Plans for sewer creating
stink between business, environmentalists
By LAUREN BISHOP Journal Staff
Draft input
Comments on draft environmental impact statement for the
Ithaca Area Municipal Wastewater Collection Improvement
Project may be sent to New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation, 1285 Fisher Ave., Cortland, NY
13045-1090, Attention: John Merriman, until Aug. 11.
The impact statement is available at the offices of the
City of Ithaca; the towns of Dryden, Ithaca and Lansing; the
villages of Cayuga Heights and Lansing; the Tompkins County
Public Library; and the Lansing Community Library Center at 27
Auburn Road. It is also available by clicking on
"announcements" on the City of Ithaca's Web site, www.cityofithaca.org.
LANSING -- Environmentalists clashed with members of the business
community and homeowners with septic tanks at a public hearing
Thursday on an $11.2 million sewer project that involves six
municipalities.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is
overseeing the project, held the hearing on a draft document that
assesses the project's impacts on the environment.
A major part of the project involves the construction of 26 miles
of sewers in the Town of Lansing, three pump stations and a
transmission main to carry sewage to the Village of Cayuga Heights
Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The new sewers would replace failing septic systems in Lansing
that pollute ground and surface water, said Stuart F. Mesinger, the
director of the Glens Falls-based Chazen Companies. Chazen prepared
the more than 130-page draft environmental impact statement.
"That's the overriding goal of the project," Mesigner said. "It's
a water quality improvement project."
The project also would divert up to 1.3 million gallons of sewage
per day from the Cayuga Heights plant to the Ithaca Area Wastewater
Treatment Plant to make use of the Ithaca plant's excess capacity.
It also would allow for expanded sewer service in the towns of
Lansing and Dryden, although no new sewers are proposed now.
Some of the 10 speakers at the hearing questioned the need for
the project. Walter Hang and Rich DePaolo, who have been involved in
Cayuga Lake-related issues for the past four years, said the impact
statement did not include any data that proves that septic systems
in the Town of Lansing are polluting the lake.
"With due respect, the DEIS is not an environmental impact
statement," Hang said, reading from a six-page statement. "It is a
blueprint for development. The DEIS proposes a sewer collection
system that would foster residential, commercial and industrial
development at public expense."
John Majeroni, director of Cornell Real Estate, argued that
development would happen regardless.
"Providing adequate sewage facilities is only going to benefit
the lake, and not doing it is not going to stop the growth," he
said, adding that each municipality would be able to dictate where
new sewers go.
Audrey Edelman, owner of Audrey Edelman & Associates Real
Estate, said new sewers could lead to more residential development,
and that a larger inventory of homes would bring down housing
prices. Both she and Town of Lansing homeowner Gary Sloan said it
can cost as much as $10,000 for someone building their own home to
install a septic system.
Other residents testified to problems with their septic systems.
Robb Cutting, who owns a home in Lansing's Ladoga Park area, said
the lake has flooded over his septic system five times.
Village of Lansing resident Kay McLain, who has lived there since
1959 --before there was a Village of Lansing -- said she and her
husband have had three different septic systems and that she was
sick of sewer studies.
"Get on with it and do it," she said.
Residents have until Monday, Aug. 11 to comment on the impact
statement, and the DEC will then respond to the comments and make
them part of a final environmental impact statement. Construction
could begin late this year and end in 2005 if the project is
approved.
