashokan Reservoir that annual rainfall is increasing,” Hansen said in an email. “However, it is occurring in more intense but less frequent storms that occur in winter.
“This means that increasing the capacity of the reservoir would provide more storage to capture the runoff from Mink Hollow during those storms.”
Raising the dam would be done at the same time as rehabilitation work. The raising of it would add to the cost, Hansen said.
Hansen said that raising the dam and other “initiatives … will move forward regardless of any water sale to Niagara or anyone else.”
Hansen referred to a proposal to sell water from Cooper Lake to the Niagara Bottling Company which has proposed a bottling plant in the town of Ulster.
