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Chilson monthly water bills could cost hundreds

A scattering of residents along the Rt. 74 corridor west of Ticonderoga would have to pay between $240 and $376 a month for a new water system under three plans outlined by engineers at a public hearing Thursday.
The cost does not include actual water usage. The communities are in a race against time to have a new system installed because the Town of Ticonderoga has been ordered by the U.S. Justice Department to shut down Gooseneck Pond as a water source by 2025.
But the cost of a new system looked unaffordable to many of the nearly 50 people in attendance, and is particularly frustrating because they see nothing wrong with the water from Gooseneck, whose waters are sweet but not treated to modern environmental standards. Treating the water from Gooseneck would cost even more than the three alternatives, because the dam is failing and would need to be replaced.  
But what ultimately makes the project so expensive is that millions of dollars must be paid back by, at the most, 108 users. The cheapest proposal would pump town water up Chilson Hill to serve a cluster of homes just west of Ticonderoga. Another cluster of homes at Eagle Lake would be served by a common well. The few houses in between would have to drill private wells, although there may be financial help for that as well, said Town Attorney Matt Fuller.
The second option would send town water all the way to Eagle Lake, while the third would treat water drawn from Eagle Lake itself. The projects cost between $8.4 million to $13.3 million.
But none looked affordable to Marcy Fleming of Eagle Lake, who said she’s not inclined to join a water district that would leave her with such a staggering bill. “I could not afford to pay $3,000 to $4,000 a year,” she said, Her lot, however, isn’t big enough for a private well.
Her proposed solution, holding tanks that would be refilled by trucked-in water, was “shot down” without any consideration, she said.
How the Rt. 74 communities came to be in the predicament of facing a choice between water that’s unaffordable and no water at all, is a story that goes back for decades, and took a fateful turn when the Village of Ticonderoga dissolved in 1993.
Residents for the most part assumed they were part of the Ticonderoga Water District, because that’s what their bills seemed to indicate. But in fact, they were contract buyers, who were left as orphans when the town and village consolidated their books. Some years later residents were given an opportunity to join the water district, but voted the proposal down.
Ticonderoga, meanwhile, had been under orders from the government for years to better protect its public water system from contamination, orders that past Town Boards simply ignored.
It all caught up to the town over the past couple of years, when the government began levying heavy fines on local taxpayers for the failure to act. So the town drilled two new wells off of Street Road and replaced decaying pipes. But because the Chilson communities weren’t part of the district, they could not legally be included in the project.
But all these technicalities are of no comfort to Rt. 74 residents who see themselves in a no-win situation. “We’re part of the town, we’re entitled to some of that water down at those wells,” Fleming said.
To move forward with a new water project, residents would have to form their own water district, something there seems to be little taste for, because once in the district they would be locked in to paying for the system. But drilling a well isn’t cheap either, and Fleming isn’t the only property owner whose lot is too small for one.
Engineers will renew their push for gathering information in the coming months, and turn their sights to the next deadline in a little less than a year, when maps and plans are due. Whatever residents decide, it will have to be decided soon. “These are not optional,” Richardson said. “These are mandatory deadlines that we have to meet.”
Roy Richardson, a managing engineer with Barton & Loguidice, said the cost to residents could be brought down if the town can obtain grants for the project. It might also be reduced it a bill passes allowing utilities to be costed out over 40 years instead of 30. The price ultimately depends too on the number of people who decide to opt out of the project by drilling their own wells, and peculiarities of individual properties.
But while some in the communities have been highly engaged, others have not responded to requests from the town for information. “If we don’t have good input, we won’t have a good project,” Richardson said.