Tupper Lake tap water is seen on Sunday. (Provided photo)

TUPPER LAKE — The village received a draft report on its water quality situation — including potential solutions and associated costs — on Friday afternoon, according to Mayor Mary Fontana.

Fontana said she reviewed the 139-page Alternatives Analysis Report document over the weekend and had discussed it with state Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, Monday morning. The draft report is not yet publically available, although Fontana said she and the rest of the village board intend on making it so.

“Once the board has had some time to digest this, and we’ve had the opportunity to meet with our engineering firm, I will set a date for a public meeting for full transparency so the community can see what our options are, the numbers we’re looking at and what we’re all going to have to pay in the end for our drinking water supply,” she said on Monday.

Fontana added that a copy of the report will be made available in the village offices for anyone interested in viewing it.

The report provides four possible solutions, according to Fontana.

¯ Pressured grain sand treatment for iron and manganese treatment for the Pitchfork Pond wells

¯ Conventional grain sand treatment for iron and manganese treatment for the Pitchfork Pond wells

¯ Little Simon water treatment plant upgrades for packaged conventional treatment and granulated active carbon treatment

¯ A new packaged conventional treatment and granulated active carbon treatment for Big Tupper Lake

¯ A new packaged conventional treatment and granulated active carbon treatment for Big Tupper Lake

Fontana said she is not yet sure if these would constitute mutually exclusive solutions, or if the village would consider a combination of these approaches — adding that the village needs to first make sure the wells have sufficient capacity if the grain sand treatment approaches were to be used. Fontana said Tupper Lake is currently only using one well and supplementing it with water from Little Simon Pond.

“I want to make sure that I have interpreted the data correctly before I say (the options) are exclusive,” Fontana said. “I think they would be exclusive but I want a little bit more time to go through the report at length and to bounce those questions off the firm before I answer definitively.”

The report was conducted by Wright-Pierce, an environmental engineering firm based in Clifton Park. They were hired by the village over the summer after their previous contractor returned a proposal that was too costly and village officials expressed a desire to work with a more local firm.

Fontana said that she has been pleased with the firm’s work so far.

“I really enjoy working with Wright-Pierce,” she said. “They’re qualified and capable. They really haven’t left any stone unturned.”

Fontana lauded the report as “comprehensive” and a “step in the right direction” for Tupper Lake.

“Part of our request to them was ‘we want to know every available option,'” she said. “It wasn’t just wells versus (Big) Tupper Lake. It was we have an active plant on (Little) Simon (Pond), we have the wells, we have the former facility on Maddox Lane. We wanted them to explore absolutely every avenue for us. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing a disservice to the community by not exploring every available option, including the ones that are running now.”

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Financial considerations

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Fontana said a major contemplation for the village — which she said was provided in the report — was not just the building costs, but the operations and maintenance expenses.

“That’s really the sticking point for us,” she said. What can we afford to build, and whatever it is that we’re building, can we afford to run it year after year? The cost of materials, filtration (and) all of the things that factor into operations and maintenance.”

Fontana did not discuss the specific price tags of each alternative in the report but said the financial numbers were daunting, and that there was no easy solution to the financial picture.

“It’s a very heavy lift for this community,” she said. “Looking at that, it’s absolutely no fault of Wright-Pierce. The numbers are the numbers.”

Fontana said part of the difficulty is the outstanding debt from the previously dug wells. She said she would continue pushing for debt forgiveness, given that the wells have produced iron-laden water that — while not considered a health risk — has a brown appearance, an off-taste and odor and stains clothes if used for washing. Residents have also complained that the iron-heavy water has ruined appliances.

“What we’d like to see is debt forgiveness for the wells,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to break ground and start moving forward if we didn’t have $6 million hanging over our head already.”

Fontana said Wright-Pierce, along with the Development Authority of the North Country have been working to secure grants and other funding to help reduce the burden on the village. She said they have accumulated just under $7.5 million within the last year for water quality improvements.

Fontana added that the village has had many conversations with the state Environmental Facilities Corporation. She said they have discussed bonding plans to potentially cover what the village is unable to secure a financial reward for.

Frustrations felt

Fontana said she understands and shares residents’ anger about improvements being long overdue.

“We do work on this tirelessly and we’re as frustrated by the timeline as all of the residents,” she said. “We’re all drinking the same water. I’m bathing my child in this water. It’s not ‘out of sight out of mind.'”

Fontana said the village continues to be caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to plotting a path forward, with much of it beyond their control as a local government. She said finding the solution cannot be done as quickly as it should, but that is important to exercise prudence in making sure the village charts the best path forward.

“We’re at the mercy of the science and the bureaucracy here,” she said. “We certainly don’t have time, but that’s exactly what’s needed to make sure that the product that we deliver is the best quality that this community deserves.”

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Water quality history

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Tupper Lake has long been plagued by water quality issues.

In 2018, the village dug new wells after its existing water sources — Big Tupper Lake and Little Simon Pond — were found to contain organic material that, when mixed with chlorine, produced potentially cancer-causing byproducts. Chlorine is commonly used by municipalities to sanitize water so that it can be consumed.

While tests at the well sites did not originally show iron, the water began to brown about 18 months after the dig. It has not improved in color since.

A previous story on those developments can be found at tinyurl.com/2w8tcdee.