The Town of New Windsor seeks potential upgrades and improvement to wastewater and water treatment plant infrastructure.

On March 2, the New Windsor Town Board announced to the public that upgrades and reconstruction work are proposed for the Caesars Lane Wastewater Treatment Plant and the water plants located on Riley Road, Forge Hill Road and at Stewart Airport.

John Egitto, Sanitation Superintendent for the Town of New Windsor, said the current wastewater treatment facility at Caesars Lane was built in 1974. The plant is now looking for an upgrade while currently utilizing technology and infrastructure from that time period.

“The town has been looking at an overall upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant. An upgrade would be a big advancement in the level of treatment of the wastewater,” Egitto said. “Newer plants mean newer technology.”

During the town board meeting, the proposed goal stated by Town of New Windsor Supervisor George Meyers was to increase the water intake at the wastewater treatment plant from five to eight million gallons of water per day. Also, according to Meyers, the property sits on a 6.9 acre parcel of land.

The town website states that the purpose of the wastewater facility is to return clean, non-contaminated wastewater back into the natural environment. According to Egitto, the plant processes 40 tons of sludge per week.

Even during the on-going pandemic, wastewater plant operators and staff continued to work. “During those times, we certainly had to make contingency plans with our staffing. The water plants all had to keep running, sewer plants all had to keep running,” Egitto said. “It was difficult for everybody, same with myself.”

The wastewater treatment plant’s most recent upgrades were new dechlorination/chlorination tanks and new on-site facility. The new system and site are set to begin usage this coming spring.

According to Councilman Stephen Bedetti, the town had allocated $3 million dollars towards this project which was completed back in October 2021. This is the first part of overall upgrading and construction.

“There were issues related to the timing of the overall project. There were discussions whether or not the dechlorination system could be tied into a greater overall treatment plant upgrade and expansion,” Egitto said. “However at some point it was determined that it would be better to just do the dechlorination system as kind of a first phase of the overall upgrade.”

With the possibility of new construction, the current wastewater plant would need to be built while the plant is still operating and running so as to not cause potential problems.

According to Egitto, wastewater treatment mainly uses chlorine for disinfection. The chlorine is put into the water and then sodium bisulfite is then added to the wastewater to remove the chlorine from the water. The wastewater is then distributed back into the Moodna Creek which makes its way to the Hudson River. “We provide disinfection of the treated wastewater seasonally from May 1 to October 31,” Egitto said.

Discussions are on-going for this proposed project with the town board, the Engineering Department and Department of Environmental Conservation.