albanyweblog.com
Updated
September 9, 2006
County leader douses pipe plan
Chairman of Saratoga Board of Supervisors says Albany's
hopes to sell water to chip plant "too late"By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, August 5, 2006ALBANY -- An idea to build a 20-mile aqueduct to bring water from Albany to a planned computer chip manufacturing plant in Saratoga County may just be a multimillion-dollar pipe dream.
The chairman of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors was cool Friday to reports that Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings is eying a pipeline plan for the 1 million gallons of water or more needed each day by the Advanced Micro Devices plant in the Luther Forest Technology Campus.
"These types of conversations should have started years ago if they were interested," said board Chairman Harry Guthiel. "It is too late at this point. They are way, way behind."
In May, a report to the city by consulting engineers Malcolm Pirnie found that a pipeline could be built at the city's Loudonville Reservoir on Albany Shaker Road, run either through the Northway median or along Route 9, and end at the plant off Route 9 in Malta.
The estimated price tag: between $65.8 million and $120.4 million, depending on whether state health rules would require covering the reservoir basin. The report found the city could provide up to 7.4 million gallons a day, well beyond what the chip plant would need.
On Friday, Jennings said that he hadn't approached Saratoga County officials with the idea, but he felt there was still time for it to be considered.
"It's never too late if you are going to spend $80 million on a water system," said Jennings, referring to the county's plans to build its own $76 million water system to service the AMD plant. "I still hope to have some meetings with them."
Albany, with an abundant supply from its Alcove and Basic Creek reservoirs in the Helderbergs in Coeymans and Westerlo, sells water to Guilderland and Bethlehem and is looking for more customers. A pipeline would "benefit everyone up and down the Northway," said Jennings.
Under Saratoga County's plan, it would pump water from the Hudson River in Moreau, process it in a water treatment plant and pipe it 27 miles to the technology park.
Guthiel said the county is well along with its engineering and environmental reviews. "These kinds of things take a lot of time. I don't think that the (Albany) plan could be ready in time for when the water was needed."
He said any pipeline from Albany would have to cross the Mohawk River, which would require extensive engineering and environmental review.
Under the Saratoga County plan, AMD is expected to buy up to 3 million gallons of water daily. In May, the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors agreed to supply $15 million needed to guarantee the water supply to AMD plant.
The board agreed to use 50 percent of the county budget surplus as an interest-free loan to a revitalized Saratoga County Water Authority, which will pay back the money within 32 years.
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