Town applies for state grant for Lettiere Tract sewer project

Sep. 22—WATERTOWN — The town of Watertown has applied for a $3.66 million state grant for a sewer project in the Lettiere Tract housing subdivision.

If the application is successful, the town will replace a sewer line in the housing subdivision that experienced some major flooding events this summer, said consultant Michael Alteri, an engineer who's designing the project.

The project is expected to cost about $3.99 million, he said.

The state funding would come from Empire State Development through the agency's Green Resiliency grant program.

To show that the grant is needed, Alteri included a video in the application that shows flooding caused by a torrential downpour from Hurricane Debby that went through the north country on Aug. 9.

Alteri thinks the town's chances are "a pretty good" to obtain the grant because flooding issues are "the chief target" for the program.

Town officials expect to hear about the grant this winter.

Applying for the grant comes at a time when the town also has begun planning to replace the municipality's wastewater plant in the Lettiere Tract. Preliminary planning has begun on that $2.5 million project.

In 2021, the state Department of Environmental Conservation issued a consent order to correct "infiltration and inflow" problems with the wastewater treatment plant, Alteri said.

The two issues involve groundwater seeping into sewer pipes through holes, cracks, joint failures and faulty connections, while inflow is storm water that quickly flows into sewers from a variety of sources.

The plant is undersized and over capacity, DEC officials determined.

Town Supervisor Joel R. Bartlett said the town had hoped to connect that sewer line and two other districts with the city's system, but the city is dealing with its own consent order from the DEC.

Last year, the DEC issued a moratorium on new sewer permits while the city corrected violations after purposely discharging untreated wastewater into Beaver Meadows, a large wetlands west of the city limits.

The city cannot add any new sewer customers, Bartlett said, so it must build a new wastewater treatment plant instead.

In other news, the subject of the Lettiere Tract came up at Thursday night's Town Board meeting when a resident asked a series of question about a proposed deal to purchase the tract's water system.

Neighbors and owner James V. Lettiere are in the process of working out a price for the 60-year-old water system.

In the coming weeks, a majority of the subdivision's residents must sign petitions for the agreement to proceed, Bartlett said.

The Lettiere Tract has 119 water customers in the town. For years, the water system has been the subject of much discussion over its fate.

Lettiere wants to sell the water district now because he wants to retire. Lettiere wants the town to take it over because he believes it would be best for the customers.

While between two-thirds and three-fourths of the system is original piping, the remainder consists of modern mains that are about 20 years old.