Establishes the Birch Hill-Highview Water District in the town of Southeast, Putnam County

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Pete Harckham says this is needed

The town of Southeast in Putnam County spent general fund money in the amount of $348,544.39 to make improvements to the water system, part of which had been owned and operated by the Birch Hill Water Company and part of which had been a shared water system serving multiple individual homeowners. The specific actions taken by the town in furtherance of establishment of the Birch Hill - Highview Water District and the construction and financing of improvements therein are more fully described as follows: Upon the death of the owner of the Birch Hill Water Company, the water system fell into disrepair. The estate of the owner of the Birch Hill Water Company made attempts to obtain approval of rate increases from the Public Service Commission to help fund the ongoing maintenance and repair of the water system, which attempts were unsuccessful. Ultimate- ly, the estate conveyed title to the water system to the town for nomi- nal consideration and the town assumed operation of the water system and commenced proceedings to establish a water district. Before the proceedings to establish the water district could be concluded, the Putnam County Department of Health, in determining what improvements needed to be made to the water district, identified an unregulated water system located adjacent to the proposed water district which served multiple residences with water sourced from a common well. The health department directed the town to incorporate the residences served by the common well into the water district being formed. Whereup- on the town recommenced proceedings to establish the water district. In 2014, the town's engineer prepared a new map, plan and report to incor- porate the additional residential lots as benefitted properties within the Birch Hill - Highview Water District, obtained easements to install and repair water distribution lines and made necessary repairs and installations to the existing water supply and distribution facilities. On October 23, 2014, the town board held a public hearing with respect to the formation of the Birch Hill - Highview Water District and adopted an order establishing the Birch Hill-Highview Water District on November 6, 2014. The town filed said order with the county clerk; however, the town board did not obtain the permission of the state comptroller for the establishment of the district as required by section 209-f of the Town Law. Before the town could obtain permission from the state comptroller for the establishment of the Birch Hill - Highview Water District, it became apparent that the identification of emerging PFOA contamination of the water wells serving the water system and the associated need to design and construct an appropriate filtration system would necessitate amend- ing or restating the map, plan and report forming the basis for the establishment of the water district. Moreover, it would entail seeking the additional ability to finance the extraordinary expenses associated with the necessary PFOA remediation measures In 2015, the town spent general fund money in the amount of $268,906.32 for the construction and repair of existing water well(s), improvements to the pump house(s) and for the repair and replacement of distribution facilities. It was later determined that the wells serving the water system contained higher than acceptable levels of carcinogenic chemicals such as perfluorooctanoic acid and related compounds, known generally as PFOA, which requires remediation. In the years that followed, the town spent additional general fund money in the amount $79,638.07 for the design and approval of systems to remediate the water quality in the affected wells together with additional repairs and replacement of supply and distribution facilities of the water district. The expenditure of such funds by the town board prior to the district's establishment as described above was in violation of the provisions of section 165.10 of the Local Finance Law. Further, the town fai

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.