ALTAMONT — The village underbelly is due for a renovation, and it’s in the works.

The subject most discussed at last week’s village board meeting was the so-called “inflow and infiltration investigation” of its century-old sewer. Initiated in the summer of 2007, this process aims to locate and repair widespread leaks in Altamont’s sewer system that are causing overflows in the sewage treatment plant.

“This is just the next phase of looking at the overall infrastructure of the village, in both our sewage and water lines,” Mayor James Gaughan told The Enterprise.

“What we’re trying to figure out right now is where we need to take a closer look,” Richard Straut told The Enterprise. He’s an engineer working for Barton & Loguidice, a consulting firm with offices located across New York State, hired by the village to assist in the investigation. The firm has been working with Altamont’s department of public works on the repairs.

“The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is obligated to regulate any municipal wastewater collection and treatment system,” Straut said this week. “One thing the department of environmental conservation does is issue a permit to discharge. So basically, they will set the limits for flow and how much can be discharged into any kind of receivers of waste.”

These permits are reissued every five years, and last summer marked the most recent renewal of that permit. Every once in a while, there will be special conditions attached to the renewals, he said. This time around, one such condition required that the village undertake this investigation.

“The real issue here is the age of the sewers. Eventually, we’d like to renew the entire system,” Mayor Gaughan said this week. “We’ve uncovered, from time to time, parts of the system that have been there over a hundred years, particularly in the older part of the village, over by the fairground area. The purpose of all this is really to get the infrastructure on par and up to date. I see five years as a realistic projection for a completion date,” he said.

The overall budget for the project is presently unknown, but the next round of the investigation will give a better idea as to how much money needs to be spent, according to Straut.

A sum of $103,000 has been set aside for repairs once this investigation reaches its end, according to Gaughan. The village received a grant of $78,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the mayor said. “That’s going to be used over the next year in pieces,” he added, “but it’s basically to look at drainage issues at various locations in the village, like the Stewart’s on Main Street.”

“The system is fairly old,” Straut said of Altamont’s sewers. “Over time, the pipes begin to leak, or there are illicit connections between pipes in the sewer system.” With heavy rain or snowmelt, the flow of water into the sewage-treatment plant is extremely high, he said, and sometimes exceeds the plant’s capacity.

A leak might occur because a pipe simply becomes loose and separates at the joints. Other times, roots from nearby trees will grow into the piping. “So it’s not necessarily one thing causing the problem. Basically what were trying to do in this investigation is identify where exactly the excess water is coming from,” said Straut.

Straut cited more examples of damage in the system: “We found suspected leaks where some sewers come under the creeks in the village, and there were cases where cracked or damaged manholes were allowing water to leak in. Another thing we found in the first round of investigation is that some pipes burst at the fairgrounds where trailers or campers might park and connect their pipe drains.”

Since the start of the investigation, there has been progress made in several areas. “We’ve inspected every manhole in the system, and the village has already gone in and capped the leaks at the fairgrounds,” said Straut. “Some of the manhole repairs have been undertaken — looking at the manholes themselves, fixing cracks, sealing off areas where there are actual leaks, where water is coming through the manhole covers.”

One tool for locating leaks is a machine that blows a bright red-colored smoke into the sewer system, after which its operators check to see if the smoke rises above the surface and onto the village streets.

“The areas where we see the smoke can indicate a leak,” he said. “For example, we saw some smoke coming out of some foundations, and around some creek crossings. Where the smoke comes out, water might leak in.”

Mayor Gaughan said that the village spent $28,000 on the smoke testing.

“What we usually do to fix a damaged pipe is called a cured-in-place liner, which is essentially building new piping within the old piping,” said Straut. To form this new piping, an object similar to a felt sock is impregnated with a resin and fed through the damaged pipe. Then, with the liner inside the damaged pipe, they pump hot water through it, which causes the resin to cure, hardening the liner.

Straut said that many communities are facing similar situations, and, with the aging infrastructure, investigations and repairs like this need to happen. Water conservation among villagers, he said, will be a great help to the cause.

“The main thing that villagers can do that will have a direct, positive impact is to look in their basements and see if they have a sump pump connection to the sanitary sewer. If they do, they should disconnect the sump pumps and find an alternate discharge location,” said Straut.

“It will be a long-term thing. I imagine this is going to be a multi-year project,” Straut concluded. “The next phase report is due in December. I expect that, by then, we will have identified many more of the sources of these leaks.”

“We really need to look at ways in which we can address these issues without putting an undue burden on our citizens,” Mayor Gaughan said, referring to villagers’ having to disconnect their sump pumps and cut down on water use. “But the village will certainly benefit in the long run.”

Other business

In other business, the village board:

— Voted unanimously to spend of $59,447 from Wastewater Project Reserve to install a wastewater treatment plant generator;

— Voted unanimously to spend $13,400 for wastewater treatment dechlorination system services from Barton & Loguidice;

— Voted unanimously to spend $7,880 on services from Carver Construction, Inc. involving the cleaning of a culvert pipe behind the former Altamont Lanes Bowling Center;

— Voted unanimously to hold the annual re-organizational meeting on April 1 at 7:30 p.m.;

— Voted unanimously to hold a public budget hearing prior to adoption on April 1, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.;

— Voted unanimously to enter into contract with New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets for a 2008 farmer market in the village, and;

— Voted unanimously in favor of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Capital District Transportation Committee and the village of Altamont related to the Community and Transportation Linkage Planning Program for the Altamont Bicycle/Pedestrian Master Plan, to cost $27,000.