Submitted Photo Madison Velez asked Fredonia officials about the village water system’s issues.

Fredonia officials gave a rundown of the village’s water issues at last week’s Board of Trustees meeting, in response to a question from a SUNY Fredonia student.

Madison Velez, a junior, asked, “I’m curious to know what is being done on the water treatment front, just as a resident on the campus. I recall two years ago last summer, there was the whole water boiler situation where no one had access to clean water… Given the current age of the equipment being used, I was just wondering if there would be any improvements to be made.”

Mayor Douglas Essek offered the initial response.

“I’ve implored this board from day one of their induction into being a trustee to work toward this,” he said. “When they all went out and campaigned, when they went to each neighborhood, the most important priority was our water and infrastructure. I’ve been trying to get this current board to move forward on infrastructure projects, to prioritize them, to hire engineers to get studies for projects and to get them shovel ready for grant possibilities and so forth. We’re still working on that.”

Essek continued, “This is up to the board to move forward on this. We just have (a request for proposals) out right now to have an engineer to work on small projects. We have a current project out right now at the water treatment plant for our spillway for an assessment for that. But we need to work on our water main infrastructure, which is critical, that’s where we have the problems.”

The mayor blamed the 2020 water issues on hot weather, which led to an algae bloom at the reservoir, and the treatment plant changing its filter system.

“We also had other boil water advisories at different times, due to our water main infrastructure needed to be updated,” Essek added. “This isn’t something new, these are issues that have been over decades old and we’re just trying to address them now.”

While Essek expressed hopes about grant funding for water system work, Trustee Jon Espersen noted the village was “just denied a $3 million grant to upgrade the water infrastructure on Chesnut Street.”

Espersen said trustees had submitted lists of priorities to village grant writer Travis Gordon.

“The mayor is absolutely right that we do need engineering studies,” he said. “But if we are unable to get grants, the engineering studies don’t mean anything.”

Trustee James Lynden further explained the treatment plant issues from 2020.

“The plant had some repair needs and it was already contracted to make those upgrades and repairs. It did take a long time for that to happen,” he said. “During that time, it was unfortunate that some parts of the plant were down, so the plant could not possibly handle the amount of algae at that time.”

Lynden added, “But the plant has been essentially rebuilt. The plant is essentially a new facility. All of the mechanics and the filtration systems in that plant have been rebuilt and replaced, brand new, and even the electronics to operate it.”

He called the treatment plant “very satisfactory for this community. Yes, we do need the continued upgrade to our infrastructure — the distribution system, the pipes in the ground, the water mains — but we have been working on that.”

Trustee David Bird added soon after, “We have fixed the pump for the water tower, so we’ll have extra holding capacity for clean, potable drinking water, that hasn’t been available to us because the pump has been down. We are making a lot of upgrades. It’s been kicked down the road for several dozen years and it’s really expensive. But over the last budget we really did a lot of concern on those.”

Lynden also said a Vineyard Drive pump station, that could have assisted SUNY Fredonia during the water outage but was broken, “has been upgraded and repaired to a much greater extent, so that is all functioning 100 percent proper.” Connections with the North County Water District on the east and west ends of the village, on Route 20, are also on the way, he noted.

All of those connection sites could bring in water from the city of Dunkirk in an emergency. The city is the water district’s supplier.