Plattsburgh Common Council authorizes stipulation agreement with Clinton County Health Department

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Thursday night's Plattsburgh Common Council meeting had city leaders take steps to fix the water quality issues the people have been dealing with in their homes.

Carrie Slattery has been dealing with brown, rusty water for the last year.

Although Slattery said it's gotten better, she also said it's still unpredictable.

"We've had a few instances throughout the last six months where our bathroom water was a bit discolored," said Slattery.

Slattery said she bought filters for every other room besides her bathroom, which she said only confirms she made the right decision.

Plattsburgh Common Council unanimously passed to authorize a stipulation agreement with Clinton County Health Department to establish guidelines.

“There’s a limit of how much disinfection byproducts you can have in your water," said Jon Ruff, Plattsburgh's environmental manager. "We’re below that limit, but sometimes they’re high enough where the Health Department wants us to pay closer attention than one might normally. “

The agreement helps put the city in a better position to secure a $5 million WIIA (Water Interactive Improvement Act) state grant.

That grant would help build more wells, make electrical upgrades, and install a row water transmission pipe, amongst other things.

The agreement also said they need to follow a recent sanitary report, which includes fixing a broken dam valve and installing a rapid mixture.

It also said they need to hire a licensed county professional to assess their water quality.

The city will also need to present a plan to the Health Department by the end of the year.

“There’s a bunch of other things in this agreement that we’re already doing," said Ruff. "This codifies with the Health Department the actions we’re taking.“

Ward 6 Councilor Jeff Moore is upset that the city is in this situation in the first place.

“This should not happen," said Moore. "We need to take care of our important systems. We shouldn’t have the county come in here and tell us what we aren’t doing."

Ruff said the city has been taking the right steps to make improvements.

“The work that the Health Department is citing here is work that we identified that we were already doing," said Ruff. "All they did was codify it to make sure that it happened, even though it was in progress, and to give us points on the WIIA application."

The city should find out by the end of the year if they will get the $5 million water infrastructure grant.