Blog Oct. 31
Friday, Oct. 31 - Back to the issues. I took an extensive and highly informative
tour of the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant with two
Broome County business owners today. We spent more than two hours with
Catherine Aingworth, the Superintendent of the plant and two managers. We
visited almost all of the plant and could have continued for another hour or two if
we had the time.
One early surprise we had was that Plant Superintendent Aingworth and two of
her managers had no idea about Broome County’s plan to extend the sewage line
along the Airport Corridor. When we mentioned the $4.5 million grant to the
County to do so secured by Senator Tom Libous the plant staff said the
newspaper report was the first they had heard of it. Seems like that was
something the County could have mentioned to the plant.
In fact, in the foyer of the plant on Old Vestal Road Superintendent Aingworth
pulled out the new service area map and we all looked at it to figure out where
the extension might hook up the current system. Nobody seemed very sure. One
thing I’m quite sure about is that it will be in my District 12, Airport Road runs
through the center of it. I’ll keep you posted.
The most encouraging things we heard were the ideas to improve the efficiency of
the plant and reduce its costs through the use of green technologies like solar
panels and hydroelectric turbines using the plant’s own untapped energy in its
water flows and the idea of using the methane produced as a byproduct of the
treatment process as an energy source as well.
The worrisome concerns were a continued lack of available capital to develop
these ideas and confirmation that the current decision making process is no longer
very tenable giving the growing and more complex scope of the plant and the
inherent delays in management and ownership structure. For example, a very
positive development is that the Sewage Treatment Board Members are more
involved in the day-to-day operations than ever before but this still does not keep
pace with the ever-increasing managerial and procurement demands of the plant.
I’ll try to expand on what was covered during the tour later. So much was
discussed it will take some time.
tour of the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant with two
Broome County business owners today. We spent more than two hours with
Catherine Aingworth, the Superintendent of the plant and two managers. We
visited almost all of the plant and could have continued for another hour or two if
we had the time.
One early surprise we had was that Plant Superintendent Aingworth and two of
her managers had no idea about Broome County’s plan to extend the sewage line
along the Airport Corridor. When we mentioned the $4.5 million grant to the
County to do so secured by Senator Tom Libous the plant staff said the
newspaper report was the first they had heard of it. Seems like that was
something the County could have mentioned to the plant.
In fact, in the foyer of the plant on Old Vestal Road Superintendent Aingworth
pulled out the new service area map and we all looked at it to figure out where
the extension might hook up the current system. Nobody seemed very sure. One
thing I’m quite sure about is that it will be in my District 12, Airport Road runs
through the center of it. I’ll keep you posted.
The most encouraging things we heard were the ideas to improve the efficiency of
the plant and reduce its costs through the use of green technologies like solar
panels and hydroelectric turbines using the plant’s own untapped energy in its
water flows and the idea of using the methane produced as a byproduct of the
treatment process as an energy source as well.
The worrisome concerns were a continued lack of available capital to develop
these ideas and confirmation that the current decision making process is no longer
very tenable giving the growing and more complex scope of the plant and the
inherent delays in management and ownership structure. For example, a very
positive development is that the Sewage Treatment Board Members are more
involved in the day-to-day operations than ever before but this still does not keep
pace with the ever-increasing managerial and procurement demands of the plant.
I’ll try to expand on what was covered during the tour later. So much was
discussed it will take some time.
With Catherine Aingworth in the chlorination
-dechlorination room
-dechlorination room
Where east meets west, this tank in the foreground is where
the inflows from Johnson City and Binghamton actually come
together in the plant for processing.
the inflows from Johnson City and Binghamton actually come
together in the plant for processing.