Oakridge water project safe from federal cuts so far

By NEAL RENTZ

A spending freeze by the Trump administration has governments at all levels worried about the flow of federal money, but there is no impact so far on the Oakridge Water District treatment plant project.

Lewisboro Supervisor Tony Gonçalves told district residents in a recent letter, and reiterated that in an interview with The Recorder.

The action has not had an impact on the project as of yet, Gonçalves said.

“As of today, the federal dollars are not being held up,” he said last week.

“Coincidentally, our recently submitted reimbursement request was approved today,” Gonçalves said Feb. 20. “If the federal funding is pulled back, and unless there was an alternative funding grant, we would have to borrow and the district would be responsible for payment of the debt service.”

In his letter to Oakridge residents, Gonçalves stated helping to pay for the project is $1.8 million from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and a $1,163,700 Water Infrastructure Improvement Act grant.

“With respect to what is going on at the federal level, I have had residents reach out asking about any potential impacts from the recently imposed federal funding pause executive order by the president and whether our funding will be impacted,” Gonçalves wrote. 

“We are fortunate to have state and federal representatives who are pushing back on this,” the Democrat said.Gonçalves stated he has received information related to the EPA grant and a court order to block the Trump administration’s spending freeze. The U.S. Treasury recently sent Gonçalves an email notice on the restraining order that was entered in the case of New York et al. v. Trump, he stated. The Department of Justice also sent him an email with a PDF of the same notice of court’s order and the actual court’s order, he noted, adding the EPA sent him a similar email with the same PDF.

Gonçalves provided an update on the water district project in his letter. He stated that Feb. 14 he met with representatives of FAM Enterprises, the general contractor for the project, and Delaware Engineering. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the project’s status and review the schedule. “Based on the updates I received, we are looking at a start-up date sometime in July of this year,” he stated, adding the original start-up date was May 2025. “There have been some unforeseen circumstances which resulted in a bit of a delay in the project,” he wrote. 

The expectation is that the foundation work will be completed within the next couple of months and the building construction and installation of the Granular Activated Carbon vessels soon to follow, Gonçalves stated. Once the building is erected, FAM, together with the mechanic and electrical contractors, will be in a position to begin work on the interior components of the system, he wrote. “I have been asked about utility lines serving the pool area which were temporarily interrupted. Those should be back online shortly,” he wrote.  

The project will include expanding the plant for the installation of a granular activated carbon filtration system for removal of PFAS, required by New York State Department of Health regulations, and operational improvements, Gonçalves noted.

The water treatment plan was approved by the Westchester County Department of Health in 1990 for use by the residential subdivision, Gonçalves said. The town took over the water treatment plant in early 2002 and the water district was formed, he said. 

The town declared a water emergency after taking over the plant and hired an engineering firm to design an upgrade for the plant, Gonçalves said. “The plant was in a severe state of disrepair requiring a major overhaul of existing filtration systems,” he said.

A bond was issued in 2003 to pay for this initial upgrade, Gonçalves said. The current plant expansion project for PFAS filtration was approved in 2021, he noted.