pCOLLINS LANDING — A request by the Senate for the state to pick up the whole cost of a water line in Orleans — not just a fraction — was music to the ears of residents with wells long-polluted by salt and other contaminants. /ppIt remains to be seen, however, whether the budget resolution passed Monday by the Senate — made at the request of Sen. Patricia A. Ritchie — will carry enough clout to get that job done. /ppThe Senate’s resolution comes as town residents and officials have long contended the state should be responsible for covering the entire cost to break ground on the $13 million water project, which would serve more than 500 users in the vicinity of Route 12 from Collins Landing to Fishers Landing. The resolution will serve as a benchmark for negotiations with the Assembly and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on a final budget due April 1./ppTown, county and legislative officials nearly uniformly believe the state Department of Transportation’s salt storage depot on Route 12 in Collins Landing is to blame for the contamination of about 50 wells./ppAndrew A. Greene, whose house on Route 180 is about a mile from the DOT facility, said the recent announcement by Sen. Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, comes as he and other residents affected by contamination have long argued that the state should cover the whole cost of the water project. Along with salt contamination, he said, the lead content in his well is more than double the limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. /pp“I felt this way as soon as I heard about the state paying such a small portion of the project. I think it’s crazy because they’re the source of the problem,” Mr. Greene said Tuesday. “It’s great to see somebody on the state level finally starting a process of what sounds like accountability and a fair outcome.”/ppstrongMORE FUNDING?/strong/ppAlong with the Senate resolution, the Assembly included in its 2016-17 proposed budget an additional $50 million to $300 million water and sewer project fund included in the governor’s proposed budget. /ppAssemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, said additional funding could be used toward the Orleans project. As for the Senate’s urging to put the entire project cost on the state, Mrs. Russell said she is “pleased” the Senate is giving the problem its needed attention. “The residents deserve this level of attention to resolve this public health crisis,” she said in a prepared statement. “I continue to have regular and ongoing conversations with town officials and the governor’s staff to make sure that happens.”/ppThe DOT, meanwhile, has yet to take any responsibility for the decades-old contamination problem. And Mr. Greene said that while the state has delivered bottled water to affected residents and covered the cost to test wells, it hasn’t followed through on a vow to have “boots on the ground” in the area. /pp“The DOT made a big mistake by not covering its salt pile for years, and they need to take ownership and realize they’ve put our families and children at risk,” he said. “But they’re running and hiding because they’re afraid of having boots on the ground and spending a bunch of money to fix the problem.”/ppstrongFOOTING THE BILL/strong/ppIn a prepared statement, Sen. Ritchie said she does not believe that residents should be burdened with paying for the majority of the $13 million water project, pointing out that residents have long complained about salt contamination from the DOT facility. The town has tried since 2012 to secure enough funding to get the annual per-user cost of the project down to about $800 to meet a requirements from the state comptroller’s office. /ppIf Sen. Ritchie has her way, users wouldn’t pay any debt service toward the construction of the water line. While the governor’s office and state agencies have vowed to help Orleans secure grant funding, she said that “Albany’s plan to make residents pay the bulk of the cost to fix a problem they didn’t create falls short.”/ppUnder the town’s current funding scenario, a no-interest loan from the state Environmental Facilities Corp. would cover the brunt of the $13 million cost. But Sen. Ritchie believes that grant funding — not a loan to be paid back — should be used to get the job done. To make the project affordable for users, Orleans can only use $8.4 million of the $11.4 million EFC loan. The town has lined up an additional $1.6 million in grants, but it has struggled to fill the remaining $3 million gap./ppOrleans Town Supervisor Kevin R. Rarick said he was impressed by Sen. Ritchie’s “bold” approach to the matter. “I think it’s great that she publicly said she thinks the water line should be funded fully. I think that’s huge — even if you just say it.”/ppThousand Islands Winery owner Steven J. Conaway, whose business on Seaway Avenue is less than a half mile from the DOT building, has organized a pair of protests to bring attention to the contamination problem. The first protest will be from noon to 3 p.m. on April 17 at the front of the DOT building. He also plans to schedule a protest at the start of the Empire State Tourism Conference on May 2 at the 1000 Islands Harbor Hotel in Clayton./ppMr. Conaway said he recently told Sen. Ritchie’s office that protests would be canceled if funding for the water project is guaranteed in the state budget. “If it makes it into the budget as a line item with guaranteed funding, the protests would be called off because they won’t be necessary,” he said. /pp class="mwc_blurb-editors_note"emTimes Staff Writer Brian Molongoski contributed to this report. /em/p
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