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County considers business model to pre-treat septic waste amid Lake George basin constraints
Summary
EDC staff described May 22 exploratory work on a proposed private 'middleman' business to pretreat pumped septic waste to ease capacity constraints for treatment plants and to support compliance with new septic inspection legislation; state DEC raised legal questions.
An Economic Development representative described May 22 an exploratory idea to address county-wide capacity constraints for handling septage generated by recent septic-inspection and upgrade legislation.
"Originally, I thought what we needed to do was to bring more septic players in. But the truth is the bottleneck is what to do with the waste that they pump out of a septic tank," the EDC representative said. The concept discussed is a private operator that would receive pumped septage, perform pretreatment or staging, and then transfer pretreated material to treatment plants on a schedule that fits plant capacity.
The EDC representative said the approach is early-stage: the Development Authority has drafted a business plan and the LDC has set aside initial operating capital to support a pilot if a viable operator emerges. He added the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has raised legal and regulatory questions about transporting and pretreating septage outside certain basins.
"I don't know if this is gonna be successful or not. Quite honestly, DEC looked at me and said, that'd be great if you could do it, but I'm not even sure it's legal," the EDC representative said. Staff noted Amsterdam currently functions as a regional receiver and that costs to pump tanks and to transport septage have risen recently.
Committee members discussed regional capacity and cost pressures; staff recommended continuing to explore whether a private operator could be licensed and financially viable, and to coordinate with DEC and regional wastewater operators before moving to any pilot or procurement.
No formal action was taken; the matter remains exploratory.
