CHEMUNG COUNTY, NY (WENY) -- We have continuing coverage regarding the recent $275 million state-mandated construction project for the Chemung County Sewer Districts. The Executive Director of the Chemung County Sewer Districts said both wastewater treatment plants were overdue for an upgrade.

"Chemung County owns and operates two treatment facilities. We have the Lake Street Wastewater Treatment Plant which is 62 years old and the Milton Street Wastewater Treatment Plant which is 37 years old. The typical life expectancy of a treatment plant is 30 years, so both of these facilities exceeded that typical useful life," said the Exec. Dir. of the Chemung Co. Sewer Districts, Ali Rennie.

Rennie said the Lake Street facility is struggling to meet the effluent discharge limits that are established in the state-issued discharge permit. She said both treatment plants are part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and discharge into the Chemung River, which is part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

"So, because of that, our county facilities have to meet with EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation), [and] Chesapeake Bay program limits for nutrients, which are nitrogen and phosphorus. As it stands, our two treatment plants would not be able to meet future discharge limits that are becoming stricter and those take effect on January 1st, 2025," said Rennie.

She also said the Lake Street Wastewater Treatment Plant doesn't have disinfection but the Milton Street location does. This is one reason the two facilities are being combined into one.

"This project will expand the disinfection system so that we are seasonally treating all wastewater entering the Chemung River. We are consolidating both of the treatment plants at the Milton Street location [and] doubling the size of the Milton Street treatment plant. So where we would have seen two tanks in the past, we'll have four tanks in the future. Then, we're also adding some new treatment processes to be able to manage nitrogen as part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed [guidelines]. We need to remove nitrogen from the wastewater stream, so we'll add in some treatment processes to handle that," said Rennie.

Rennie said the Lake Street facility is going to be decommissioned and will largely become a pump station. She said they'll remove non-organic items like grit and rags before they put in a five-mile-long pipeline to get to the Milton Street treatment plant.

Rennie said people on wells who install a water meter should contact the sewer district afterward, to ensure you're accurately billed based on your usage data.

"For our scale of charges, we use metered water data. The exception to that is folks [who] have a private well but are connected to a public sewer. [People] on a private well if they don't have metered water data, are assigned 60,000 gallons a year of usage and billed for 60,000 gallons. [People] have the option that they can install their own water meter, at the homeowner's expense [or] they can hire a plumber to come and install it. We would use that metered data in place of assigning them the 60,000 gallons of water," said Rennie.

She added, "They can install [a water meter] anytime. The bills that are coming out for 2024 are using 2023 water data. We don't have enough metered water data this year to be able to change their bill to reflect that metered water usage. But if they install one this year, it would be reflected in their 2025 sewer bill."

Rennie said there are two ways to manage sewer from a property. She said you either have a connection to the public sewer or you have an on-site septic system.

"If you have an on-site septic system, you would not be receiving a sewer usage bill from the sewer districts. We would not have an account for you. You could be connected to public water, but as long as you don't have a connection to the public sewer system, then you wouldn't receive a bill from us," said Rennie.

This is the third year of the state-mandated construction project. Rennie said the goal is to finish the expanded facility in 2026. "I think February/March time-frame we're hoping to have the plant operational and then meeting permit later that year."