Timeline for South Cairo's EPA-funded water line

SOUTH CAIRO, N.Y. (NEWS10) -Local municipalities have been meeting every two weeks since last August to figure out how to connect South Cairo to the Village of Catskill’s water supply. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced earlier this week that funding will be awarded to do just that.

Chemicals dumped by the decades-closed American Thermostat plant are said to be the cause of the problem. “This will be the fourth time they (the EPA) found out that the plume that was there on the site has now moved and they’re not sure where it’s going or where it completely is,” stated Joseph Kozloski, Village of Catskill President.

The first phase of construction focusing on connecting Country Estates to the water pipeline will cost about $650,000 according to EPA Regional Site Manager Claudia Shuman. Phase two will follow. “That loop around Scotch Rock Road down to McLaren Road back to Route 23B and then down to the Country Estates terminus, that’s about $3.7 million.”

Shuman added that she expects this funding to be awarded in the next couple of months. Following an accepted construction bid, work can begin.

Catskill Town Supervisor Patrick McCulloch told NEWS10’s Anthony Krolikowski that construction should start for Country Estates, “By August of this year and then obviously phase two, it’s a bigger portion: Scotch Rock and the rest of 23B. I would imagine that should be done within two years.”