GUILDERLAND — With the passing of a resolution on Tuesday, the Guilderland Town Board aided Altamont in its yearslong attempt to secure a viable drinking-water backup for the village. 

On the same evening, Altamont trustees approved bonding up to $4.7 million to make the interconnection with Guilderland a reality. 

Guilderland’s June 17 resolution and Altamont’s bond approval share the same purpose: They are procedural moves that allow the village to seek grant opportunities for the interconnect; the resolution doesn’t bind Guilderland to provide water, nor does bonding approval mean the village will immediately seek funding. 

The impetus behind the interconnect helps to partially solve another village water problem: “So, we really have always had two problems,” Mayor Kerry Dineen said during Altamont’s board of trustees meeting on Tuesday. “We’ve been wanting that transmission line for a long time and we need to fix Brandle Road.”

In February 2022, Altamont was notified that a sample from the Brandle Road wellsite contained 0.59 milligrams of manganese per liter; the maximum contaminant level allowed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency is 0.3 milligrams per liter. 

The village shut down the wellsite soon after; when operating, it produces about a third of Altamont’s drinking-water supply, but has largely been closed save for periods of peak usage, at which point the Brandle Road supply gets mixed into the village’s other water supply, from Gun Club Road.

Dineen said, “It’s not either-or; we will still fix Brandle Road. It’s our backup for right now and it will continue to be so. And this is more of a safety measure.”

The mayor concluded, “This year, I can imagine with all this rain, we may not need the protection, but last year with the drought, we were losing so much water out of that well a week, like a foot a week, and it was getting dangerously low. So, this is our concern; it’s kind of amped up a little bit.”

Guilderland

Guilderland has been dealing with its own water issues.

The town’s primary water source is the Watervliet Reservoir, owned by the city of Watervliet and from which it’s permitted to draw up to five-million gallons per day. During periods of high demand or emergencies, the town supplements its supply by purchasing treated water from Rotterdam and the city of Albany.

Guilderland is pursuing a modicum of water self-sufficiency by working to bring back online its three groundwater wells on Route 155, which would require the installation of a new filtration plan — an expensive endeavor. 

The town has repeatedly sought grants to no avail. 

The current effort, it was noted on June 17, marks Guilderland’s fourth or fifth attempt to obtain funding. To bolster its applications, the town had engineered plans drawn up to make the project look “shovel ready.”

Residents and board members on June 17 raised concerns that the interconnect could act as a “precursor” to large-scale development. “There’s going to be a rush to build and develop Altamont,” Deputy Supervisor Christine Napierski said. 

Supervisor Peter Barber sought to assuage concerns by noting that the resolution didn’t commit Guilderland to providing the village with water; rather, it served as expression of interest to “entertain the agreement,” while noting that grant-awarding bodies require municipalities to show they are in communication. Barber also pointed out that the interconnect would act as a backup for the village; the town would wouldn’t be providing Altamont with a daily supply. 

With development specifically, it was said that any builder seeking to tap into the new supply would still be subject to the municipal review process. It was also noted that the provision of water alone would be insufficient for those looking to build, as the extension of sewer lines — which are currently absent in the area of Route 146 between the town and village — would also be necessary for any significant undertaking.