Sewer board warns plant near capacity; approves conditional will-serve letters and engineering task orders

The Greene County Sewer District board on Wednesday discussed a shortfall between committed sewer capacity and the district's treatment-plant capability, approved a letter of strong support seeking federal funding for water and wastewater work at the Westgate at Crane Technology Park and the town of Crane, and authorized engineering task orders to study options to serve three pending developments.

Board members and staff told the meeting the district's wastewater treatment plant is rated at about 50,000 gallons per day (gpd) and that current commitments on paper exceed that level. Staff said one developer's allocation alone is 31,500 gpd, another prospective customer (referred to in the meeting as Enhanced) has requested up to 12,000 gpd but may accept a lower figure, and other commitments push the total well above 50,000 gpd in preliminary calculations.

That shortfall, trustees said, matters because state regulators evaluate flows on a rolling annual basis and because the district must balance issuing "will-serve" letters that let developers proceed with on-site design and the district's legal and operational capacity to accept new hookups.

At the meeting staff presented a worksheet showing that with current commitments the district would be looking at about 69,475 gpd; staff said getting Enhanced's request reduced to 4,800 gpd…