All Over Albany

There's another public meeting coming up to talk about that new sewer facility planned for Albany's Lincoln Park

The Albany water department has another public meeting set for next Monday, April 23 to talk about the Beaver Creek Clean River Project -- the new sewer facility planned to be built in Lincoln Park in an effort to mitigate the effects of combined sewer overflows on one of Albany's main sewer lines.

Press release blurbage:

The Beaver Creek was once a major watercourse in the City of Albany. The project location is just west of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at the access road to the Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology.

The project, led by the City of Albany Department of Water & Water Supply, will address sewer overflows in the ravine to the south of Park Avenue between Delaware Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and includes significant community benefit elements designed to work closely with the education mission of the Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology.

The project is currently in preliminary design and is scheduled for construction to start in 2019, and be completed and enter operation in 2022. The $45 million satellite treatment project was identified in the 2014 NYSDEC Consent Order. agreed upon by the Albany CSO Pool Communities (Albany, Troy, Cohoes, Watervliet, Rensselaer and Green Island).

The project is the recipient of a $10 million Intermunicipal Grant Award from New York State. The project presentation will solicit input on the proposed design and community benefit proposals.

The meeting is Monday, April 23 at 6:30 pm at the Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology (TOAST) (94 Delaware Ave).

This plan has raised a few eyebrows because of its location in a park near a school. Amanda Fries talked with water department commissioner Joe Coffey about the project this week. [The Alt] [TU]

Combined sewer overflows -- when sewers overflow during storms and sewage ends up in the Hudson River -- are a serious problem. And the "Albany Pool" communities have a long term plan to address.

This project is a big part of that plan. It is also in a park, near a school, a pool, and residences. So it's understandable that people would have questions and concerns. So this meeting is an opportunity to get some answers firsthand.

Earlier:
+ From wet land to wetland
+ New flexibility for city's old underground spine