Ossining Breaks Ground on History-Making Water Plant
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The Village of Ossining made history last week when it celebrated the groundbreaking of a $105 million water treatment plant.
“This is the biggest public works project the village has ever undertaken,” Village Engineer Paul Fraioli said at the Aug. 6 event attended by state, county and local officials. “This is the biggest potable water project in the northeast.”
The Village of Ossining owns and operates the existing Indian Brook Water Treatment Plant, which is located in the unincorporated Town of Ossining, directly adjacent to the southwest portion of the village-owned Indian Brook Reservoir. The facility provides water to inhabitants of both the Village of Ossining and the Town of Ossining.
In 2015, village and town officials jointly initiated planning for the construction of a new water treatment plant, as it was mutually understood that the existing plant was reaching the end of its useful life and could not continue to operate efficiently at the capacity required to accommodate future growth.
“It was a very bold move for the board to make in 2015,” said Ossining Mayor Rika Levin, who credited former Mayor Victoria Gearity with spearheading the project when she was in office. “It’s one of the most important investments we can make in our history. We understand the responsibility we have to provide clean drinking water.”
“It’s really exciting to enter into this new chapter,” said Town of Ossining Supervisor Elizabeth Feldman. “We are thrilled to be breaking ground today on this critical infrastructure project, which will benefit the people who live and work in Ossining for many more decades to come.”
In addition to necessary increased treatment capacity from four million gallons per day to seven million gallons per day, the new plant, which is expected to take about three years to complete, will improve the village’s ability to treat for harmful contaminants including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) associated with perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS), 2-Methylisoborneol (MIB), and trihalomethanes (THMs), as well as meet, and likely exceed, the new compliance requirements for copper and lead that the current plant cannot accommodate.
Levin emphasized the hefty price tag associated with the construction of the plant.
“For a village like Ossining, it’s a large nut to crack,” she remarked.
Along with calculated reserves dating back to the project’s initial conception, the village has secured $10 million in funding through Empire State Development’s Mid-Hudson Momentum Fund and an additional $5.1 million from the state’s Environmental Facilities Corporation. To further reduce the impact on Ossining ratepayers, the village committed the entirety of the community’s $2.5 million allocation under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the project as well.
“It’s an investment in our future,” said State Senator Pete Harckham (D/Armonk). “We need to be investing more money.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/