Orange County advances permit and financing steps for Hammond-Layswater plant upgrade as public comments are answered

Orange County Sewer District No. 1 advisory committee members received a technical and financing update April 15 on the proposed upgrade of the Hammond‑Layswater wastewater treatment plant, including recent submissions to regulators, outstanding site surveys and a plan to seek state and federal grants and low‑cost loans.

The committee heard that Delaware Engineering submitted key permit materials on March 21 and is preparing combined Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law applications due at the end of May. County staff also circulated draft written responses to public comments made at a March 24 County Law 5‑a hearing and said a legislative resolution finding the project to be in the public interest will be brought forward in May before a separate Office of the State Comptroller (85‑a) review.

Why it matters: the project budget figure has been updated in recent materials from about $156 million (the number on an older intended use plan) to roughly $185 million to reflect inflation and other changes. Committee members and commenters repeatedly raised the potential cost impact on typical households — estimates presented at the hearing ranged from roughly $500 to $1,000 per household per year in early operation — and asked how commercial uses and out‑of‑district connections would be charged.

Mary Beth Bianconi, partner at Delaware Engineering, summarized recent technical and permitting work. “We submitted the SPDES application form as well as the basis of design report, the preliminary outfall design, the DEC jurisdictional determination information, [and] a notice of anticipated noncompliance and a supplemental climate risk form, all back on March 21,” she told the committee. She said those materials are now with the New York State Department of Environmental…