Water filtration system being tested in Sackets

SACKETS HARBOR — Cleaner water will come to the village and to the town of Hounsfield through a new filtration system.

A pilot program that uses a filter made of material similar to what's found in a cigarette will be tested in the village for about two months. Town engineer Kris D. Dimmick of Bernier, Carr and Associates, Watertown, said the system, which doesn't use sand to filter water, is new to this area. He said it consists of the "best available technology."

The system will provide statistical data about how efficiently water from Lake Ontario is purified and filtered. The lake is the municipalities' water source.

"We're setting up for the future," said village Mayor F. Eric Constance. "This project can put the village in a position to be more efficient and have more ability to supply additional water districts for both the village and the town."

The project will begin later this spring, Mr. Constance said, and run for about two months. The collected information will be presented to the state Department of Health for approval, then Bernier, Carr will design the system.

The estimated cost of the project is $3.3 million. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development office issued a grant of close to $1.5 million.

The remaining $1.874 million cost will be absorbed by users in the village and town. Mr. Dimmick said the split would be a three-to-one ratio, with the village responsible for 75 percent of the cost. The capital costs are apportioned between the village and town based on the number of users in each.

"If you take the loan and look at the annual debt payment of $86,000," he said, "you take a quarter of that, $21,600," that establishes auser rate increase of about 90 cents per 1,000 gallons. He said that in about two years, 40 cents will be dropped off that increase, reducing it to about 50 cents per 1,000 gallons for a house in the town.

Town residents would pay roughly $25 a year in debt service after the project is in place.

"Once we start paying the debt back, the town residents will be responsible for their share of the capital project," Mr. Constance said.

For village residents, the additional cost of water per year would be between $10 and $15.

Mr. Dimmick said the project may come in under the $3.3 million estimate, if a new structure is not required for the system.

"If we can fit it all in the space we got, it gives us a little bit of money to fix things around the village," he said. The "vintage water mains" on Hill, Ray and Outer Main streets would be among the first items to be repaired.

Mr. Dimmick said these repairs are contingent upon the filtration system but if there is a significant savings, repairs on the new water pipes and separating those from the sewer pipes wouldn't begin until spring 2011.