MALONE — Meeting Wednesday morning trustees passed three resolutions for ongoing work by AES and the Development Authority of the North Country at the village’s third well and for future work by Barton and Loguidice at the wastewater treatment plant.
The first two resolutions were for work related to the addition of a third well to the village of Malone’s existing infrastructure.
According to Village Clerk Rebahka Scaccia, the first resolution was for an amendment to an agreement with AES, a firm out of Plattsburgh and the project’s engineer, totaling $5,376 to reflect the cost of extra site visits, field oversight, and correspondence for completion of the new well.
Scaccia said a sanitary grout field had to be added to the project due to a requirement from the state’s Department of Health, adding additional time to the project and leading to the need for an amendment Wednesday.
The total adjusted agreement total with AES for the engineering professional services contact, is $1,318,593.
The day’s second resolution was for the Development Authority of the North Country and totaled $50,000.
“The original agreement we had with DANC to oversee the production of the well was for $18,000,” Scaccia said, “That was just a preliminary agreement and this goes ahead and covers everything and writing grants to cover the rest of the money to the end of the project.”
Scaccia said the original contract was to secure DANC to manage the project and the final total of the work is $68,000.
Kari E. Tremper, a project engineer with DANC, joined village trustees Wednesday to discuss the well project.
According to Tremper, AES estimates construction of the third well will be completed by December 2026.
“The $50,000 is to take you guys to the end of the project,” Tremper said.
A preliminary engineering report completed by AES in 2022, estimated the total cost of the well project would not exceed $8,681,872, with the estimated cost to the average residential user between $43.35 and $102.23 annually.
According to Scaccia, the preliminary estimate is subject to change due to a rising cost of materials and labor but removing water meters from the original project and making it a separate project is hoped to keep it within the original estimate.
The day’s third resolution was for Barton and Loguidice, an engineering consultant based in Watertown, and is related to a leachate pretreatment project.
“Originally we had signed them on to do the preliminary engineering report and then we put out to bid for requests for qualifications to do the actual project after that report had come out,” Scaccia said, “They were awarded that as well so what we did is took the original contract and expanded it to cover actually deciding what kind of pretreatment system is going to go in and seeing it through to its completion.”
Scaccia said this would include overseeing the bidding process and the project itself.
The original agreement to write the preliminary engineering was $24,950, according to Scaccia, who said Wednesday’s resolution amends the original contract to include overseeing the entire project bringing the total to $2,374,950.
Scaccia said these costs will be funded by a $14.5 million grant from the state’s Environmental Facilities Corporation to cover the cost of adding a pretreatment system.
“They have to see what the best actual outcome is and then do that,” she said.
The EFC funding is meant to help municipalities deal with emerging contaminants, also known as forever chemicals.
The project would prepare the plant for anticipated state mandates regulating industrial perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly referred to as forever chemicals, for landfill leachate pre-treatment, according to Amy H. Weils, a project engineer with Barton and Loguidice, at a village meeting in 2023.
“I feel like we are going to be a Guinea pig, no matter what, the village of Malone, we are going to be the site where everybody is going to learn from. I think that is why they gave you $14.5 million to start with,” Tremper said, in May, “If it was just leachate pre-treatment and wasn’t the PFAS, I don’t think you would be getting the $14.5 million.”
In addition to addressing forever chemicals, the project at the village’s wastewater treatment plant is an effort to meet state requirements for leachate pre-treatment.
The village plant’s ultraviolet disinfectant has been impacted by leachate from the Franklin County Solid Waste Management Authority, and the village has worked with Barton & Loguidice, the engineering firm that helped to upgrade the plant, since these issues arose with the ultraviolet system.
On Wednesday, Tremper said the project for leachate pretreatment at the village’s wastewater treatment plant is fully funded through grants by EFC, adding the state’s Departments of Health and the Department of Environmental Conservation are also involved in the project.
“We can sign this agreement and say we don’t want to start work on this project until some things are finalized,” Tremper said.
Mayor Andrea M. Dumas, the village’s mayor, asked if EFC decides about the location of the project, and whether it is located at the village’s plant or somewhere else.
“We don’t want to do all this work if they are questioning why it is at our plant,” Dumas said.
Dave Rohe, of DANC, said the concerns from EFC may be related to ensuring the village is not stuck with operations and maintenance costs related to the project.
“That’s our fear too. We didn’t ask for this. The state is putting these projects in place and it’s on the backs of taxpayers who are already struggling to afford sewer and water charges,” Dumas said.
Rohe said EFC is looking for “due diligence” ensuring there is value in locating the project at the plant as opposed to the county landfill.
“I think when we get our comments back form DEC and EFC we will just have to make sure we review them and provide valid reasons to have it at the plant,” Rohe said.