Our view: Sewer credits good way to move forward

Observer-Dispatch

Posted May 08, 2009 @ 05:18 PM

The system of sewer credits that can be swapped by municipalities for development rights is a good step toward regional cooperation that should be encouraged because it will ultimately benefit all of Oneida County.

Sewer credits were instituted after the state’s 2007 crackdown on the Oneida County Sewer District, where storm water has been flooding into sanitary sewers and forcing raw sewage into the Mohawk River at the Sauquoit Creek pumping station. The county is under a consent order to fix the problems by 2014.

Initially, the state Department of Environmental Conservation had planned a moratorium on development until the problem was fixed. But it eased up, instead offering sewer credits for repairs made in spots along the Sauquoit Creek tributary route where storm water leaks into the system. The credits can then be traded for development rights providing that five gallons of water are removed from the flow for every new gallon put online.

The sewer credit idea is a common-sense approach to a problem that must be addressed. It maintains development rights by guaranteeing repairs to an ailing infrastructure that threatens our environment. Municipalities can work together on the repairs — New Hartford and New York Mills are already contemplating that — and credits can be sold or otherwise bartered to neighboring communities, providing it’s all done in the tributary route leading to the Sauquoit Creek pumping station. The idea is that any repairs made along that route benefits the system, according to Oneida County Water Quality and Water Pollution Control Commissioner Steven Devan.

It also provides a mechanism for getting private individuals to help fix the problem. The city of Waltham, Mass., for instance, was placed under a similar consent order in 2005 and created a system by which developers would fund sewer projects. They paid for repairs and got sewer credits for themselves. It also allowed private residents who wanted to build or add to existing homes to purchase credits from the city.

Best of all, it begins to fix a pollution problem that cannot be ignored. The town of New Hartford already has accumulated 88,434 sewer credits by fixing problems in New York Mills that blocked 442,170 gallons from leaking into the system. Whether development occurs or not, that cuts down on pollutants going into the Mohawk River.

And that benefits everyone.

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