Watertown lawmakers weigh in on city’s water waste - WWNY

Watertown lawmakers weigh in on city’s water waste

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Watertown’s water waste gets worse. We’ve reported the reservoir at Thompson Park leaks 400,000 gallons of water a day. Now, we learn the city is flushing out another 480,000 gallons from hydrants - mandated to do so by the state - because the drinking water has a high rate of byproducts from the process of disinfecting the water.

That’s an estimated loss of 880,000 gallons of water a day.

“There’s a lot of work that’s got to be done. Some of it is just routine maintenance, and some it is just the age of the system and you can expect to lose over time. I think that this highlights what I think council’s priority should be of fixing our aging infrastructure,” said Mayor Jeff Smith.

City leaders tell council members there’s no revenue being lost and that no customer is going without. But one might argue there is still a value of the water. If sold, instead of lost, Watertown could be paid more than $1 million annually. Putting that argument aside, council still worries about the investment it’s putting into getting clean drinking water.

“The city is spending all this money on the chemicals, the labor to process the water, the wear and tear of the pumps and the equipment to do this that I think the sooner we get this reservoir leak fixed the better,” said Council Member Lisa Ruggiero.

“There’s no demand for it right now. Would there be a demand for it in the future? Potentially. I can’t really answer that question right now. I think it’s important that we take the steps now to invest in our infrastructure, invest in fixing the problem with the reservoir to cut back on the amount of money that is lost,” said Council Member Sarah Compo Pierce.

Steps that others on council believe should have already been taken

“All of these things that are being thrown out right now as though they’re critical have been known about for years through several administrations. They just didn’t do anything. They kicked the can down the road, and now it falls to us,” said Council Member Cliff Olney.

Council Member Pat Hickey says he can remember the water flowing from the reservoir across Franklin Street since the 80s.

“The amount of money the city has lost through this leakage, or being the overflow of the reservoirs is significant,” he said.

A water report from the city shows that more than 30 percent of the city’s water is unaccounted for due to leaks, flushing hydrants, or use by the fire department.

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